Economic sanctions

**harrybarracuda** · 18-04-2023, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by panama hat

Even SA is buying Russian oil . . . desperate Russians . . .

Think of the long term economic damage the stupid high heeled war criminal has done to his country.

What a fucking prick.

**OhOh** · 19-04-2023, 04:54 PM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Think of the long term economic damage the stupid high heeled war criminal has done to his country

Tout au contraire, an article suggesting a more difficult future for the 16% beckons.

The Slow Art of Whole-of-Government ‘Warfare’

Alastair Crooke

April 17, 2023

Simple survival may become more pressing than addressing Macron’s speculative musings about the EU becoming a Third Force, Alastair Crooke writes.

"The Washington Post tells us that President Macron’s China jaunt has created an European ‘uproar’. So it seems. Though on the face of it, his geo-strategic recommendation that Europe should keep equidistant from both the U.S. behemoth and the China colossus, is scarcely so very radical. Yet, whatever Macron’s underlying motivations, his comments seem to have touched raw nerves. He is accused of something approaching ‘betrayal’. The betrayal of America curiously – rather than a betrayal of ordinary Europeans.

Perhaps the irritation reflects our habitual love of comfort, normalcy, and a desire to ‘not rock the boat’. This normalcy bias keeps people frozen in a state of status quo, as if some inner voice intrudes to say: ‘things will be somehow ok. This will pass, and things will again be as they were. “Everything must change, for everything to remain the same”, in the famous quotation pronounced by Tancredi, Prince Fabrizio Salina’s beloved nephew in The Leopard.

On the other hand, Malcom Kyeyune, writing from Sweden, detects a more profound shift under way – an agony writhing within European Atlanticism:

“The war fever that swept Europe in the summer of 2022 made discussion impossible. Ritual denunciations of “Putinists” and even supposed Russian spies became commonplace on social media, and chest-thumping about the immense power of the West and NATO became obligatory. Again, there was a huge pressure not to notice things:

“The only acceptable position was maximalist: Suggesting that a peace deal would likely involve coming to some sort of compromise marked you out as a “Putin loyalist” and “Russian agent.”

“But once again, the fever is starting to break. Few still post about Ukraine on social media; people by and large prefer to pretend it isn’t happening. The chest-thumping has gone away, replaced with a sullen, bitter silence. People aren’t quite ready to admit that the sanctions were a failure and that the West overplayed its hand, but many know these things are true, and that the economic and political consequences of these failures are only really beginning to be felt.”

Is Macron picking up on these ‘vibes’? That is to say, the self-deception, by which we feel the illogicality of going about our daily lives with ‘darkening clouds’ looming ever closer, yet never questioning why Europe is being de-industrialised; why its industry is relocating to the U.S. or China; or why Europeans have to import Liquid Natural Gas at three or four times its going price.

Are Europeans then beginning to notice things again? Are they asking ‘how come’ the economic paradigm has been so drastically eclipsed, or ‘how come’ the fall into mad fervour for incipient wars with China and Russia?

Macron’s equidistant prescription is entirely aspirational. He gives it no substance; he gives no explanation of how strategic autonomy would be achieved, nor does he address the issue of ‘the empty stable’. There is no point in shutting the stable door now after the autonomy horse’ has long fled; It ‘fled’ with the war fever of 2022. We are therefore, where we are. Can the autonomy horse still be led home? That seems improbable.

So much of the ‘uproar’ no doubt reflects the warding-off of uncomfortable admissions, as things begin to be noticed again. Macron at least has opened the issue (however sensitive it may be); He is an outlier for the moment, but is not alone.

EU Council chief, Michel, in an interview, said: “Some European leaders wouldn’t say things the same way that Emmanuel Macron did”, adding: “I think quite a few really think like Macron.” And SPD chair in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, said “Macron is right” and “we must be careful not to become party to a major conflict between the U.S. and China.”

There are multiple revolutions afoot everywhere across the globe. And Macron asks where does the EU fit in, which is fine. But he doesn’t give the answer. To be fair, though, at this point, maybe there isn’t one, for now.

Equidistant from the U.S.? Does Macron mean equidistant from specifically the Neo-con strategy of maintaining U.S. global hegemony through aggressive projections of military and sanctions power? If so, this needs to be made explicit.

