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Joe may go off the deep end and threaten to seize Saudi's treasuries by allowing Congress to enact anti-OPEC legislation that overrides soveriegn immunity. If the US can freeze Russia's treasuries and seize Russian billionaire's assets, we can do the same to Saudi's assets.
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/russia-is-sidestepping-american-oil-sanctions/
The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an organization in Finland, calculates that Russia’s export prices for fossil fuels in general are about 60 percent higher than they were last year. Asked by lawmakers whether Moscow was raking in more money from oil sales now than in the months before the war, Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s envoy for energy affairs, wasn’t cute with his answer: “I can’t deny that.”
And to these who cheer the Rubble going up against dollar:
Eric Holder says
And to these who cheer the Rubble going up against dollar:
I don't think they let population exchange more than 10K USD at a time. So it is kinda similar to Soviet times, when they sold you $100 for 80 rubles, but if you needed more, you had to buy in black market where $1 was 4 rubles.
NEW DELHI, June 29 (Reuters) - India's biggest cement producer, UltraTech Cement (ULTC.NS), is importing a cargo of Russian coal and paying using Chinese yuan, according to an Indian customs document reviewed by Reuters, a rare payment method that traders say could become more common.
UltraTech is bringing in 157,000 tonnes of coal from Russian producer SUEK that loaded on the bulk carrier MV Mangas from the Russian Far East port of Vanino, the document showed. It cites an invoice dated June 5 that values the cargo at 172,652,900 yuan ($25.81 million).
A shocking and unpleasant event has taken place. Out of some oversight, Rosstat released statistics for 2021 and 2022 yesterday (https://t.co/GzfRR7lzuo). Given that in recent months, and you can guess why, almost all statistical data on the economy in Russia is a secret. And this released report confirms your guess. There's a fucker. Not even like that. THERE IS A COMPLETE FUCK.
So what do we learn from this data. We see the dynamic development of the Russian economy during the reign of the late Putin, and during the 4 months of a special military grand patriotic operation in Ukraine. The numbers are amazing. It seems that the supreme power has spat on the economy and is rushing forward like there is no tomorrow. Judge for yourself - data May 2021 compared to May 2022
During this period, the change in production by May 2022 year-on-year
Passenger cars: -96.7% (3,700 vehicles)
Trucks: -39.3%
ICE engines: -57%
Pass. wagons: -59.8%
Freight wagons: -51.8%
Fiberoptics cables: -80.8%
Refrigerators: -58.1%
Washing machines: -59.2%
AC motors: -49.9%
Elevators: -34.7%
Excavators: -60%
In May, 3.7 thousand cars were produced in the Russian Federation, while in January 2022 there were 95 thousand of them, in February - 108 thousand. In March, when the "special operation" was already underway, and the sanctions had just begun, production for the first time collapsed - up to 40.8 thousand cars.
Retail Sales Turnover Drop by 4Q 2021 - 45% This is a pure smash. Who authorized the release of such figures, I do not know
Eric Holder says
At a price...
"Germany revives coal to counter Russian gas"
https://www.dw.com/en/why-germany-is-reviving-dirty-coal-to-counter-russian-gas-cut/a-62195008
Just last year the 4th Reich that runs the EU insisted that Poland and Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. cut drastically back on coal mining and coal power generation.
Trump was right again.
US foreign policy has basically become “i’m going to pay you to watch me punch myself in the face until you give up!”
Eat local cheese, drink local beer, and buy the same audio equipment from China that's on Amazon USA
Personally I would go for the Soviet era Tube electronics over anything on Amazon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Iran next week amid reports that Tehran could supply weapons-capable drones to Russia to use in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
...
An Iranian Foreign Minister spokesperson did not deny the claims Tuesday.
“Iran’s cooperation with Russia in some sophisticated technologies dates to before the Russia-Ukraine war,” said spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. “There has not been any special development in this regard recently.”
...
According to Iranian media, Iran has signed an agreement with Russia on the supply of parts and equipment for Russia-owned Western-made aircraft, as well as the repair and maintenance of aircraft.
This, we will say directly, is a complete clusterfuck.
Iranian civil aviation is one of the most unsafe in the world. The main problem is just the lack of spare parts for aircraft and a huge number of counterfeit or heavily worn imported components and parts of extremely low quality. Due to technical problems, 50 percent of the existing 386 Iranian aircraft is on the ground. The newest Iranian Airbus A-330 aircraft were produced in 1992.
