And some more "guidance":
Press release13 July 2022 Brussels
Implementation of sanctions: Commission provides additional guidance on the transit of goods from Russia
"The European Commission has today published further guidance to Member States on the transit of goods from Russia. This is part of regular technical exchanges on the practical implementation of EU restrictive measures, which have been unanimously imposed by the Council, in response to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
This guidance confirms that;
1. the transit of sanctioned goods by road with Russian operators is not allowed under the EU measures.
2. No such similar prohibition exists for rail transport,
without prejudice to Member States' obligation to perform effective controls. Member States shall check whether transit volumes remain within the historical averages of the last 3 years, in particular reflecting the real demand for essential goods at the destination, and that there are no unusual flows or trade patterns that could give rise to circumvention. The transit of sanctioned military and dual use goods and technology is fully prohibited in any event – regardless of the mode of transport.
The purpose of today's text is to specify the applicable rules and recall that Member States are obliged to prevent all possible forms of circumvention of EU restrictive measures. In that light, the Commission underlines the importance of monitoring the two-way trade flows between Russia and Kaliningrad Oblast to ensure that sanctioned goods cannot enter the EU customs territory."
Press corner | European Commission
Banned by road transit:
A road freight truck:
but rail transit is not banned:
A rail freight train:
Last edited by OhOh; 14-07-2022 at 08:33 PM.
A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.
Not directly related here but a couple of weeks back Zelensy was issuing dire warning as to the demise of Lithuania. They were to be next on the list and the situation was crucial.
So what has become of all that? One problem with Zelensky is that he is prone to make grand statements around broader European and world issues. Something he should never have a need to comment on. It reminds me of just how much of a gong show this all really is.
As far as Kaliningrad, leave it to hell along guys in the stuffed Brussels shirts.
I hope we all haven't forgotten that the end of civilization is still an option.
Putin is becomming more and more unhinged. We must keep an eye on that and act accordingly and with caution.
All common sense comments I know. Common sense is probably the least common commodity we have available
A true diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a manner that you will be asking for directions.
^
Very succinctly summed up as to the point that brought us to the quagmire that the West finds itself in today regarding Ukraine.
The window for negotiation was missed, negotiations should begin again to bring an end to needless loss of further lives.
Well, I don’t really have a country, Irish parents, born in Scotland, living in Oz.
To answer your question I was not advocating capitulation, I was promoting a negotiated settlement to stop the killing.
This war will end by negotiation for sure, the quicker they get around a table the better.
Did you meet every school bully head on?
Putin didn't stop after he invaded in 2014. Negotiate a settlement and he'll only pause for a bit, and then resume his imperial plans. Russia might be slowly gaining ground, but its at a high cost and he ain't gonna get to the finish line without full mobilization. That won't happen. Though I might not be as over zealous as Mr snubs, Russian artillery has seriously decreased since the Himars have been able to destroy quite a few Russian ammo storage sites, and the Ukrainians have battled their way to the outskirts of Kherson, and look poised to move in. A much more important city than the last two the Russians gained.
Basically, the Ukrainians don't care about your short attention span.
Not if I could run faster.
But the Ukrainians don't really have anywhere to run to, do they.
You've ignored the gorilla in the room. Most Russian speakers in the east and south have no fealty to the post-Maidan Nationalist government. They have good reason, too.
I have never said that the war is won or anything like that. I have merely pointed it out when the Ukrainians have had success, and that has drawn the ire of a few posters, who also happen to be grovelling Russian apologists. That said this war is far from over and the outcome is still unknown and that viewpoint also draws said apologists ire since they insist that Russia has already won the war. Something I disagree with.
Two very important points and I have been saying to watch Kherson for the last two weeks, and now it's getting interesting. Russian logistics is archaic and very centralized. They move supplies by rail and then off load them to depots nearby. Those depots are large and easy to find, and it also doesn't help that the Russians make no real effort to hide them. So the results that the HIMARS are having is no surprise. If they do not have artillery shells, they can not win this war.
In regard to your second sentence, Kherson is vitally important to the Ukrainian economy in comparison to Donetsk/Luhansk which are the poorest regions of the country, so massing troops to take it back while Russia concentrates on the east is of perfect timing.
That is a lie that you keep spouting. Ask the dead Russian installed "officials" if that is the case.
A lot depends on his health imo. He'll want a legacy, no matter how tainted and if his end looks nigh then i think he'll look to settle at that point on the ground taken so that he can say he did X. I don't think for one moment whoever takes over from him will look to continue Putin's vision, at least i hope not. I think they will put Russia's future, its economic health and that of its people before these imperial dreams and look to patch things up with West and NATO but sadly Ukraine will be a pawn in this.
Double post.
Why would Russia "patch up" anything with the 16%. To whom, allegedly, "rules matter".
They have yet again ignored another treaty.
What was not mentioned in the press release was that the EU have now thrown the binding, UN legal treaty that Russia and Lithuania signed, that guaranteed road and rail connections, into the dustbin.
