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| America's default blackmail: what conclusions should Russia draw |
| 2022-06-03 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. By Pavel Kukhmirov [Sevastopol] Bloomberg reports that US politicians are divided into two camps on the issue of further anti-Russian sanctions. “There is no unity in the Biden administration about how much more sanctions against the Russian Federation can be increased without provoking economic instability and without violating transatlantic unity,” the agency’s sources say. According to Interfax , one group, which includes many State Department and White House officials, advocates even stronger secondary sanctions; another group of officials are concerned about further strain on a global economy already plagued by disrupted supply chains and inflation, volatile oil prices and a potential food crisis. Such messages will come more and more often in the future, which is not surprising: sanctions aggression is primarily destructive for the aggressors themselves. But there is no need to flatter yourself: the “dear partners” still have a lot of tools to blackmail our country. Not to a small extent due to the fact that the Russian Federation itself provided them in the previous period. One of these is the American blackmailing of Russia by "technically defaulting." The US Treasury recently issued an official announcement that a US government agency will not renew a special license for Russia, making it unable to repay its external debt obligations on approximately $19 billion of non-resident bond issues. Roughly speaking, the Russian Federation is deprived of the opportunity to operate a number of American financial instruments. And this decision of the US Treasury means, in fact, the so-called "technical default" of Russia. In other words, depriving her of the opportunity to pay her debts despite the fact that she has money. This will entail the refusal to provide dollar loans to the Russian Federation by a number of countries from the US zone of influence, as well as the inevitable fall in virtual credit ratings compiled by US-biased agencies, and the creation of a formal pretext for the confiscation of up to $ 350 billion worth of Russian gold reserves actually stolen. Well, this will also create a formal reason for blocking other financial ties. Again, in fact, the above measures are already acting against Russia, and formally provoking a technical default by America will not give anything new. The set of economic punitive measures against Russia has already been exhausted. And this is not a great price to pay for the exercise of the sovereign right to an independent foreign policy that is in line with the state's interests. Question: was it necessary to use these financial instruments at all? Indeed, according to US laws, its residents must pay 5-15 percent tax on income from foreign securities. And now the Russian Federation, redeeming foreign currency bonds and paying coupon income on them, replenishes the US budget, indirectly financing the purchase of weapons and economic assistance to the Kyiv regime. This was known even before the special operation and, moreover, it is known now. And, to put it mildly, the arguments of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation about the need to fulfill payment obligations by any means, even without linking to the unblocking and return of gold reserves, look strange. But they turned out to be stolen, including through the fault of the leadership of the Ministry of Finance. But, at least, they need to clarify the reasons why the Ministry of Finance has been increasing external borrowings all these years under the pretext of “financing the budget deficit”, while foreign exchange earnings have increased, and the federal budget has been in surplus. And at the same time, 12-14 trillion rubles were mortified in the FNB without movement. This is what gave rise to America's current opportunity to blackmail Russia with a "technical default." Serious damage against the background of what the United States has already done to Russia will not be caused by this. But their “default blackmail” is, first of all, an excuse to sort out what has been going on in the financial sector of the Russian Federation all these years. Yes, and it continues to happen now. So what are we going to do: whine or understand? Pavel Kukhmirov is a former Donetsk militiaman and a current resident of Rostov, Russia. His call sign is "Shakespeare." |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #19 "There is no unity in the Biden administration about how much more sanctions against the Russian Federation can be increased without provoking economic instability and without violating transatlantic unity" The sanctions are a total failure that has caused more harm to the US, Britain, Germany, France and the rest of the allies than to Russia. It would be hard to find a more perfect example of blowback, or unintended consequences. Maybe stepping on a rake covered in your own shit. |
| Posted by: Palmerston 2022-06-03 18:05 |
| #18 They want to believe everything is Putin's genius at work. Or Brandon's wickedness at trying to Resist Putin. Lord knows what they'd do if they ran up against a Reagan and he started _drilling_ instead of stopping it. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-06-03 17:48 |
| #17 You all want to pretend to discuss the energy market, which is Russia's main income source, without discussing Joe Biden's war on energy production in the United States. Everything is deeply inter-twingled. Stupid things aside, one reason the Brandon Administration is having such a hard time is that they cannot see the connections between things. This is connected to that, and that rubs up against this other thing. I find it a bit ironic that having built a globalized interconnected world, certain parties are now trying to break it apart. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2022-06-03 17:41 |
