Russian Sanctions to Bring Poverty and Unemployment, Germany Warns

Here’s the thing: there is a lag on all of this economic stuff.

So, you just started really feeling the squeeze of all of that economic madness that was done in the name of the coronavirus earlier this year.

Frankly, when people were complaining about prices, Joe Biden could have said “it’s because Donald Trump allowed for all of these coronavirus restrictions.” And it would have been true. Joe Biden’s attack on the energy sector hadn’t really kicked in until the Ukraine thing started. The rest of those price hikes were due to Donald Trump’s Justice Department allowing states to illegally close businesses and ban commerce over a fake pandemic.

Just so, you’re not going to really start feeling the effects of what the lunatic US government is doing with these Russia sanctions for a little while. Right now, they seem to have even been able to stabilize gas prices.

But these chickens will come home to roost.

Given that the West is shutting itself off from the rest of the world, building a kind of new Iron Curtain based on whether or not you stand with the Ukraine, these are going to be some heartily roosting chickens.

The Guardian:

Lithuania is urging the European Union to ban Russian oil as cracks begin to show in how far the EU will go in imposing further sanctions on the Kremlin’s war machine.

As Ukraine defied a Russian ultimatum to surrender the port city of Mariupol, EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss further sanctions against Russia at the start of an intense week of diplomacy.

But after four rounds of sweeping EU sanctions in three weeks, tensions are emerging. The Baltic states and Poland are calling for tougher measures, including an oil embargo, while Germany fears a short-term energy ban would cause joblessness and fuel shortages.

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said it was “unavoidable to start talking about the energy sector” especially oil, which he said was “the biggest revenue to the Russian budget” and “also quite easily replaceable” for the EU.

The EU, which imports 27% of its oil from Russia, has so far not joined the US and UK, in an embargo. Germany has warned that a short-term ban on oil and gas could cause unemployment, poverty and people running out of petrol. Few other western economies are as dependent on Russian energy as Germany: 55% of the natural gas, 52% of the coal and 34% of mineral oil used in the country comes from Russia.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged Europe to stop all trade with Russia: “No euros for the occupiers. Close all of your ports to them. Don’t export them your goods. Deny energy resources. Push for Russia to leave Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said in a video speech on Monday.

Addressing Germany directly, he said: “You have the strength. Europe has the strength.”

Arriving at the meeting, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, declined to answer a question on what could trigger sanctions on Russia’s energy sector. She said the images from Ukraine were “simply heartbreaking” and made it “even clearer that the EU, that the global community that believes in a rules-based international order, has to isolate the Russian leadership”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc would continue discussing further sanctions “especially in relation to energy”, as he condemned Russia’s bombing of civilians in Mariupol, who have endured nearly four weeks under siege. “What is happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime,” Borrell said.

We will not tolerate abuses against our True National Socialist Aryan Analists. Human shields exist for a reason.

The rest of Europe is coming around to these sanctions, after no doubt mostly unseen pressure from Washington.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said he also supported a ban on energy exports. He said: “Looking at the extent of the destruction in Ukraine right now, it’s very hard to make the case that we shouldn’t be moving in on the energy sector, particularly oil and coal.”

The Danish foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, said his country would support the “strongest sanctions that we can agree upon”, including a ban on Russian ships docking at EU ports and restrictions on overland transport from Russia and its ally Belarus.

The kookiest part is that this hurts the West a lot more than it hurts Russia.

Russia has a clear path to recovery by trading with the entire rest of the world. Even if the trade has to go through China, it doesn’t make any difference. The world is not going to put these sanctions on China, because it’s impossible, which means that China can buy anything and sell it to Russia (or the reverse). They’ve already said they will do this.

Remember the Chinese spokesperson posting this meme:

It’s all just nonsensical.

I guess on some level, these “Great Reset” people are imagining this is all part of the plan.

But you can’t make the entire world into slaves when you only have the ability to enslave the “international community.”