Russia has already offered a political solution, to NATO, last December, which was ignored.
Why do you think Russia's "settlement" would have changed?
And ..... the US treasury has started lifting sanctions against Russia. Pretty obvious who's winning the economic war.
US Treasury Department authorizes some transactions with Russia | Al Mayadeen English
The US Treasury Department lifts sanctions against Gazprom Germania and allows transactions with Russia related to fertilizers, seeds, and food crops
(Backspin)
"I took the US 75 days to take Fallujah and 267 days to take Mosul. Russia took Mariupol in 88 days."
Again this shows your ignorance. Do you honestly think there is no difference between crossing a land border into an area full of friendly or compliant pro Russian separatists, rather than having a 5,000 k/m logistics trail across an ocean?
If it was, you'd all still be sitting down for tea and scones in the capital of Boston and toasting Her Majesty the Queen. Or even worse you'd all be Canadian.
Are you suggesting the months of ferrying the required supplies of weapons and soldiers to Iraq were not enough time to deliver the required amounts. That the generals were held back from their activities to act, ongoing throughout the illegal invasion of a foreign country?
Posted on July 16, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Ukraine peace talks in the cards?
A goods yard in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave that has become increasingly isolated since the start of Ukraine war
"Finance ministers are the pangolins in the world of international diplomacy, solitary animals and predatory, unlike foreign ministers who are like glowworms, mesmerising and gorgeous animals that create light through their tail. While the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attending G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali a week ago staged a dramatic walkout when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rose to speak, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen simply sat through the speech by Russian minister Anton Siluanov at the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs that began in Bali on Friday.
Indeed, Yellen said her piece — calling Russia’s war in Ukraine the “greatest challenge” to the global economy and all that — while Russian Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov who was present, calmly listened. But a joint communique is unlikely, as the US is pressing G20 allies for a price cap on Russian oil, where consensus is lacking. All the same, the moderation in Yellen’s behaviour catches attention, as she realises, perhaps, that she no longer sets the global agenda.
Even a close friend of the US such as former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami is advising that “Russia has generally managed to stem the tide” on Ukraine’s battlefield and a “similar shift in Russia’s favour may well be playing out geopolitically,” which would mean that “the consequences of remaining on the current path could prove far worse.”
Such voices of reason must be getting noticed in Washington. During the past week alone, Washington has shown willingness to “tweak” the western sanctions against Russia on three occasions in a direction that addressed Moscow’s concerns.
The latest one is with regard to the food crisis where Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement, whereby Kiev will remove the mines in the waters around its southern ports so that a “grain corridor” opens toward the Bosphorus. Meanwhile, Washington has notified international banks, shipping and insurance companies that the western sanctions are not applicable to Russia’s exports of food grains and fertiliser to the world market.
Again, a potentially explosive situation arose when on June 18, Lithuania blocked the transit of Russian goods to and from the exclave of Kaliningrad. After Moscow’s furious protests and warnings of retaliation, the European Commission published a revised decision on July 13 in “a display of realism and common sense,” as the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson put it.
According to the EU guidelines, the rail transit of oil and petroleum products, coal, steel and iron, wood, cement, and other non-military goods to Kaliningrad will not be prohibited under the sanctions. It is inconceivable that EU acted without consulting Washington, who likely intervened to defuse the potentially dangerous confrontation.
Similarly, on July 11, the US state department spokesman acknowledged that Washington favoured a sanctions waiver by Canada that would enable Siemens to transfer an urgently needed turbine for the operation of Gazprom’s Nord Stream gas pipeline to Europe, so that Germany’s energy situation will not worsen.
In each of the above three situations, Washington’s stance is to not allow the present confrontation between Russia and Europe aggravate further. Washington must be acutely conscious that the war fatigue in Europe is a compelling reality. The farmers’ protests in the Netherlands have quickly spread across Europe.
The UK prime minister Boris Johnson may have stepped down from a political implosion of his own making, but it was also a process rather than an event, and the state of the British economy teetering on the brink of recession was a major factor. Italy’s government is now on the verge of collapse and, again, the measures to offset the cost of living crisis became a focal point for tensions brewing within Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s broad coalition.
When it comes to Germany, Europe’s powerhouse, all bets are off. The feasibility of reviving nuclear power generation; inflation and the most effective ways to fight it; rising prices; energy security crisis; looming industrial shutdowns and large-scale reduction in employment — these have exacerbated inter-party disagreements within the coalition government headed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and steadily eroded public support.
The internal disagreements on key issues are affecting the government’s decision-making and shredding the coalition cabinet’s reputation apart. The British Telegraph reported yesterday, “Once admired and envied, Germany is now the textbook example of how much damage a misguided foreign and energy policy may do.”
The newspaper underlined that Scholz is trying to please both the NATO countries and Russia, while ‘no one respects him’ and there are few options for further developments. Its forecast: “Either Berlin will suffer a massive setback, accompanied by the collapse of the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition, or it will capitulate to Putin.”
