The editors of the Washington Post are chagrined that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia are not working particularly effectively:
Longtime visitors to Moscow and other cities report that shelves are full and daily life is visibly unchanged, thanks partly to huge state subsidies. It is now clear that the West’s campaign to weaken Russia’s finances in hopes of dampening Mr. Putin’s resolve and popular support will be a slog, not a sprint.
Still, Washington and its allies retain potent ways to undercut the Kremlin’s war-making capacity over time — if they are honed and intensified. Better coordination and tighter enforcement of existing restrictions hold the key to sharpening the war’s costs for Russian industry and consumers, and to further sapping Russia’s ability to continue manufacturing high-tech weapons.
A report by Shweta Sharma in The Independent explains why that might be:
The European Union is still the largest importer of oil products from Russia among the countries that have imposed some of the strictest sanctions on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, new data has revealed.
It is because the EU indirectly imported oil from countries that have become the main buyers of energy from Moscow undermining its own sanctions.
Five “laundromat†countries that export Russian crude to the EU were identified by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in its new report.
The countries ramp up their imports and sell the refined products to Western counterparts that have imposed sanctions to whittle down the Kremlin’s revenues that fund the Ukraine invasion.
The five countries are China, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore.
And guess which country is the biggest importer of oil products from India? The United States, of course:
But the surprise is that the United States has emerged as the biggest purchaser of refined oil products from India, despite protestations periodically about India continuing to trade with Russia in defiance of Western-led sanctions imposed in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and EU sanctions on Russian oil exports “do not apply to refined products produced from Russian crude exported from a third country as they are not of Russian originâ€.
“People were asking where all the Russian Urals crude could go if Europe wasn’t buying. When India took 1.2 million bpd in December, they said surely India cannot do more. And in January, it is 1.7 million bpd,†Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler, a data and analytics firm told The Telegraph. The newspaper says that India’s purchases of Russian crude oil have gone up to 1.7 million barrels per day in January this year.
Doubling down on sanctions against Russia and, particularly, limiting exports to Russia more severely as the editors propose, is mere theater. To have any real impact the reach of the sanctions must be extended to include China, India, Turkey, the UAE, and Singapore. Need I point out that if you do not will the means you cannot will the end?
No country outside EU/NATO supports the anti-Russia sanctions. Not one. In fact, there are countries inside EU/NATO or allied with the US that do not support the sanctions: Hungary, Turkey, Japan, South Korea…
The sanctions are having no effect on the Russian economy, because it is almost autarkic. Those sectors supporting its military are completely autarkic by deliberate policy. Every item used by the military in made in Russia.
The only effect the sanctions are having is to drive the EU into deep recession and possibly depression. Further de-industrialization is likely, especially in Germany.
The Global South has aligned with Russia, and many countries are seeking to join the international organizations created by Russia and China: BRICS, SCO, EAEU, BRI/OBOR et al.
The reality is the US has no economic leverage of any kind over Russia, China, India and many other countries. The era of American domination in world affairs has ended. America’s Ruling Caste, the publishers, editors and writers of its news media, and its financial leaders do not know this. They are delusional and believe they still have power over other countries.
PS. While the Ruling Caste obsesses over destroying the Russian economy and its state, the US EPA is setting about to destroy the US. The Agency is in the process of setting emissions standards that will eliminate all automobile and truck production other than EV’s. At the same time, they will shut down all fossil-fuel generated electric power, coal, diesel, natural gas.
The US, itself, is about to disappear as an organized state. It will be just a geographic label for an empty space.
I didnt know that Japan, S Korea, Australia, New Zealand and a few others were all members of NATO or EU. Learn something every day.
https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/japan-announces-further-sanctions-against-russia/
Steve
Believe in Delusional.
Biden’s re-election slogan.
Russia isn’t Imperial Japan. It is self sufficient in raw critical materials, and actually sells goods (food, energy) that in demand.
But still, one could really make a dent by forcibly stopping Russia from trading by sea. Blockade the Dardanelles, the Baltic Sea, Barents Sea, and Sea of Japan. That would kill off trade with India, Singapore, most of the Middle East except Iran.
@CuriousOnlooker
That is an act of war. It is what the US was trying to do to Imperial Japan, in essence. In any case, I doubt the US Navy has the ships and sailors to perform such an operation.
Since you seem like a reasonable person, I assume you are making an academic observation.
But still, one could really make a dent by forcibly stopping Russia from trading by sea.
Why do that??
I was being facecious; but its also a point.
Its “what is the goal of our policy, of which sanctions is supposed to play a critical part?”. Is it to “defeat” Russia, for example on the battlefield where sanctions wreck the Russian’s economy and its ability to support its army? In which case it isn’t working. And before one talks about the risks of direct conflict — the goal itself (“defeat Russia”) by definition has a risk of direct conflict.
If the goal is to encourage Russia to come to the negotiation table and “improving” Ukraine’s position at such negotiations. There’s no negotiations now and US policy (including sanctions) have the affect of discouraging negotiations. And I believe if the endgame is negotiations; its better to start now instead of waiting for 2-3 years worth of war destruction occur and hundreds of thousands more men have died.
If the goal of sanctions is to “deter”; its pretty obvious it hasn’t deterred Russia at all.
@CuriousOnlooker
I thought as much, but never give the half-assed warmongers any ideas.
I believe that most of them want to “defeat” Russia similar to trying to defeat the Soviet Union, and I am convinced that many of them think the breakup of the USSR was just the start.
For centuries, all Slavic nations have been despised by western Europe, but they have never been a threat. They have fought amongst themselves or against the Nordic countries, but they are never getting past the Germans. (First, they need to get past Ukraine.)