Posted on 03/15/2019 4:55:05 PM PDT by NorseViking
These sanctions were supposed to punish Moscow's elite, but instead they've spurred economic development and patriotism.
The current conversation about Russia sanctions centers around targeting and scope. Are we punishing the people whose behavior we most want to change? Is there pain, well inflicted, on those individuals responsible for creating chaos in Ukraine and Crimea, for reckless attacks on Sergei Skripal and others, and for wanton interference in Western elections? Can we hurt Russian elites in a way that Putin will notice? Have we done enough?
In at least one sector, though, the sanctions are a textbook case of unintended consequences: they’ve put Russian farmers in the best shape they’ve ever been. Countersanctions aimed at imported Western food products—put into effect just days after the initial sanctions in the summer of 2014—initially sent Russian consumers into a tailspin, hungry from a lack of immediate alternatives to tasty European cheeses and processed foods. But palates adjusted quickly, and the import substitution effects boosted Russia, by 2016, to the position of top wheat exporter in the world. As the United States hemorrhages global agro-market share courtesy of Trump-era tariffs and trade wars, Russia is actively and aggressively filling the gap.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Of course. As predicted. Everything the NeoCons do turns to crap & weakens us in the long run.
Time for the President to put the clamps on the NeoCon nutjobs before they ruin him and our entire foreign policy.
We are experiencing an invasion that will alter this nation forever if drastic action is not taken NOW.
Let’s put aside the foreign enemies (real and imagined) and take care of the domestic enemies for once, eh fellas?
That sounds like a great idea. Although for a political class it is easier to be at war with Eurasia.
This is not the effect of sanctions. This is from Obama era restrictions on using second hand dollars without US authorization. Obama’s war on swiss bank accounts and people using their dollar reserves for trade immediately lead to Russia falling in the Chinese Yuan orbit
Just to start responding to this I have seen too much evidence the Sergei Skripal was not killed b y the Russians but more likely by British MI6 or similar in an attempt to link his death to the Russian Government. Realize this is a very old issue of denying the Russians a warm weather port by the Brits that goes back centuries. Note per the following link that Crimea held a referendum in 2014 to separate from the Ukraine and rejoin Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum
The Crimean peninsula is on the Black Sea and if they want to return to the Russian Federation then they should have the right of self determination to do so regardless of what others think.
Now let us turn to the current deals between Germany and the Russia Federation providing a majority of their natural gas and adding another pipeline. So what the heck are we doing there while they become a Muslim infected country and hand in hand with their “enemy” that we are supposedly there to prevent from overrunning them? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that Russia is a huge country rich with natural resources as is the United States. They are not the same bunch that we used to know as the USSR and they have the right to compete in the world markets whether we like their government or not, just as we do with Chine who is as oppressive if not more to their citizens?
This is to me just more of the same saber rattling for more munitions and arms sales in a war that will never happen. Ever hear of MAD? Mutually Assured Destruction strike any tomes for you? There is no going back from the precipice once it starts and anyone who has silly dreams of going back to post WW2 and restarting and conquering them is a fool.
So in closing I do not share the crazy ideas that are posited here, and unless they embark on a USSR style expansion I say leave them alone and compete in the markets. In my view I trust them more than some of our current “allies” who have been involved in domestic spying on our citizens along with Australia and others. The same goes for all of the garbage about Russian collusion in our elections, that is a Soros and NWO program pure and simple and the evidence is out there if you will look clearly and objectively.
Well, I think you are mostly right.
“And the financial sanctions meant that Russia could not mitigate the oil price plunge by borrowing money.”
As if that’s some kind of punishment...
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