The number of air accidents in Iran is declining, but this is due to a decrease in the volume of air transportation itself, in specific figures, Iranian security is at the level of the wildest African countries.
And now it is Iran that will help out the Russian aviation industry. It is impossible to think of a better advertisement for the unconditional refusal to fly on Russian aircraft.
As one of the largest research organisations in Europe, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is committed to engaging in international cooperation for the benefit of society and industry. DLR employs staff from 96 countries. They stand for the peaceful coexistence of all nations and peoples. Violence should never be a means to achieve objectives of any kind. We therefore view the developments in Ukraine with grave concern and condemn Russia's hostile actions.
DLR and the German Space Agency at DLR have been cooperating with Russian institutions on a number of research projects, in some cases with the participation of other German research organisations and universities, and international partners.
Against the backdrop of the aggressive attack on Ukraine, the DLR Executive Board is taking the following measures:
All collaboration activities with Russian institutions on current projects or projects in the planning stage will be terminated.
There will be no new projects or initiatives with institutions in Russia.
Where necessary, DLR will enter into coordination with other national and international partners.
Due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Max Planck Society has currently suspended its scientific collaborations at the institutional level.
Myth 1: Russia can redirect its gas exports and sell to Asia in lieu of Europe.
This is one of Putin’s favorite and most misleading talking points, doubling down on a much-hyped pivot to the east. But natural gas is not a fungible export for Russia. Less than 10 percent of Russia’s gas capacity is liquefied natural gas, so Russian gas exports remain reliant on a system of fixed pipelines carrying piped gas. The vast majority of Russia’s pipelines flow toward Europe; those pipelines, which originate in western Russia, are not connectable to a separate nascent network of pipelines that link Eastern Siberia to Asia, which contains only 10 percent of the capacity of the European pipeline network. Indeed, the 16.5 billion cubic meters of gas exported by Russia to China last year represented less than 10 percent of the 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas sent by Russia to Europe.
Long-planned Asian pipeline projects currently under construction are still years away from becoming operational, much less hastily initiated new projects, and financing of these costly gas pipeline projects also now puts Russia at a significant disadvantage.
Overall, Russia needs world markets far more than the world needs Russian supplies; Europe received 83 percent of Russian gas exports but drew only 46 percent of its own supply from Russia in 2021. With limited pipeline connectivity to Asia, more Russian gas stays in the ground; indeed, the Russian state energy company Gazprom’s published data shows production is already down more than 35 percent year-on-year this month. For all Putin’s energy blackmail of Europe, he is doing so at significant financial cost to his own coffers*.
Myth 2: Since oil is more fungible than gas, Putin can just sell more to Asia.
Russian oil exports now also reflect Putin’s diminished economic and geopolitical clout. Recognizing that Russia has nowhere else to turn, and mindful that they have more purchasing options than Russia has buyers, China and India are driving an unprecedented approximately $35 discount on Russian Urals oil purchases, even though the historical spread has never ranged beyond $5—not even during the 2014 Crimean crisis—and at times Russian oil has actually sold at a premium to Brent and WTI oil. Furthermore, it takes Russian oil tankers an average of 35 days to reach East Asia, versus two to seven days to reach Europe, which is why historically only 39 percent of Russian oil has gone to Asia versus the 53 percent destined for Europe.
This margin pressure is felt keenly by Russia, as it remains a relatively high-cost producer relative to the other major oil producers, with some of the highest break-evens of any producing country. The Russian upstream industry has also long been reliant on Western technology, which combined with the loss of both Russia’s erstwhile primary market and Russia’s diminished economic clout leads to even the Russian energy ministry revising its projections of long-term oil output downward. There is no doubt that, as many energy experts predicted, Russia is losing its status as an energy superpower, with an irrevocable deterioration in its strategic economic positioning as an erstwhile reliable supplier of commodities.*
Myth 3: Russia is making up for lost Western businesses and imports by replacing them with imports from Asia.
Imports play an important role within Russia’s domestic economy, consisting of about 20 percent of Russian GDP, and, despite Putin’s bellicose delusions of total self-sufficiency, the country needs crucial inputs, parts, and technology from hesitant trade partners. Despite some lingering supply chain leakiness, Russian imports have collapsed by over 50 percent in recent months.