Indeed, Moscow is tightening the screws. Gazprom warned on Wednesday it could not guarantee the functioning of “critical” equipment for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline despite Canada’s decision to return an essential turbine after it was repaired.
Yet, there was a time not too long ago when Putin forecast that Germany would be the world’s next superpower. Germany is indeed paying a very high price for toeing the US’ belligerent line towards Russia. The Greens in Scholz’s coalition, in particular, pushed the envelope. Today, Washington has no solutions to offer as German economy is on the verge of collapse due to the blowback from sanctions against Russia.
The galling truth is that, as China Daily noted, “On the European debt crisis of 2011, Germany, with a sufficient supply of Russian energy thanks to the stable relations with Moscow maintained by then chancellor Angela Merkel, acted as the saviour of the European Union… Will Germany be able to save the EU this time? ”
To be sure, the Biden Administration understands that the Western alliance is facing the moment of truth. The “tweaking” of the sanctions thrice this past week conveys something.
The influential Russian daily Izvestia wrote on Wednesday that the settlement over the “grain corridor” across the Black Sea can create the ambience for resumption of peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. The daily quoted Ivan Abramov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) committee on economic policy, as saying,
“Of course, now any agreements can bring positions closer. There have been shifts in Kaliningrad. Perhaps the success of the negotiations on grain will be an incentive for the resumption of peace talks with Ukraine. However, Kyiv should be ready for this.”
Abramov hinted that President Putin and Turkish counterpart Erdogan may discuss new peace talks at their upcoming meeting in Tehran on Tuesday. The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee on Economic Policy Artem Kiryanov also told Izvestia that in order to stop the special military operation in Ukraine, the conditions declared by Moscow must be met, but Kiev instead appears to be inclined to rely on the supply of Western weapons rather than sit down at the negotiating table.
Against this backdrop, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has paid an “inspection visit” today to the command post of the Southern and Central groups of the Russian armed forces, which are spearheading the special military operations in Ukraine, to be briefed by the army commanders about “the current situation, the action of the enemy and the progress of combat tasks fulfilment”.
The MOD press release stated that Shoigu “gave necessary decrees for intensifying the action of the groups of troops on all fronts in order to prevent massive missile and artillery attacks launched by the Kiev regime at civilian infrastructure facilities, population of Donbass and other regions.” Shoigu’s focus was on the consolidation of the military gains rather than new offensives."
https://www.indianpunchline.com/ukra...-in-the-cards/
More jingly nonsense.
I think hoohoo's dream is to cut and paste the entire website.
Biden left awaiting benefits after fist bump in Saudi Arabia
By Justin Sink and Jenny Leonard
16 July 2022 at 23:09 GMT+7Updated on17 July 2022 at 11:29 GMT+7
WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG):
"The Saudi wager prompted howls of hypocrisy from activists and allies at home and in the Gulf states whom Mr Biden needs to address energy shortages.
The payoff may be months away - if it comes at all.
Mr Biden departed Saudi Arabia on Saturday without a firm commitment for a production hike that could ease pain at the pump, saying only that based on his conversations, he expects "further steps in the coming weeks".
That suggests an announcement may be delayed until the August meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), that increases will not be calibrated until early fall and any drop in US gasoline prices will fall close to the November elections.
Even then, it is unclear if Gulf countries plan to boost production, a potentially crucial distinction given the looming end of US strategic-reserve sales and coming European sanctions on Russian energy.
Highlighting the limits of the President's control, crude prices have declined about 17 per cent since Mr Biden announced his Saudi visit in June, as recession fears overtook supply concerns."
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Weeks, months or years?
A BBC article may help clarify the NaGastan statement:
Saudi Aramco ramps up investment to boost production
Published 20 March 2022
"The firm aims to boost output significantly over the next five years."
'Saudi Aramco said it planned to increase its capital expenditure to $45-$50bn this year with further increases until the middle of the decade. Last year capital expenditure was $31.9bn.
It would raise its crude oil "maximum sustainable capacity" to 13 million barrels a day by 2027, the company said.
It also aims to increase gas production by more than 50% by 2030. Saudi Arabia produced just over 10 million barrels of oil per day in February."
Saudi Aramco ramps up investment to boost production - BBC News
2027?
Or may be Reuters:
Biden fails to secure major security, oil commitments at Arab summit
By Steve Holland, Aziz El Yaakoubi, Jarrett Renshaw and Maha El Dahan
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (Reuters)
"Biden needs the help of OPEC giant Saudi Arabia at a time of high crude prices and other problems related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Washington also wants to curb Iran's sway in the region and China's global influence.
Biden came to Saudi Arabia hoping to reach a deal on oil production to help drive down gasoline prices that are driving inflation above 40-year highs and threatening his approval ratings.
He leaves the region empty-handed but hoping the OPEC+ group, comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers, will boost production at a meeting on Aug. 3.
"I look forward to seeing what's coming in the coming months," Biden said."
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...di-2022-07-16/
Or months?
Good luck getting the Saudis to do something to cut prices when it isn't even at their break even point.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)