Ukraine Status: Mostly About Sanctions
I can’t embed Rumble here, so I’m at a disadvantage when it comes to conveying counter narrative material that doesn’t get past the Zhou regime’s proxy censors. CTH has an embed of Tucker Carlson speaking briefly with Col. Macgregor here. The interesting part, to me, comes in the second half.
Tucker begins with Blinken’s attempt to sucker Poland into entering the war—by providing fighter jets (Russian MiG-29s that have been upgraded with US avionics, etc.) to Ukraine. It would be insane for Poland to do that, and they seem so far to understand that.
Then Tucker asks Macgregor what “the plan” really is.
Macgregor states pretty flatly that the Globalist plan simply isn’t going to work. As we’ve been saying, Putin has gamed this all out—Russia is not isolated in the world, and the EU is bucking US commands. Here’s my transcript:
Tucker: I think many people would be willing to take some measure of risk on behalf of this country if they understood what the plan was. The plan seems to be to prolong the fighting in Ukraine--to what end? I honestly don't understand it. Do you?
Macgregor: It's a damned good question, and it's one worth answering. I do think the plan is to prolong the fighting, on the assumption that--over time--the Russians can be driven out of Ukraine. And if the Russian army cannot be driven out--which, I think many people realize, is not going to happen--then the plan is to complete the destruction of Ukraine by turning it into a quasi Afghanistan. That also is not going to happen.
These things won't happen because the Europeans will not go along. The Germans have already made it very clear that they're going to continue to buy energy and food from Russia. So will other European states. The sanctions, as you rightly point out, will do a lot of damage to us--they're not gonna make a lot of difference to Russia. China will stand with Russia; it knows it has to. Russia has an abundance of food and energy; China will take it all. Russia will not suffer as a result of our sanctions--in fact, it may break down the financial system that we have set up to punish everyone in the world we don't like.
Tucker: What a tragedy, to see all the people of good will I know personally, a lotta conservatives who are supporting this stuff, don't understand how malicious the intent is and don't understand how destructive the effect on our country is.
Here’s an indication, perhaps, that Putin has been preparing for the sanctions:
If, as Macgregor suggests, Russia is able to crash our petrodollar based financial system—perhaps by demanding payment in gold for its energy supplies to Europe—then massive gold reserves in a gold based system would put Russia in a rather secure position. In any event, this is a hint that Russia is not nearly as vulnerable as US officials like to think.
Scott Ritter didn’t address the financial system that explicitly in December, when Putin unveiled his demands, but he did address the unlikelihood that sanctions would in any way deter Putin from confronting what he saw—correctly—as an existential threat:
This is difficult for people in the West to understand.
Here, we see the invasion of Ukraine as a war of choice.
In Russia, the average citizen sees the conflict as a war of necessity – one forced onto Russia by NATO and Ukraine.
4:46 PM - 7 Mar 2022
Ritter:
WHY SANCTIONS THREATS WON'T DETER RUSSIA
Concerns about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine have led the US and its European allies to threaten a regime of enhanced economic sanctions that would have “severe consequences” for Russia’s economy. The reality, however, is that sanctions have never worked to alter Russian behavior. Moreover, the kind of sanctions being threatened, if applied, would do more harm to those implementing them than to Russia. Any sanctions-based approach to resolving the current crisis in Ukraine ignores two realities: Russia will not be alone in confronting the sanctions, but rather allied with China; and Russia is playing a far different game than the West. Moscow views the current crisis as derived from the very essence of the US-Nato relationship, not as a simple question of Ukrainian sovereignty. It is a game Russia is determined to win, and no amount of sanctions can change this.
Faced with the possibility of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden has taken the lead in pointedly threatening tougher economic sanctions. Leaders of the EU, Nato and the G7 have echoed their collective readiness to enact policies that would serve as a virtual declaration of war against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
While no one has specified precisely what these economic measures would be, it is widely assumed that such sanctions would end Russian banking access to all international funding and capital markets; sever Russian access to the Swift communication system for international money transfers, thereby cutting or severely disrupting Russia’s ability to trade with the West; and prohibit operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Such measures would undoubtedly create economic difficulty for Russia. But they would be fatal for Europe, which depends on Russia for 31% of its crude oil imports and 40% of its natural gas imports, or more than 15% of all EU energy needs. And losing access to Russian energy would have a much bigger impact that a simple 15% drop in energy supply. Such an energy supply disruption would have a cascading effect on not only costs, but on economic output, given Europe’s slim economic operating margins. In short, Europe would not only freeze, but also starve.
The US would not be immune to the consequences of any massive sanctioning of Russia either, given that it has recently become addicted to Russian heavy fuel oils (mazut), which closely replicates the heavy crude from Venezuela that some US refineries are optimized to process and can no longer access. Russia is among the top suppliers of crude and products to the US, with around 800,000 barrels per day supplied through much of 2021. Any enhanced sanctions regime against Russia would cut this supply immediately — potentially raising gasoline prices further ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections.
In short, Russia can ride out the consequences of any US-European-imposed sanctions longer than Europe and, to a lesser extent, the US can survive without Russian energy. Economic war between the West and Russia would become a self-inflicted and perhaps politically fatal wound for those advocating such a policy.
Ritter goes on to discuss the “Chinese Wild Card” and other issues at some length.
Here’s another clue that Russia is prepared for sanctions:
Did our rulers think this one through? If they did it would probably be a first.
This has been Zhou Regime policy from the get go—massive sanctions on the American people to raise the price of gas to $10/gallon. Now they’ll blame it on “Putin’s War”. This will crush the middle class, and especially people in the suburbs who drive to work, drive to shop, drive their kids to school, drive their kids to various events. Will Americans accept the gaslighting? I have my doubts.
And that’s just if everything goes according to Globalist plans. What if Putin’s plans make things worse for Americans? It’s been a long time since Americans have been faced with this sort of a regime, making war on its own people.
https://twitter.com/shehzadyounis/status/1501300844649615362
US is working with Ukraine to prevent biological research facilities from falling into the hands of Russians — Nuland
"Russia is playing a far different game than the West. Moscow views the current crisis as derived from the very essence of the US-Nato relationship, not as a simple question of Ukrainian sovereignty. It is a game Russia is determined to win, and no amount of sanctions can change this."
I can't help wondering if Putin and many in Russia see this as a rematch of the Cold War, a shot at redemption. A bit of payback.