Intelligence Briefing: The Myth Of Sanctions

  

INTERNET SOURCE: https://dninews.com/article/intelligence-briefing-myth-sanctions

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 19:39

Americans have no idea that Russians are in no way affected by sanctions designed to "punish" them over events in Ukraine and Crimea. But in a twist of history the sanctions intended to destroy Russia, have instead galvanized anti western public opinion, driven Putin's ratings to levels unprecedented and destroyed a number of western economies instead.

The anti Russian sanctions, which began in late February 2014, were imposed against individuals, businesses and officials from Russia and Ukraine. Sanctions were approved by the United States, the European Union (EU) and other countries and international organisations. Russia has responded with sanctions against a number of countries, including a total ban on food imports from the EU, United States, Norway, Canada and Australia. The sanctions have also caused economic damage to a number of EU countries, with the total losses estimated at €100 billion to europe and Ukraine now admitting they have cost them 98 Billion dollars USD.

In response to the Crimean crisis and the subsequent annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, some governments and international organisations, led by the United States and European Union, imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and businesses. As the unrest expanded into other parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, and later escalated into the ongoing war in the Donbass region, the scope of the sanctions increased. Finally, US President Barack Hussein Obama announced the sanctions would never be lifted by the USA until Russia returns Crimea to the Ukraine.

A number of European countries have opposed continuation of the sanctions and feel the issues are better resolved by negotiation than punishments that harm each nations business relations.The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Europe “shot itself in the foot” by introducing economic sanctions. In the words of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov: “I don’t know how Russia is affected by the sanctions, but Bulgaria is affected severely”; Czech President Milos Zeman also argued that the sanctions should be lifted. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Greece would seek to mend ties between Russia and EU through European institutions. Tsipras also said that Greece was not in favor of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, adding that it risked the start of another Cold War. The German business sector, with around 30,000 workers dependent on trade with Russia, reported being affected by the sanctions.  A number of business figures in France and Germany have opposed the sanctions. Paolo Gentiloni, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the sanctions “are not the solution to the conflict”.  Some companies, most notably Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies LLC, were reported to attempt bypassing the sanctions and exporting power generation turbines to the annexed Crimea.

In August 2015, the British think tank Bow Group released a report on sanctions, calling for the removal of them. According to the report, the sanctions have had "adverse consequences for European and American businesses, and if they are prolonged... they can have even more deleterious effects in the future"; the potential cost of sanctions for the Western countries has been estimated as over $700 billion. In March 2016, the Finnish farmers’ union MTK says the Russian sanctions and falling prices have put farmers under tremendous pressure. Finland’s Natural Resources Institute LUKE has estimated that last year farmers saw their incomes shrink by 40 percent compared to the previous year.

EU nations have more reasons to drop the anti-Russian sanctions and are more likely to do so sooner than the US, Leonid Kalashnikov MP of the State Duma Committee for International Relations has told reporters.“I think that Europeans will cancel the sanctions ahead of the United States. But it remains a big question if they will cancel them this summer, not least because the EU is now under American pressure,” Kalashnikov told RIA Novosti. The comments came after France’s minister of economy, industry and digital affairs, Emmanuel Macron, announced recently that by summer 2016 his country would assist in lifting sanctions imposed by the West on Russia.

Russian officials have also noted in public statements that the sanctions policy had proven its ineffectiveness. “This is like shooting yourself in the foot in terms of the current state of Russian-American relations, which were stalled by Washington,” deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in late 2015. Opening the new spring parliamentary session in mid-January 2016, State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin said: “Our opponents across the ocean have applied excessive effort in their attempt to make us weaker, and now they are undermining the foundations of the Western world’s prosperity.”

Meanwhile the stores in Donbass are full of products. We live in a war zone and our store shelves are full. Vegetables and fruit from Russia and other nations fill the void of where western nations produce once sat. Cheeses once produced in France, now replaced by Russian ones, free of GMOs and in endless variety including blue cheese for example have completely erased the need for future need of their products. The only thing sanctions have truly done is show Russians that they are self sustaining and have no need for western business or corporate relations in any way. The western punishment has in fact become a blessing that underlines Russia's strength, ingenuity and resolve to overcome the absurdity of sanctions leaving only the USA alone to contemplate it's own stupidity in creating the myth of sanctions.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/ussr/ukraine/20-04-2016/134223-ukraine-0/
https://www.rt.com/politics/330029-europe-will-drop-anti-russian/
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/eu-should-consider-lifting-anti-russian-sanctions--austrian-president/564840.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFNmSLiy0o

Putin US sanctions contradict its national interests, will backfire

Published on Jul 16, 2014

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFNmSLiy0o