[QUOTE]As U.S. and European officials began imposing sanctions in their face-off with Russia over Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s $160 billion in oil and natural gas exports may be his most potent weapon to limit punitive measures.
The U.S. and its European allies have few levers to deter Putin even as they warn Russia not to annex Crimea after a referendum in Ukraine’s southern region yesterday. The European Union today imposed travel-visa bans and assets freezes on 21 individuals and President Barack Obama issued an executive order naming seven Russians for sanctions.
Russia, the world’s largest oil producer, exported $160 billion worth of crude, fuels and gas-based industrial feedstocks to Europe and the U.S. in 2012. While shutting the spigot on Russian energy exports would starve the Moscow government of essential flows of foreign cash, the price may be too high for European consumers and it may not alter Putin’s plans, said Jeff Sahadeo, director of Carleton University’s Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies.
“In the short term, this would be very difficult to do and it’s not clear it would even affect Russian behavior,” Sahadeo said in a phone interview from Ottawa. If the West “puts down the card of energy sanctions, it becomes a question of who blinks first.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the European Union’s biggest economy, said last week her nation is prepared to bear the economic pain that would accompany Russian retaliation to any sanctions.
“If Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose new sanctions,” Obama said in a press conference today.
Analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley said Europe probably won’t back sanctions that limit flows of Russia’s oil and gas. European members of the Paris-based International Energy Agency imported 32 percent of their raw crude oil, fuels and gas-based chemical feedstocks from Russia in 2012.
Collectively, the EU, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland and the Balkan countries got 30 percent of the natural gas they burned from Russia last year, much of it pumped through pipelines that cross Ukrainian territory, according to the U.S. Energy Department in Washington.
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[url]http://business.financialpost.com/2014/03/17/russias-us160b-energy-stick-hinders-crimean-sanctions/?__lsa=77d1-5e0a[/url]
[quote]German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the European Union’s biggest economy, said last week her nation is prepared to bear the economic pain that would accompany Russian retaliation to any sanctions.[/quote]
Merkel is badass, afaik she's the only politician up to this point to have actually said straight to Putin's face to stop the bullshit.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;44286422]Merkel is badass, afaik she's the only politician up to this point to have actually said straight to Putin's face to stop the bullshit.[/QUOTE]
Too bad it's all for show.
[QUOTE=laserguided;44286425]Too bad it's all for show.[/QUOTE]
Quite impressive inside information you've got there.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;44286422]Merkel is badass, afaik she's the only politician up to this point to have actually said straight to Putin's face to stop the bullshit.[/QUOTE]
I would say it's more of the fact that Germany is only only one of us that can afford to, being not in the shitter economically.
On the bright side, this poses as a huge stick to try to invest in some new NPPs. We were one of the leading powers when it came to building NPPs, then we just stopped, and now only have two that aren't planned to be demolished IIRC, whilst power shortages are a very real and fairly imminent threat (we actually borrow power from France every now and then, which is provided by their NPPs) all because of NIMBYS. Hell, they're planning on taking down Dungeness B despite the fact that nearly no-one lives there. (you've got the end of the RHDR and a few houses) To be fair, Dungeness A was old, and needed to be decommissioned, though they should have built a replacement - the thing had the boilers and many of the ducts outside the concrete shield, so emitted a fair bit more than other designs, something like half a microSievert a year.
On a check, Sizewell is the only one that's going to stay operational until 2035, the rest will be shut down and begin decommissioning by 2023. We just aren't building renewable sources fast enough, so we'd either see some rapid coal plant building or we need new NPPs if we don't want massive power shortages. There are plans for exactly one new plant in the pipeline, Wales and Scotland are deadset against them and the government wants them all to be private sector run. Can anyone spell "brownouts"?
[QUOTE=Vlevs;44286476]Quite impressive inside information you've got there.[/QUOTE]
Considering the spin laserguided has been doing, it wouldn't surprise me if he actually was Putin at this point.
[QUOTE=laserguided;44286425]Too bad it's all for show.[/QUOTE]
If there's one thing Merkel is known for, it's being ruthless and getting shit done not just for show. If it's anyone it's her.
[QUOTE=laserguided;44286425]Too bad it's all for show.[/QUOTE]
Putin has gone as far as abusing her phobias. He is REALLY scared of dogs and putin keeps bringing a huge ass dog to meetings they have and let him roam around.
The fact that she says stuff like this even when he's doing that kind of shit is pretty cool.
We can get oil and gas by ship, and I'm sure Libya would be glad to give us all their shit for us just to help them out financially.
Enough with the goddamn fluff. The USA needs to have an energy stimulus package for Europe via supplying them oil and natural gas from the Bakkens and Texas oil fields. Then take these sanctions to whole next level.
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