For America, too, is undergoing a quiet revolution, and the Macron prescription could need nuancing in the case that the Ukraine war marks the final collapse of the Neo-cons’ short-lived ‘American Century’. There has been a noticeable tone of desperation to western MSM reportage this past week. Ever since the Intelligence leaks, it’s been doom, gloom and panic. The leaks have made uncomfortable truths unmissable (even to those who preferred not to notice) – that the vast ‘optics’ construct that is the Ukraine project is slowly coming undone.

The ‘Saving Ukraine for Democracy’ project was supposed to underwrite the legitimacy of the U.S.-led World Order. In reality, Ukraine has become the “harbinger of terminal crisis”, Kyeyune suggests.

The political path likely to be followed in America however, is far from straight-forward. It is possible though that today’s ‘Other Project’, the ‘western class war’ inversion ‘project’ may similarly collapse in the crisis (in this case) of U.S. societal schism. The Woke ‘project’ is an unlikely one – a strange neo-Marxist construct, in which an ‘oppressed class’ actually is composed of élite affirmative-action intellectuals (who lay claim to the mantle of being redeemed oppressors), whilst Americans, working in industry and in the low-paid service industry, are conversely denigrated as racist supremacist, anti-diversity, white oppressors.

China, too, is undergoing transformation: It is preparing for the war which the American ‘uniparty’ China hawks increasingly clamour. Meanwhile, its ‘political warfare’ strategy is to use geo-political mediation, underpinned by a powerful economy, as the non-intrusive means by which to pursue the Chinese operational art. This project already has re-shaped the Middle East –and its geo-strategic appeal is spanning the globe.

President Putin’s slow, long-term practice of political warfare (as opposed to China’s operational ‘art’) is clearly conceived with an understanding that the slowly-building disillusionment in the West with woke-liberalism – requires time in the chrysalis. In the Russian perspective, this Sun Tzu approach (overcoming the western paradigm, without militarily fighting it) calls for the ‘economy of military application’ within an all-of-system, holistic political ‘war’.

Russia’s is perhaps then, the more complex and more revolutionary: Embracing reform and efficiencies in all areas (cultural, economic, and political) of Russian society too.

China disavows the explicit aim to force a change of behaviour on the West, but for Russia its security is contingent on the U.S. fundamentally changing its military posture in Europe and Asia. This objective requires both patience and employing allcomplementary means at Russia’s command, (i.e. effectively ‘weaponising’ non-military tools such as financial ‘warfare’ and energy) to overcome the enemy – yet staying at some threshold, just short of all-out war.

The West, by contrast, conceptually separates the military from the political means, which perhaps explains why western analysts misconceive Russian ‘switching’ between military procedures to diplomatic or financial pressures as reflecting some deficiency or stumble in the Russian military machine. It is not. Sometimes the violins play; other times the cellos. And sometimes it is the moment for the big bass drums to sound; It is up to the conductor.

Julian Macfarlane has commented that Russia has started a veritable ‘revolution’, with China now joining in. To make his point, Macfarlane adapts Thomas Jefferson’s “we hold these truths to be self-evident …” speech and glosses it to say “… that all States are equally entitled to sovereignty, undivided security and full respect”. He contextualises this in terms of a Jefferson focus on the tyranny of the British Crown, whereas Putin formulates his multi-polar order doctrine, as versus U.S. hegemonic ‘Rules’ tyranny.

Xi Jinping says it straight: “All countries, irrespective of size, strength and wealth, are equal. The right of the people to independently chose their development paths should be respected, interference in the affairs of other countries opposed – and international fairness and justice maintained. Only the wearer of the shoes knows if they fit or not”.

It is a doctrine winning support across the globe. The EU would be unwise to discount its appeal.

So, back to Macron and the equidistant concept for European Union ‘strategic autonomy’: It is hard to see what space might comprise a median ground between homogenous, ‘Rules Hegemony’ and the Sino-Russian declaration of heterogenic ‘National Rights’. It will have to be one or the other (with perhaps a little ‘betweenness’ just possible, should the U.S. drop its “with us; or against us” dogma).

Equally, Macron warns the EU against the extra-territorial reach of the U.S. dollar (and therefore of sanctions and Third Country sanctions).

Yet, the EU cannot escape the U.S. dollar. The Euro is its’ derivative.

Europe has little autonomous defence manufacturing infrastructure. NATO is the political, as well as the military, framework in which the EU operates. How does it escape from a NATO framework that is so closely meshed in with the EU political one?

