Tag Archives: US sanctions

Important for understanding sanctions as economic warfare. They are neither efficient nor effective unless dependency is high, which Russia's is not relative to the US especially and the West in general.What is happening is "regionalization" toward the Global South and East, which portends eventually to isolate the West.Unfortunately, this make the transition from the use of economic and hybrid warfare to kinetic warfare more likely as the US views itself as losing global hegemony as "soft...

"War" is in the air now. Sputnik International Iran Supreme Leader Calls for 'Swift, Just' Legal Action to Face 'Economic War'See alsoReutersIran Supreme Leader calls for action to face 'economic war': state TV

The official justifications for this latest set of sanctions proves that they are not the real reasons because they are too ridiculous to be taken seriously by any thinking person. The ever-changing Skripalmania story, preposterous at the outset, has descended into incoherence as the crack Russian assassination team is now said to be using public toilets to remix “novichok” to put into perfume atomisers. The OPCW certified last October that Russia had eliminated its CW stocks; who is...

If these US policies are not sustainable, what then? The primal flaw to the neo-con maximum leverage doctrine is its lack of any easy ladder down which to climb that does not appear to be a national US humiliation. Usually, if pressure doesn’t work, it is assumed that it was because there was not enough of it – for example, Trump attributes the weaknesses to the JCPOA to Obama failing to let the Iranians stew in sanctions for long enough. Obama cut the pressures too early in Trump’s view –...

There you have it. But let's wait and see if actions back the words. So I would put a question mark at the end of the post title.Strategic Culture FoundationBrussels Rises in Revolt Against Washington: a Turning Point in the US-European Relationship Alex Gorka See also The left-wing Five Star Movement and the far-right Lega released their plans for the next executive Friday morning. The plan would potentially end more than two months of political instability in the third largest euro...

The United States has refused to hold consultations with Russia on the WTO platform over the introduction of restrictions on steel and aluminum import, saying such measures were not special protectionist ones, the Ministry of Economic Development told TASS on Friday. With this in mind Russia is going to notify the WTO of its intention to take retaliatory measures to limit the import of steel and aluminum. "In response to Russia’s request for consultations the United States said that it did...

The prosecution of Mehmet Hakan Atilla has further strained relations between US and Turkey.… A US judge sentenced Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a banker at Turkey's state-controlled Halkbank, to 32 months in prison on Wednesday after he was convicted earlier this year of taking part in a scheme to help Iran evade US sanctions.... The case has further strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned it as a political...

Britain and the US will not stand shoulder to shoulder against Putin’s regime as the EU is never likely to agree to tough sanctions, the Chancellor has warned.  But unified financial sanctions are more difficult to arrange, as the UK only joins actions when they are imposed either at the UN or the EU level.... The TelegraphUK will not match US sanctions on Russia as Hammond blames EU dissent Tim Wallace

The US sanctions against aluminum producer Rusal seem to be a shot in their own knees: After the US government found that the price of aluminum went up as a result of uncertainty about the future of Rusal, US companies, and the massively hit western allies, the government in Washington backpedaled on Monday. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement: “Rusal has felt the impact of US sanctions for its involvement with Oleg Deripaska, but the US government is not targeting the...

US running scared? Who provoked this arms race? A group of US lawmakers led by Senator Bob Menendez told the State Department in a letter that any sale of Russian S-400 air defense system should lead to new punitive measures as stipulated in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Free PR for the Russian arms industry. Sputnik InternationalUS Senate Warns Russia of Sanctions if S-400 Sold to Any Foreign Nations