Showing posts with label Sanctions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanctions. Show all posts

Monday, February 19, 2024

Western Europe could become the new Ukraine | Timofey Bordachev

The real causes of major armed conflicts such as world wars are always linked to socio-economic factors. For the naturally cautious German nation to become a bunch of cannibals, it first had to sink into the economic misery and moral oppression of the 1920s. Before that, demographic growth and the unresolved social problems of industrialization created the necessary mass of people willing to kill and die on the fields of the First World War.
 
 » Both the Minister for Economic Affairs and the Minister of Finance have come to the conclusion
that Germany is no longer sufficiently competitive. It is inconceivable that this will not lead to political changes. «
Christian Lindner, German Minister of Finance, Feb 12, 2024.

In any case, any great aggression against neighbors has required a very large number of poor and morally degenerate people. This is roughly what happened to Ukraine during the 30 years of its failed statehood. In other words, the ability of the Western Europeans to unleash armed aggression against us depends on how their own affairs are going.

This is why, from the Russian point of view, it is now of the utmost importance to observe what is happening in the Western European economies. The irrational policy of sanctions against Russia and the partial breakdown of trade and economic relations between us have already led to serious losses for their business sectors. Added to this are the accumulated domestic problems, competition from American and Chinese companies, and the general recession in the global economy.
 
» Ukraine must win this war. If Putin had his way, this would only be the beginning. « 
 
For example, one of the Western news agencies recently published a story about how large manufacturing companies, industry leaders, are leaving Germany in search of more favorable locations and investment conditions. Other major Western European states are going through their own worrying processes. If these economic difficulties begin to erode the established model, the mood of the citizenry may change.

We do not know exactly how Western Europeans will react to the deterioration of their material situation and how long it will take. It is quite likely that the world will not see the practical consequences of this economic decline for another 20-30 years. What is more, we cannot say with certainty that the behavioral algorithms of its inhabitants will be exactly the same as in the first half of the 20th century. History does not repeat itself, which makes thinking about events by analogy a rather dead-end way of understanding what is happening.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Switzerland About To Start Collecting Data To Calculate Sanctions Impact

The Swiss government is to start collecting data from companies trading in commodities as the Ukraine conflict underscores the importance of the sector for both domestic and foreign policy, the Federal Council said in a statement released Wednesday. Switzerland currently has no official data on the contribution of the commodities trade to the country's GDP or goods traded by locally-based companies.

Over the next three years, the state statistics office will request information from about 400 companies, the statement said.

The move comes as Switzerland is juggling the implementation of Western sanctions against Russian resources with its status as a major hub for trading the country’s energy, grains and metals and a history of neutrality in international conflicts. Switzerland accounts for more than a third of global crude oil trade, more than two-thirds of metals trade and more than 35% of global agricultural trade, according to research, the report said.

Wait ... They did not calculate the impact before imposing sanctions. Now they want to know. In three years.
 
 Switzerland imported more than 14 tons of gold from Russia during October 2023 for processing, taking advantage of the fact that it was shipped through third countries, and thus did not violate Western sanctions, the latest data from the Swiss Federal Council has revealed. In October, the Alpine country’s gold imports totaled CHF776 million ($879 million), of which $875.7 million worth of the gold originated from Russia and was delivered through the UK and Moldova, data showed.
 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Nov 22, 2023) - » Europe has lost its capacity for self-determination. « Speech and talk on being a soccer player and a politician; on Ukraine and the West a.k.a. NATOstan loosing the war; on sovereignty and national interests of Hungary as a member of the European Union;  on how Hungary stopped illegal migration;  on the decline and demise of the European Union - in Zurich, Switzerland.