The EU is deeply divided on its future path: Macron wants more strategic autonomy for Europe (and Charles Michel says this is supported by not a few member-states), whereas Poland, the Baltic States and certain others want more America and moreNATO and a continuing war to destroy Russia. Poland has proved to be a vociferous critic of Western Europe’s perceived softness toward the Kremlin.

Indeed, the war in Ukraine has ushered in a kind of geopolitical shift in Europe, Ishaan Tharoor writes, moving “NATO’s centre of gravity” – as Chels Michta, a U.S. military intelligence officer, recently put it – away from its traditional anchors in France and Germany, and eastward to countries such as Poland, its Baltic neighbours and other former Soviet Republics. In Central and Eastern Europe, wrote Le Monde columnist Sylvie Kauffmann, “the weight of history is stronger … than in the West, the traumas are fresher and the return of tragedy is felt more keenly”.

The EU is deeply divided on structure as well: Warsaw, nervous about a general election due this autumn, is encouraging anti-German paranoia. Its propaganda suggests that Polish opposition politicians are secret agents in a German plot to take control of the EU, and to force degenerate western permissiveness on heterosexual Catholic Poland – a ‘bastion of western Christian civilisation’ – unlike Brussels, which is viewed as a as a “Germanised” conspiracy to overrule the right of independent nations to make their own laws.

Jarosaw Kaczyski, leader of the PiS party, plays with an alternative future for Europe. This would be a Europe des patries, almost on de Gaulle’s model: an alliance of fully sovereign nation states, within NATO but independent of Brussels, which would include post-Brexit Britain, rather than just the EU’s present members. (No EU Third ‘Empire’ there).

In a major speech, the Polish Prime Minister has emphasised that now is the moment to shake up the status quo further West and dissuade those in Brussels who would “create a super-state government by a narrow elite. In Europe nothing can safeguard the nations, their culture, their social, economic, political and military security better than nation states”, Morawiecki said. “Other systems are illusory or utopian”.

Elections are due this autumn in Poland, and polls suggest that the outcome will be close.

It seems that Macron has opened a veritable can of worms. Possibly, this was his intent; or maybe he just didn’t care – his objective being primarily domestic: i.e. to shape a new image in the context of a changing, and turbulent, French electoral landscape.

But in any event, the EU is caught in the midst of a maelstrom of geopolitical change at a moment when it faces the possibility of a banking crisis, high inflation and economic contraction. Simple survival may become more pressing than addressing Macron’s speculative musings about the EU becoming a Third Force."

The Slow Art of Whole-of-Government ‘Warfare’ — Strategic Culture

**bsnub** · 19-04-2023, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by OhOh

Alastair Crooke

More complete crap.

**harrybarracuda** · 19-04-2023, 07:39 PM

Unfortunately hoohoo actually believes all the shitty propaganda he posts.

**harrybarracuda** · 22-04-2023, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by panama hat

Is he the only one here to read his crap or does he simply cnp without having read it?

Dunno, he's probably just posting every single piece of crap he gets on some stupid propaganda twatter feed or something.

**OhOh** · 25-04-2023, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

on some stupid propaganda twatter feedor something.

India, Russia to Strengthen Trade Ties

April 23, 2023 8:46 AM

Anjana Pasricha

"NEW DELHI —

A 50-member Indian business delegation starts a four-day visit to Russia Monday as both countries seek to deepen economic ties that have grown in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India and Russia are also in talks for a free trade deal, ministers from the two countries said earlier this week during a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov to New Delhi.

In recent months, Moscow has become India’s largest supplier of crude oil as sanctions-hit Russia seeks more trade with Asian countries.

New Delhi has not joined U.S-led Western sanctions on Moscow or condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine outright but has been calling for a negotiated resolution of the conflict.

It is also continuing to step up its economic engagement with Russia despite Western calls to gradually distance itself from Moscow.

The Indian business delegation headed to Russia is expected to meet buyers in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

“We see opportunities in Russia and that is why we put together this delegation. It is going to explore markets in food and agricultural products,” Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations told VOA.

He said that the aim is to double Indian exports to Russia to about $5 billion this year.

Trade analysts say India is trying to step up its exports to Russia to bridge a trade deficit that has become huge as New Delhi’s crude oil imports from Moscow rise exponentially.

