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Written By Tyler Durden. Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
More than two years into the war in Eastern Europe, it’s time to ask: What have Western sanctions against Russia actually accomplished?
Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about Russia’s economic resilience and ability to withstand international sanctions. The West’s attempts to cripple Moscow’s crude oil revenues and cut off its access to military technology are failing.
Putin recently remarked, “We have growth, and they have decline… They all have problems through the roof, not even comparable to our problems.”
Given the context above, the West is about to broaden the scope of secondary sanctions on Russia, as reported by the Financial Times. This move will target any financial institution transacting with sanctioned Russian entities, treating them as working directly with Moscow’s military-industrial base.
The measure will widen a White House executive order that in December gave the Treasury the authority to apply secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions if they were found to have acted for, or on behalf of, any of about 1,200 entities deemed by the US government to be part of Russia’s defence sector.
After this week’s change, that number will rise to more than 4,500 and will encompass almost all Russian entities that have already been sanctioned, even if this was for reasons other than direct support of the war in Ukraine. They include banks such as Sberbank and VTB, the country’s largest lenders. -FT
“Secondary sanctions are intended to expand the US’s ability to pursue circumvention by actors who do not have any legal nexus with the US. It means the US can, in effect, enforce its sanctions on people who aren’t otherwise subject to US law,” said Emily Kilcrease, a trade and sanctions expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank.
The US aims to disrupt trade flows between Chinese institutions and Russian firms by expanding the scope of secondary sanctions. The partnership between these two nations has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.
Kilcrease noted, “You could see this as strengthening the legal basis under which the US could apply sanctions to Chinese banks that have assisted the Russian war effort. The Treasury will hope they take notice. But at some point you may need to actually escalate and sanction one of them.”
Meanwhile, Russian commodities firms are ramping up their use of fiat-pegged digital currencies to execute cross-border transactions with Chinese counterparts. Conducting trade in stablecoins could be problematic in the West’s attempt to crush Moscow.
As explained weeks ago by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a conversation with reporters:
“I think where we are primarily focused is on Chinese companies that have been involved in a systematic way in supporting Russia . . . we’ve also looked closely at financial institutions.”
In a separate report, Reuters says the US will announce “wider sanctions on the sale of semiconductor chips and other goods to Russia, with the goal of targeting third-party sellers in China.”
“We’re going to continue to drive up costs for the Russian war machine, and this week we will announce an impactful set of new sanctions and export control actions,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
The move to broaden secondary sanctions on Russia while targeting Chinese firms comes as Group of Seven leaders plan to meet at a summit in Italy this week. One major topic to be discussed is new ways to increase aid to Ukraine and further contain Russia.
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amerikunt desperation—imf now predicts more russian economic growth than their government
russia will be whittled away, just like its navy. then they will wish they had launched a strike against the real enemy while they had the chance.
russia the nuclear triad, super-power invests more in her land forces than her navy. that saying, she has at least 4 classes of submarines, and almost as many as the us. the only difference are the russian submarines, all classes are on a rolling replacement programme. many of them relatively new and in good working order. the us, like the uk and france, has aged ballistic submarines and will have to wait another decade until the replacements enter active service.
doesn’t matter if you don’t use them against your real enemy.
i am curious, but do you believe that they do not build anything? like replacements for destroyed armaments etc?
i am always seeing this here in the west, where we like to pretend that russia has only a finite amount of vehicles, planes, ships, and so on. and only we americans can build new stuff all the time?
man, you eurotards sure are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to intelligence. clowns!
it has nothing to do with that. it is about russias refusal to defend itself against the real enemy. russia will fall if it doesn’t.
quite remarkable. it’s like they’re still living in the childish mental world of “we create our own reality” from the bush ii years. people who think that power comes from dressing sharply, speaking confidently, and having an impressive job title. totally out of their depth. banana republic dictators have a better sense of their own limitations.
they have even lost those skills. dei promotions, together with ‘yes people’ and dumbing down of education. still, they can rely on the rainbow flags, in order to defend their nation or escalate aggression overseas.
i don’t believe what i’m reading of… nice work “cosmic dwarf”… the western liberal radical age is about to end, the western proposal is to advance to a transhumanism ia reality where masters who controls the systems could do everything they wanted in their minions. no more natural design, no more natural laws. about your comment, the children who lives under western power and total submission will always believe ‘power’ comes from people well dressed well spoken and with lot of money.
the sanctions have no effect on russia, put more on them they get stronger, what part don’t they understand
an american explained it quite well, how they were cutting off their noses to spite their faces. the us reserve currency, is like a credit card, that charges for each and every transaction. thanks to using sanctions as a weapon, the international community is refusing to use the credit card and the us is losing the money they make from the charges. the $us reserve currency died a few days ago and even saudi has moved on from using it.
russia is basically self sufficient and the west can’t handle that, russia got a few subs and ships hanging out in cuba till the end of summer and the us is going nuts, 100 miles from fl, good move russia
yesterday there were a few articles stating that the us cannot find the submarine, despite using all they have to offer, looking for the illusive boat.
who said there is just 1 ship and 1 submarine (+two vessels)? number of submarines may be bigger, because autonomous level of nuclear underwater cruiser (classification of nuclear attack submarine like 885th project) is up to half year in open sea. 2-3 months is normal term of cruising, enough for circumnavigation of the world. all this time it can move submerged and undetected.
ironic how they double down on stupid. a good explanation with regards $us sanctions, as stated by an american. the us currency reserve is more like a credit card, with charges being made for every transaction. raising $billions for the us economy. by using sanctions as a weapon, nations stop using the credit card and the us loses those illusive $billions from their economy. in the meantime russia is now the 4th largest economy, world wide, thanks to those sanctions.
and the government planned to reach 4th place by gdp/ppp in 2030, ha-ha. now need to make new plan. do you have a plan, mister fix? but 4th place is just recalculating of old data done by imf recently. so russia could be 4th much before or not 4th even now, because imf is hostile organization towards russia, so they won’t give good advice or helpful info. place in gdp table doesn’t matter while russia is able to fight against all western sodomites combined.
why would china do business with america/the west?
perhaps that’s a clue to how legit/serious the chinese are.
money. the eu is their main market to sell everything. they will keep profitable trade as long as possible. western madmen want “the green transit” with solar panels and windmills? china is ready to produce all with lower price than western ones. of course eu and us can raise up tariffs for any chinese goods, but this will lead to lower life level.
lol, china loves money what would they do with the russia muppets ?the sunny side of the street
money is power. everyone loves power. the question is how power is accrued and how it is wielded. the us and before that the british pretended that everyone in their empire was free and the accumulation of power was really just the morally ordered sorting of things based on merit. the builders of better mouse traps rising to the top. the chinese pretend everyone is equal.
because they are money and power hungry just like most people in this world.
the us is begging to be nuked by russia. russia doesn’t have anything to fear of the vassal countries they will get on their knees for any leader that steps up to the plate after the total annihilation of the us empire of misery. instead of wasting time with ukraine just cut the head of the snake and move on.
the only thing the usa and eu are accomplishing is that the rest of the world is going to stop using their dollar and euro currency in trade and use their own in the future. the whole sanction scheme is going to bite the west in the behind and they already shot off both feet so now the last bullet can be put in the head.
appears that the us has some major issues like an identity problem and a vanity that exceeds their abilities; the sooner the us disintegrates the better.