Sanctions against Russia
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An interesting read on sanctions.
Frum: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/how-russian-sanctions-work/622940/?utm_source=feed
About $132 billion of Russia’s reserves takes the form of physical gold in vaults inside Russia. Russia could pledge that gold or sell it. But to whom? Most potential customers for Russian gold can be threatened with sanctions. Those who might defy the threat couldn’t afford to take very much: The entire GDP of Venezuela, for example, is only about $480 billion.
Only one customer is rich enough to take significant gold from a sanctioned nation like Russia: China.
Would China agree to take it? And if China did agree, would it not demand a big and painful discount for helping out a distressed seller like a sanctioned Russia? How exactly would the transaction occur? Would China be content merely to take legal ownership of the gold and leave the metal inside in a Russian vault? Doubtful. One ton of gold is worth about $61 million, so $139 billion would weigh about 2,290 metric tons. It’s certainly conceivable for a locomotive to pull a train of that weight from Moscow to Beijing. But it would constitute a considerable logistical and security undertaking to load, move, unload, and secure the gold for a train trip across Siberia.
Western banks do not need to freeze the Russian central bank’s accounts altogether. They could put the Russian central bank on an allowance, so many billions a month. That would keep Russia limping along, but under severe restraint—asphyxiation rather than sudden strangulation. The West could not prevent Putin from spending foreign currency on his war or favoring cronies in the distribution of foreign currency. But the restraint would rapidly make the terrible cost of Putin’s decisions much more rapidly visible to every power sector in Russian society. It’s not the full blow, but it might hurt enough—and of course, the full blow could be applied later.
The central-bank-sanctions tool will also deliver a humbling but indispensable lesson to Putin. Putin launched his war against Ukraine in part to assert Russia’s great-power status—a war to make Russia great again. Putin seemingly did not understand that violence is only one form of power, and not ultimately the most decisive. Even energy production takes a country only so far. The power Putin is about to feel is the power of producers against gangsters, of governments that inspire trust against governments that rule by fear. Russia depends on the dollar, the euro, the pound, and other currencies in ways that few around Putin could comprehend. The liberal democracies that created those trusted currencies are about to make Putin’s cronies feel what they never troubled to learn. Squeeze them.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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One ton of gold is worth about $61 million, so $139 billion would weigh about 2,290 metric tons. It’s certainly conceivable for a locomotive to pull a train of that weight from Moscow to Beijing.
Good backdrop for a heist/action flick.
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"Vasily? That package you were expecting? There will be a delay.
FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. have suspended shipments into Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S.-based shipping giants had earlier cut off shipments to and from Ukraine and were preparing contingency plans for their Russian operations. Now, both have temporarily stopped delivering shipments bound for Russia.
UPS said that packages en route to Russia and Ukraine will be returned free of charge to the sender if possible.
"Our focus is on the safety of our people, providing continued service and minimizing disruption to our customers," UPS said in a service alert on its website. "UPS continues to closely monitor the situation and will re-establish service as soon as it is practical and safe to do so."
FedEx issued a similar service alert on its website. “We are closely monitoring the situation and have contingency plans in place,” FedEx said.
(where's my "wink" emoji?)
Interesting. On a different, but perhaps related, level, how does this differ from Twitter, et al, banning postings on their platforms? Are they suspending deliveries because they "focus on the safety of our people," or is is because of an ideological difference.
IOW, Russia (in this case) is an asshole. We know that China is, amirite? Will UPS and FedEx do the same?
Something tells me they won't.
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MOAS: The Mother of all Sanctions.
Singapore’s biggest banks are restricting trade financing for Russian raw materials, as the war in Ukraine spurs lenders in Asia’s largest energy and commodities trading hub to reduce exposure to the sanction-hit country.
The limits include a halt on issuing so-called letters of credit in U.S. dollars for trades involving Russian oil and liquefied natural gas, according to people familiar with the situation.
DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. have stopped issuing letters of credit involving Russian energy deals because of uncertainty over the course of sanctions, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
A choke on trade financing in a top commodities hub such as Singapore could snarl the trade of some physical cargoes and add further pressure to prices, even though the U.S. and European Union sought to exclude energy from the latest round of new sanctions.
On Monday, the first day of trading after Western nations unleashed more sanctions to isolate Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil and gas exporters, Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose as much as 7% to top $105 a barrel when trading opened in Asia, while European natural gas shot up 36%.
The move also comes as Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in parliament Monday that the government would block certain Russian banks and some financial transactions involving Russia, though details are still being worked out.
Lenders in the city-state, a key trading hub for commodities trade and finance in Asia, join at least two of China’s largest state-owned banks and some banks in Europe in restricting the ability to purchase Russian commodities.
“DBS will comply with all applicable sanctions,” the bank said in response to request for comment. “Separately, we have minimal direct exposure to Russia, and consistent with our risk management obligations, have adjusted appetite for transactions consuming Russian exposure limits.”
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Pretty good explainer about the effects and limitations of sanctions from Noah Smith.
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-big-sanctions-a-quick-explainer?utm_source=url
DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
FedEx and UPS suspend deliveries.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/russia-ukraine-live-updates-n1290057
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Sanctions?:
FedEx and UPS suspend deliveries.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/russia-ukraine-live-updates-n1290057
Hahahaha...
No more Chinese shit for Russians.
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Yeah, Turkey.
Responding to the Treaty...
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-02-26/card/uDQCa9dMZsNGZLQsfWYg
Turkey’s foreign minister said Sunday that the situation in Ukraine had become a war, a legal distinction that paves the way for Ankara to potentially ban Russian warships from entering the Black Sea through a strategic chokepoint.
Turkey’s government had said on Friday it was working to determine whether a state of war existed in the region. In wartime, Ankara can block some warships from countries involved in the conflict from accessing the Black Sea under the 1936 Montreux Convention.
“We came to the conclusion that the situation in Ukraine has transformed into a war,” said Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking on CNN Turk. “We will implement all articles of Montreux transparently.”
Ukraine asked Turkey on Thursday, the first day of the invasion, to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits to Russian warships.
The request put pressure on Turkey, a NATO member that also has close ties to Russia. Turkey has fought Russian proxies in Syria and Libya and also sent armed drones to Ukraine, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also developed a close relationship with Vladimir Putin.
The Montreux Convention, which grants Turkey control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, allows Turkey to ban ships not based in the Black Sea under certain circumstances during times of war.
Turkey has invoked a “state of war” to ban warships only one other time in history, during the Second World War when it blocked Germany and Italy from using the Turkish straits to access the Black Sea. Ankara rejected an American request to move warships to the Black Sea in 2008, citing tonnage limits on naval vessels sent from outside the region.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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"Get your stuff off my server!"
Namecheap terminates services for Russians, asks them to move domains
Domain registrar Namecheap is emailing customers registered in Russia saying it will no longer provide them with services because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia," the company says in the emails sent earlier today.
"While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by."
Namecheap also asked Russian users to move their top-level domains to other providers until March 6 and offered to help those who reach out for assistance with the move.
The company added that all affected domains would be automatically configured to display 403 Forbidden HTTP errors.
"If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022," Namecheap added.
"Additionally, and with immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su.
"All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider."
Namecheap's CEO also told Russians angry about the company's decision that they have a lot of other providers they can choose to get the same services.
"We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't 'deplatforming'," Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall explained.
"People that are getting angry need to point that at the cause, their own government. If more grace time is necessary for some to move, we will provide it."
Namecheap is a US-based technology company and an ICANN-accredited domain registrar with over 1,700 employees across 18 countries.
It provides domain registration, DNS, web hosting, and other services to over 2 million customers worldwide and manages more than 14 million domain
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@89th said in Sanctions?:
I would imagine this is how the russian citizenry will find out about international sentiment towards russia's invasion.
It may take a little longer, but I suspect word is spreading pretty rapidly. I can just imagine what the older folks think, having lived under the Soviets. I wonder what the younger people think?
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion.