While India’s imports from Russia have jumped fourfold to over $46 billion since 2021, its exports to Moscow add up to less than $3 billion.

But as Russia’s trade with the West dries up, it has been seeking products from India, including manufactured goods, electronics devices and automobile components.

“It is a windfall situation. We are getting discounted oil which is a huge advantage for India. Compared to virtually nothing prior to the Ukraine invasion, India’s crude oil imports have risen to over a million barrels of oil per day from Russia,” Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation told VOA. “And now that they are under sanctions, India sees an opportunity in promoting exports also, so that will be a double advantage.”

Russia, India’s Cold War ally, was its largest defense supplier for decades. Even though New Delhi has strengthened strategic partnerships with the United States and other Western countries in the last two decades, it maintains close ties with Moscow.

Addressing a business forum with Manturov on April 17 in New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar called the India-Russia relationship among the “steadiest” in global relations, and said that the partnership is drawing attention not because it has changed but because it has not.

Jaishankar said Russia's resources and technology can make a powerful contribution to India's growth as Moscow is looking more toward Asia.

“We are looking forward to intensifying trade negotiations on a free trade agreement with India,” Manturov, who is also Russia’s industry and trade minister said.

Indian exporters however say that issues such as logistics, market access and payment difficulties pose a challenge. “The opportunity is there to grow trade, but only time will tell how far we can exploit it,” Sahai said.

While Western countries want India to decrease its reliance on Russian imports to isolate Moscow over the Ukraine war, New Delhi has remained firm in maintaining its economic engagement with Russia.

“India’s message to the West is clear. We will pursue a relationship in our self-interest and we will go wherever our interests take us,” Joshi said.

“Yes, the West would like India to pressure Russia by not buying oil from them, but they have reconciled to the position that New Delhi has taken,” he said."

India, Russia to Strengthen Trade Ties

**OhOh** · 29-04-2023, 12:28 PM

28 Apr, 2023 15:54

HomeWorld News

Promises made to Russia on Ukraine grain deal were not kept – Türkiye

Moscow has warned it will not renew the accord unless its own exports are unblocked by the West

"Russia’s unhappiness with the manner in which the Ukraine grain deal has been implemented is understandable, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has conceded. The Kremlin has vowed that it will let the accord lapse in mid-May unless the US and EU lift sanctions that effectively prevent Russia from exporting its produce and fertilizers.

In an interview with Türkiye’s Hurriyet newspaper published on Friday, Cavusoglu acknowledged that “what was promised to Russia did not come to pass.”

“We cannot say that the Russians are wrong [with their complaints],” the minister argued.

According to the diplomat, Ankara has notified Washington and London that the future of the deal – formally known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative – is hanging in the balance. Cavusoglu stated that the US and the UK are “two countries [which] are key in banking,” and that the “inclusion of the Russian agricultural bank [Rosselkhozbank] in the SWIFT system also depends [on them].”

The official revealed that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had suggested using a Turkish bank to facilitate payments to Russia for its grain and fertilizer exports.

“The goal is to solve the problem and keep the deal going,” Cavusoglu insisted.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Moscow believes the grain deal “can’t be extended without meeting the requirements.”

As per the agreement initially brokered by the UN and Türkiye last July, corridors were established through the Black Sea to ensure safe passage of Ukrainian grain, primarily intended for poorer nations whose food security was threatened.

The deal also required the US and its allies to unblock Russian grain and fertilizer exports, which have remained largely paralyzed due to Western sanctions imposed on shipping, as well as denial of access to brokerage and insurance services.

Formally, however, the US and EU have exempted Russian grain and fertilizers from the sanctions.

In March, Moscow agreed to extend the grain deal by 60 days, warning that it will not do so again if the other parties fail to honor all of its terms."

Promises made to Russia on Ukraine grain deal were not kept – Turkiye — RT World News

**harrybarracuda** · 29-04-2023, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by OhOh

India, Russia to Strengthen Trade Ties

Translation: India wants more of that lovely, cheap, discounted Russian oil and gas.

**bsnub** · 29-04-2023, 05:33 PM

Why are these vatniks so stupid?

**bsnub** · 19-05-2023, 08:02 AM

Russia is running out of options to participate in the global financial system as it faces bank runs and a ruble crash. Over the weekend, all G-7 countries moved to freeze Russia’s foreign currency reserve assets.