| #16 They want to believe everything is Putin's genius at work. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2022-06-03 15:22 |
| #15 You all want to pretend to discuss the energy market, which is Russia's main income source, without discussing Joe Biden's war on energy production in the United States. It can't be done accurately. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-06-03 14:15 |
| #14 Citing the Guardian? May as well cite Stalin. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2022-06-03 13:47 |
| #13 Russia can always pull its troops put of the Ukraine. Their situation is their own making. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2022-06-03 13:46 |
| #12 This article and this discussion are about anti-Russian sanctions. I don't dispute your conclusions about the impact of Biden's domestic energy policies but those have nothing to do with the matter discussed here. |
| Posted by: Jean-Paul 2022-06-03 13:29 |
| #11 Blah blah blah, more Distract, Distract, Distract... where you state the result but refuse to acknowledge the cause. Here's the link: Biden suspends oil and gas leasing in slew of executive actions on climate change. The interested reader can click the link and draw their own conclusions. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-06-03 12:46 |
| #10 If the Biden Administration were actively trying to damage the West, they could not do a better job than with these sanctions |
| Posted by: Jean-Paul 2022-06-03 11:19 |
| #9 Russia is winning the economic war - and Putin is no closer to withdrawing troops Larry Elliott The Guardian 2 June 2022 The perverse effects of sanctions means rising fuel and food costs for the rest of the world – and fears are growing of a humanitarian catastrophe. Sooner or later, a deal must be made. It is now three months since the west launched its economic war against Russia, and it is not going according to plan. On the contrary, things are going very badly indeed. There is no immediate sign of Russia pulling out of Ukraine and that’s hardly surprising, because the sanctions have had the perverse effect of driving up the cost of Russia’s oil and gas exports, massively boosting its trade balance and financing its war effort. In the first four months of 2022, Putin could boast a current account surplus of $96bn (£76bn) – more than treble the figure for the same period of 2021. When the EU announced its partial ban on Russian oil exports earlier this week, the cost of crude oil on the global markets rose, providing the Kremlin with another financial windfall. Russia is finding no difficulty finding alternative markets for its energy, with exports of oil and gas to China in April up more than 50% year on year. |
| Posted by: Jean-Paul 2022-06-03 11:16 |
| #8 COVID was a fizzle (though a nasty one) so Ukraine is the elite's plan B to pauperize the USA. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-06-03 10:29 |
| #7 It is obvious that the American sanctions are causing extreme harm to Americans, Europeans and people around the world. They are actually funding Russia's war. The questions remain:Why is America slicing off its legs? For what purpose? How much longer? Who benefits? |
| Posted by: Jean-Paul 2022-06-03 10:27 |
| #6 ^ BONG BONG BONG! |
| Posted by: Tsarsky Kolokol3977 2022-06-03 10:26 |
| #5 "Hey, you know, Fat, The Thing..." Seriously, that Biden cares more about hurting the US than Russia is _by design_. His decisions more or less gifted Russia with 300 billion or so dollars before the war even started. And the evidence everyone ignores is that Burisma, which paid his son millions, was a cutout for Putin. And the trolling is meant to distract away from all of this. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-06-03 10:18 |
| #4 "Putin's Globohomo Puppet"? Do you speak English... or just Unz? Hey, we know you're trying, but "globohomo"? Really? |
| Posted by: Ominerong White6483 2022-06-03 00:39 |
| #3 Those aren't reasons sanctions against Russia are bad. Those are reasons why Putin's Globohomo Puppet's sanctions against the US Energy Industry are bad. You know, that thing y'all never talk about despite claiming on half your 'nyms to be red-blooded Americans? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-06-03 00:28 |
| #2 Bloomberg describes how unbelievably stupid Yellen and Biden's sanctions are: Even with some countries halting or phasing out energy purchases, Russia's oil-and-gas revenue will be about $285 billion this year, according to estimates from Bloomberg Economics based on Economy Ministry projections. That would exceed the 2021 figure by more than one-fifth. Throw in other commodities, and it more than makes up for the $300 billion in foreign reserves frozen as part of the sanctions. The US has already banned Russian oil, but Europe is only slowly weaning itself off this dependency. That’s giving Moscow time to find other markets — such as commodity guzzling behemoths China and India — to limit any damage to export revenue, and its financial war chest. That means the money is gushing into Russia’s accounts, and the financial figures are a constant reminder to the West that dramatic change is needed. Oil-export revenue alone is up 50% from a year earlier, according to the International Energy Agency. Russia’s top oil producers made their highest combined profit in almost a decade in the first quarter, Moscow-based SberCIB Investment Research estimates. And wheat exports continue — at higher prices — as sanctions on Russian agriculture aren't even being discussed because the world needs its grain. . .here |
| Posted by: Ominerong White6483 2022-06-03 00:13 |
| #1 It's called a "technical" default because in reality, in the eyes of market participants, Russia is nowhere near default status. Russia has the ability and willingness to pay its debts--it's only the stupidity and criminality of idiots like Janet Yellen that allows such an obviously illegal and foolish stunt to go forward. |
| Posted by: Ominerong White6483 2022-06-03 00:10 |