patrick.net

#consequencesofputinsanctions I am always on the lookout for unusual stories that most of the media misses. Russia used to export a massive amount of timber. With sanctions, it is difficult for Russia to continue with these exports. This causes big disruptions in the timber market worldwide. Germany is being forced to bring coal plants that generate power and heat back online to replace natural gas no longer coming from Russia. Then we have the Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports that leave 20 million metric tons of wheat in silos and put up 100 million people in Africa and the Middle east in danger of potential starvation.
Putin is engaging in some cold-blooded calculus here. "Make things very uncomfortable for people in the west and they will cave in and let me do what I want to do." Long ago, Western democracies caved into Hitler in hopes of appeasing him and stopping a second world war. We know what happened afterward. We are going to have high gasoline and diesel prices. We are going to suffer high prices for food, timber, and natural gas for a long time to come. We are going to see large numbers of people face starvation. We cannot let Putin win this battle!!!! Decades ago, Stalin and Chairman Mao engineered famines that killed millions of people. Putin is the same kind of monster