That’s on top of sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union against Russia’s biggest banks as well as president Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. On Feb. 28th, Switzerland joined the effort, with president Ignazio Cassis saying “we are in an extraordinary situation where extraordinary measures could be decided.”

Ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia had stockpiled $500 billion of foreign currency reserve assets to protect itself from potential penalties from the West. But now, most of that has been frozen. Out of the top countries where those assets are stowed, China is the only one not to have announced any sanctions.

The impact of Swiss sanctions

Russians have $11 billion in deposits in Switzerland, according to the Swiss national bank data. That doesn’t include portfolios of securities, bonds managed by Swiss banks on behalf of Russians, or offshore wealth such as shares in private businesses and in real estate, said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at University of California, Berkeley. “The true number could easily be 5 to 10 times larger,” he said.

Switzerland has taken similar steps before. In 2021, it imposed sanctions against individuals from Myanmar and Belarus, and it implemented a series of measures in 2014 to make it harder for Russian banks to work around the EU sanctions via Switzerland, said Josh Lipsky, director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council. But none of these sanctions were done in full coordination with the EU.

“Bringing in Switzerland could magnify the effect of sanctions,” said Edoardo Saravalle, a sanctions researcher. “Switzerland is a key commodity trading venue and home to Russian expatriates so the alignment could reach into other areas as well.”

https://qz.com/2135316/the-g-7-froze...heir-countries

**david44** · 19-05-2023, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by bsnub

Bringing in Switzerland could magnify the effect of sanctions

if they comply and suddenly choose ethics over profit or they 'll skidaddle via hardr to sanction places like Leichtenstein, N Cyprus and China regimes that will look the other way. Alas there still half the planet in the BRICS happy to us ghost tankers for cheap oil

**harrybarracuda** · 19-05-2023, 10:20 AM

The fucking swiss won't do anything, they'll take any bloodthirsty murderers money.

**OhOh** · 21-05-2023, 08:57 PM

20.05.2023 18:53

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's speech at the XXXI Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy.

Moscow, May 20, 2023

".......

We have entered a phase of intense confrontation with an aggressive bloc consisting of the United States, the EU and the North Atlantic Alliance. The task is set loudly and openly: "defeat Russia on the battlefield." But not to stop there, but to eliminate it as a "geopolitical competitor". And any other country that claims an independent place in the world order will also be "suppressed" as a competitor. Look at the decisions that are being discussed and adopted today in Hiroshima at the G7 summit, aimed at double containment of Russia and the People's Republic of China.

The Western expert community is already openly discussing the received "order" to develop scenarios for the dismemberment of our country. It is not hidden that the existence of Russia as an independent center is incompatible with achieving the goal of global dominance of the West. Within the West itself, it is clear that the US dominates. In the new version of the Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, we have used the well-known term "Anglo-Saxons". It has not yet been used in doctrinal documents, but it reflects the fact that the Anglo-Saxon world has subjugated the whole of continental Europe, despite the timid attempts of individual politicians from time to time to recall the task of "strategic autonomy" of the European Union. After continental Europe – the rest of the "collective West", including countries located in the south-eastern part of the Asian continent. A new reality has arrived for everyone. This is reflected in the Foreign Policy Concept.

If we take global trends, what is currently happening around Ukraine accelerates the transition to a multipolar system of international relations. Washington has used the Ukraine crisis to consolidate its camp. We can see that. But this is more like a total submission of all others to their will. Despite this, consolidation has taken place. But at the same time, a fault line has emerged between the "collective West" and the global majority, the countries of the Global South and East.

I was recently told that during recent discussions within the European Union, a representative of one of the EU countries seriously proposed to abandon any use of the term "global South". Because, according to him, this sends the wrong signal that not everyone is together with the West and that it "works" for the interests of Russia and China. This is what the obsession with self-grandeur and the need to suppress any alternative points of view has already reached. It is clear that, despite the reluctance of many countries of the Global South to loudly and decisively defend their interests (although there are many such leaders), it is nevertheless ready in practice, even without making loud statements, to resist the dictates of the West, which are becoming increasingly intrusive and aggressive, including blackmail, threats, punishments, sanctions and much more.