China has not moved into the Russian market to the extent that many feared; in fact, according to the most recent monthly releases from the Chinese General Administration of Customs, Chinese exports to Russia plummeted by more than 50 percent from the start of the year to April, falling from over $8.1 billion monthly to $3.8 billion. Considering China exports seven times as much to the United States than Russia, it appears that even Chinese companies are more concerned about running afoul of U.S. sanctions than of losing marginal positions in the Russian market, reflecting Russia’s weak economic hand with its global trade partners*.
Myth 4: Russian domestic consumption and consumer health remain strong.
Some of the sectors most dependent on international supply chains have been hit with debilitating inflation around 40-60 percent—on extremely low sales volumes. For example, foreign car sales in Russia fell by an average of 95 percent across major car companies, with sales ground to a complete halt.
Amid supply shortages, soaring prices, and fading consumer sentiment, it is hardly surprising that Russian Purchasing Managers’ Index readings—which capture how purchasing managers are viewing the economy—have plunged, particularly for new orders, alongside plunges in consumer spending and retail sales data by around 20 percent year-over-year. Other readings of high-frequency data such as e-commerce sales within Yandex and same-store traffic at retail sites across Moscow reinforce steep declines in consumer spending and sales, no matter what the Kremlin says.
Myth 5: Global businesses have not really pulled out of Russia, and business, capital, and talent flight from Russia are overstated.
Global businesses represent around 12 percent of Russia’s workforce (5 million workers), and, as a result of the business retreat, over 1,000 companies representing around 40 percent of Russia’s GDP have curtailed operations in the country, reversing three decades’ worth of foreign investment and buttressing unprecedented simultaneous capital and talent flight in a mass exodus of 500,000 individuals, many of whom are exactly the highly educated, technically skilled workers Russia cannot afford to lose. Even the mayor of Moscow has acknowledged an expected massive loss of jobs as businesses go through the process of fully exiting*.
Myth 6: Putin is running a budget surplus thanks to high energy prices.
Russia is actually on pace to run a budget deficit this year equivalent to 2 percent of GDP, according to its own finance minister—one of the only times the budget has been in deficit in years, despite high energy prices—thanks to Putin’s unsustainable spending spree; on top of dramatic increases in military spending, Putin is resorting to patently unsustainable, dramatic fiscal and monetary intervention, including a laundry list of Kremlin pet projects, all of which have contributed to the money supply nearly doubling in Russia since the invasion began. Putin’s reckless spending is clearly putting Kremlin finances under strain*.
Myth 7: Putin has hundreds of billions of dollars in rainy day funds, so the Kremlin’s finances are unlikely to be strained anytime soon.
The most obvious challenge facing Putin’s rainy day funds is the fact that of his around $600 billion in foreign exchange reserves, accumulated from years’ worth of oil and gas revenues, $300 billion is frozen and out of reach with allied countries across the United States, Europe, and Japan restricting access. There have been some calls to seize this $300 billion to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Putin’s remaining foreign exchange reserves are decreasing at an alarming rate, by around $75 billion since the start of the war. Critics point out that official foreign exchange reserves of the central bank technically can only decrease due to international sanctions placed on the central bank, and they suggest that nonsanctioned financial institutions such as Gazprombank could still accumulate such reserves in place of the central bank. While this may be technically true, there is simultaneously no evidence to suggest that Gazprombank is actually accumulating any reserves given sizable strain on its own loan book.
Furthermore, although the finance ministry had planned to reinstate a long-standing Russian budgetary rule that surplus revenue from oil and gas sales should be channeled into the sovereign wealth fund, Putin axed this proposal as well as accompanying guidelines directing how and where the National Wealth Fund can be spent—as Finance Minister Anton Siluanov floated the idea of withdrawing funds from the National Wealth Fund equivalent to a third of the entire fund to pay for this deficit this year. If Russia is running a budget deficit requiring the drawdown of a third of its sovereign wealth fund when oil and gas revenues are still relatively strong, all signs indicate a Kremlin that may be running out of money much faster than conventionally appreciated.