When we held a meeting of the UN Security Council at the end of April this year, where we, as the chairmen of this body, proposed to discuss the topic of multilateralism and the protection of the principles of the UN Charter, this fault line was clearly revealed. Our opponents have completely "Ukrainized" the discussion, as they do at all other multilateral platforms, including the G20. But their Russophobic charge causes an underlying, but steadily growing irritation among the World majority. Many of the countries of the South and East openly complain about the West's indifference to the pressing problems of African and Asian countries that need additional support to implement their social and economic development programs. This discontent was evident in the discussions I am talking about.

The West sometimes resorts to such methods, which are really difficult to explain by anything other than the lack of medical "assistance" to individual politicians. For example, they seriously claim that visiting Europe is not a right for Russians, but a privilege. Such statements are made by the leaders of the EU countries. Recall the Russophobic manifestations against our citizens, Russian culture, literature, and art in general, the discriminatory approach to our compatriots in the field of education, and much more. Recently, R. Kipling has been recalled on various occasions. In this regard, it suggests another of his statements that the Russians are a racial anomaly. It is not difficult to see the persistence of this philosophy in the actions of many Western politicians.

Surely you regularly get acquainted with the works of Western political science. In my opinion, it has become impoverished. In New York, I met with some old friends from among American political scientists. I can't say that they have confirmed their reputation with any serious analysis that is even an inch out of step with the official political narrative promoted by Western governments: "Wait for the Ukrainian counteroffensive", then "force the Russians to make peace on more promising terms for Kiev", "take a breather and pump Ukraine with weapons" in order to eventually realize the goal of pushing the Russian Federation completely from Russian lands, including Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. These are political scientists. You don't have to be too smart to just repeat the official line that is being promoted at all intersections and events.

I have already said that the European Union, unfortunately, has lost its subjectivity and fallen into complete dependence on the United States. If we take analogies, then the United States is famous for being a "melting pot" in which all emigrants who can freely come from anywhere in the world (at least this was the case before) are "melted down" into Americans. They share the same values and are ready to spread them all over the world in a variety of ways, including not very sensitive ones. Now, figuratively speaking, the theory and practice of the "melting pot" is applied to other Western countries as well.

The example of Europe shows that it is being "melted down" into a political state subordinate to Washington. This applies to other regions of the world, when everyone is forced to live according to the rules of the "golden billion". This term, without the word "golden", "our billion" - sounds in the official documents of the European Union and the"seven".

This brusqueness and obsession with one's own greatness lead international relations into a difficult situation. I do not see any prospects for compromises that would preserve this state of transition from dictatorship to a multipolar world. For sure, there may be some pauses and respites. But the era of transition to multipolarity and refusal to submit to the hegemon has come. This can be a long historical era. We have many allies in this work and struggle. You can all see and describe our relations with the People's Republic of China, India, the ASEAN countries, the Gulf States, Iran, Turkey, the African Union, and the resurgent Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

It is regaining its "breath" after the elections in Brazil. Many other countries and their associations, of course – in our space, in the near abroad: the CIS, the CSTO, the EEU. A lot of difficulties. Nothing to hide. We see with what ferocity the West sends its emissaries around the world, including to our closest neighbors, without hesitation, demanding that they stop if not any trade, economic and investment ties with Russia, then most of them. Submit lists with the name of the goods that should be prohibited for export to the Russian Federation. I'm not exaggerating.

Recently, there was a "trinity" (an American, a Briton and an EU representative) that "traveled" through the countries of Central Asia. They know how to" play " on the problems and difficulties that they themselves create for other countries, and they will have some result, gain in the short term. But in the long run, first of all, Americans are "chopping down the branch on which they are sitting", including what is happening in the International Monetary Fund, and the role of the IMF, the World Bank, and the dollar in the global economy.

De-dollarization has begun. And both in practice and in conceptual presentations. Within the framework of BRICS, Brazil seriously proposed to consider at the upcoming summit in August this year the tasks of protecting the financial calculations of this association, the activities of the new Development Bank, from the abuse of the still remaining role of the dollar. Other initiatives are being put forward in this direction.

We have many like-minded allies. It should be well understood that we do not promote hostility to anyone. We are forced to respond firmly, on principle, and consistently to the war declared against us. Hostility comes from the side of the barricades that divide those who want to live with their own minds and in the interests of their own people, and those who want to live at the expense of others."

https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1871520/

**malmomike77** · 21-05-2023, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The fucking swiss won't do anything, they'll take any bloodthirsty murderers money.

The swiss as objectionable as they are, are small time these days - serious criminals, dictators and despots store their money in the ME

**harrybarracuda** · 22-05-2023, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by OhOh

We have many like-minded allies. It should be well understood that we do not promote hostility to anyone.

Putin's sock puppet appears to have lost any remaining marbles.

**OhOh** · 22-05-2023, 12:46 PM

Financial ‘Shock and Awe’ on Russia Pronounced ‘Dead’ -- by Two Establishment Journals

Alastair Crooke
Source: Al Mayadeen English
21 May 00:15

"The Western neo-cons do not possess ‘reverse gear’; when defeated in one sphere, they never apologise; they simply move on to the next colour-revolution.

Two very establishment, Anglo-American media in the UK finally - and bitterly – have admitted it, ‘out loud’: Sanctions on Russia failed.

The Spectator (once edited by Boris Johnson), writes:

The West adopted a two-pronged strategy: one was military support for Ukraine, and the other was:

“Unleashing financial ‘shock and awe’ on a scale never before seen. Russia was to be cut off almost entirely … Putin’s Russia, went the theory, would be impoverished into surrender”. Few people in the West are aware of how badly this aspect of the war is going. Europe has itself paid a high price to effect a partial boycott of Russian oil and gas.

“But [any limitations to the EU energy boycott] do not explain the scale of the failure to damage the Russian economy. It soon became clear that while the West was keen on an economic war, the rest of the world was not. As its oil and gas exports to Europe fell, Russia quickly upped its exports to China and India – both of which preferred to buy oil at a discount than to make a stand against the invasion of Ukraine.

“The West embarked on its sanctions war with an exaggerated sense of its own influence around the world…The results of the miscalculation are there for all to see…The Russian economy has not been destroyed; it has merely been reconfigured, reorientated to look eastwards and southwards rather than westwards”.

Allister Heath in The Telegraph too laments:

“Russia was meant to have collapsed by now. Britain, America and Europe’s gambit was that drastic trade, financial and technological sanctions, a cap on the price of Russian seaborne oil, and substantial help to Ukraine would be enough to defeat Moscow. It hasn’t worked…The reason? China has quietly stepped in, bailing out Putin’s shattered economy on a transformational scale, swapping energy and raw materials for goods and technology. The sanctions are a joke”.

For some, reading these words, their reaction will be one of utter amazement: How come it took this long for the British Establishment to ‘wake up’ to that which all the world knew?

The Spectator, in fact, gives us the answer: An ‘exaggerated sense of Western influence around the world’. Or simply put: delusionary hubris placed ‘blinders’ on western policy-makers; they could not see what was before their own eyes.

American and British Intelligence analysts, consumed by their conviction that Russia’s was a small, fragile economy that could never withstand the entire weight of the western economic system, ranged against it; they persuaded the Europeans that Russia’s ‘collapse’ was a ‘Slam Dunk’ certitude. The Russian financial collapse would de-stabilise Moscow’s élites, and President Putin would be ‘out’. And, under reaffirmed US hegemony, Russia’s economic affairs would be returned to ‘how they were’ -- Russia as purveyor of cheap commodities to the West."

....

Continues at

Financial ‘Shock and Awe’ on Russia Pronounced ‘Dead’ -- by Two Establishment Journals | Al Mayadeen English

**harrybarracuda** · 22-05-2023, 03:08 PM

Too fucking funny innit. I don't think hoohoo realises how comedic he can be.

**bsnub** · 22-05-2023, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I don't think hoohoo realises how comedic he can be.

I do not think he realizes that he is basically just a laughingstock. The fact that HE buys into the horseshit he posts is more disturbing than funny, though.

**OhOh** · 23-05-2023, 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by bsnub

The fact that HE buys into the horseshit

The reported view sources are:

Originally Posted by OhOh

The Spectator (once edited by Boris Johnson), writes:

and

Originally Posted by OhOh

llister Heath in The Telegraph too laments:

Neither, I suspect, pro Russian mouthpieces.

**helge** · 23-05-2023, 12:58 AM

Hard to say if the sanctions is working or has failed, if one do not know what was intended.

If the intentions were to rob my purchasing power of a fifth, it has been a bloody success

**harrybarracuda** · 23-05-2023, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by OhOh

The reported view sources are:
and
Neither, I suspect, pro Russian mouthpieces.

Alistair Crooke has always been a sock puppet for the high-heeled war criminal.