Iranian civil aviation is one of the most unsafe in the world. The main problem is just the lack of spare parts for aircraft and a huge number of counterfeit or heavily worn imported components and parts of extremely low quality. Due to technical problems, 50 percent of the existing 386 Iranian aircraft is on the ground. The newest Iranian Airbus A-330 aircraft were produced in 1992.
Myth 8: The ruble is the world’s strongest-performing currency this year.
One of Putin’s favorite propaganda talking points, the appreciation of the ruble is an artificial reflection of unprecedented, draconian capital control—which rank among the most restrictive of any in the world. The restrictions make it effectively impossible for any Russian to legally purchase dollars or even access a majority of their dollar deposits, while artificially inflating demand through forced purchases by major exporters—all of which remain largely in place today.
The official exchange rate is misleading, anyhow, as the ruble is, unsurprisingly, trading at dramatically diminished volumes compared to before the invasion on low liquidity. By many reports, much of this erstwhile trading has migrated to unofficial ruble black markets*. Even the Bank of Russia has admitted that the exchange rate is a reflection more of government policies and a blunt expression of the country’s trade balance rather than freely tradeable liquid foreign exchange markets.
Myth 9: The implementation of sanctions and business retreats are now largely done, and no more economic pressure is needed.
Russia’s economy has been severely damaged, but the business retreats and sanctions applied against Russia are incomplete. Even with the deterioration in Russia’s exports positioning, it continues to draw too much oil and gas revenue from the sanctions carveout, which sustains Putin’s extravagant domestic spending and obfuscates structural economic weaknesses. The Kyiv School of Economics and Yermak-McFaul International Working Group have led the way in proposing additional sanctions measures across individual sanctions, energy sanctions, and financial sanctions, led by former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and the experts Tymofiy Mylovanov, Nataliia Shapoval, and Andriy Boytsun. Looking ahead, there is no path out of economic oblivion for Russia as long as the allied countries remain unified in maintaining and increasing sanctions pressure against Russia.
Defeatist headlines arguing that Russia’s economy has bounced back are simply not factua l—the facts are that, by any metric and on any level, the Russian economy is reeling, and now is not the time to step on the brakes.
RWSGFY says
Iranian civil aviation is one of the most unsafe in the world. The main problem is just the lack of spare parts for aircraft and a huge number of counterfeit or heavily worn imported components and parts of extremely low quality. Due to technical problems, 50 percent of the existing 386 Iranian aircraft is on the ground. The newest Iranian Airbus A-330 aircraft were produced in 1992.
How would YOU know if any of this is true?
One of Putin’s favorite propaganda talking points, the appreciation of the ruble is an artificial reflection of unprecedented, draconian capital control—which rank among the most restrictive of any in the world. The restrictions make it effectively impossible for any Russian to legally purchase dollars or even access a majority of their dollar deposits, while artificially inflating demand through forced purchases by major exporters—all of which remain largely in place today.
Iran has been under fucking sanctions for 40 fucking years,
"Foreign Policy magazine and ForeignPolicy.com are published by The FP Group,[2] a division of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company). The FP Group also produces FP Events, Foreign Policy's events division, launched in 2012."
"Foreign Policy endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. This was the first time in its 50-year history the magazine endorsed a candidate.[9]"
Yeah, Washington Post et alia. That wouldn't be MSM propaganda in scholarly clothes, would it? HarvardFucks my ass. May as well just watch CNN.
How do you think North Korea managed to develop a nuclear weapon with all those sanctions?
Yale? You mean Skull and Bonesville, the alma mater of Bill and IHLlary's law school and Shrubbie Bush et alia? Globalist Masonic agitprop all the way.
You relied on a source. It is reasonable practice to examine the source.
German Energy Minister Robert Habeck said verbatim: "Germany has built a business model that is heavily dependent on cheap Russian gas and thus on a president who violates international law, for whom liberal democracies and their values are declared enemies." "This model has failed and it will not return. We must rebuild at lightning speed."
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https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Russia/gasoline_prices/?source=patrick.net
Gas in Russia is cheaper than Gas in Qatar or Bahrain or Saudi Arabia.
Unable to buy $30/lb luxury Italian Cheese, $30/bottle midrange French Wines, expensive German Audio Equipment... what will the Russians do with themselves?
Eat local cheese, drink local beer, and buy the same audio equipment from China that's on Amazon USA