So him cherry picking bits of articles from anywhere and rewriting them is obviously going to be the sort of fucking nonsense only complete idiots would lap up.

He even has a slot on Hezbollah TV.

It takes a special kind of retard not to be able to see through his bullshit.

**bsnub** · 23-05-2023, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

sort of fucking nonsense only complete idiots would lap up.

Hence, why Sabang was such a big fan.

**misskit** · 29-05-2023, 10:01 AM

Canceled MAKS Air Show Made Obsolete by War, Sanctions

Amid reports this week that Russia has canceled its biggest air show, experts told The Moscow Times that there was little point in holding the International Air and Space Salon (MAKS) because the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions mean there will be so few foreign buyers present.

Western countries imposed stringent sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry shortly after the Kremlin’s decision to send tanks into Ukraine.

MAKS was "put on in order to strengthen ties with foreign partners and now it’s losing its original meaning,” military expert Valery Shiryaev told The Moscow Times.

The apparent cancellation of MAKS, a biennial event that began in 1993 and which usually attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, makes it yet another major public event in Russia to be scrapped, postponed or scaled down because of the fallout from the Ukraine war.

Hundreds of planes are traditionally put through their paces at MAKS and, at the last event in 2021, companies signed agreements worth 265 billion rubles ($3.31 billion).

While the organizers — defense conglomerate Rostec and Russia's Industry and Trade Ministry — have yet to confirm MAKS is not taking place, media reports suggested it would not go ahead because of concerns about possible drone attacks as well as a lack of foreign visitors.

In addition, the Russian Air Force’s commitments in the ongoing fighting in Ukraine mean that the offerings at the air show — if it had gone ahead — would have been meager.

“When it comes to military aviation — the battlefield is now a platform for its display,” said aviation expert Roman Gusarov.

“As for the civilian sector — we more or less have nothing to show.”

Even before the cancellation, guests from only five countries — all with close relations with the Kremlin were expected to attend — India, Iran, China, Serbia and Belarus.

In contrast, 20 countries took part in MAKS in 2021.

Another reason to cancel the display is because of heightened security concerns, five aviation industry sources told the Kommersant business daily Wednesday.

In recent weeks, Russia has seen an increase in drone attacks — for which it blames Ukraine — on its territory, including strikes on the Kremlin.

Russia has scrapped a raft of other traditional public events since the invasion of Ukraine because of security concerns, including military parades in honor of the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazism, school proms and city day celebrations.

“A large number of people, specialists and officials gathered in one place are likely to be [seen as] a tasty morsel,” said Gusarov.

Even beefed-up security would find it difficult to protect an event such as MAKS, according to Gusarov.

“It is likely to be quite difficult to distinguish a MAKS participant flying in the sky from a drone targeting the event,” he told The Moscow Times.

Some locals in the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky, which hosts MAKS, expressed relief that the event had been canceled.

“All such events are, always, potentially extremely dangerous,” said Stanislav, a Zhukovsky resident.

“It’s a really wise decision given the highest level of security threat this year.”

According to Vedomosti, the five-day air show, which had been scheduled to begin on July 25, will be postponed until next summer.

Another local resident, Vladimir Avdeev, who was also pleased at the apparent cancellation, said that the event seemed pointless amid the ongoing Ukraine war.

“The pilots now have another place where they can show their skills,” said Avdeev.

MAKS didn’t reply to a request for comment from The Moscow Times.

Canceled MAKS Air Show Made Obsolete by War, Sanctions – Experts - The Moscow Times

**david44** · 29-05-2023, 11:14 AM

No air apparent

**misskit** · 13-06-2023, 05:59 AM

Could the ruble end Putin's reign? Chart maps Russian currency's staggering collapse

The ruble has now lost 34 percent of its value against the US dollar since its high point just over a year ago, making imports ever costlier for all suffering under Putin's regime.

Mass disinformation campaigns and an iron rule may be enough to prevent the Russian people from overthrowing Vladimir Putin, but the country's business elites are unlikely to suffer vanishing profit margins for long.

Last June, 100 units of the currency bought $1.85 at the peak of Russia’s exploitation of skyrocketing prices for its energy exports. This has fallen to $1.21 today.

MORE How the collapsing Russian ruble threatens to bring down Putin | World | News | Express.co.uk

Thread: Economic sanctions

Thread Tools

Display

The G-7 has frozen all of Russia’s reserve assets in their countries

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Posting Permissions