Sanctions against Russia
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Kazakhstan No help from us, Vlad:
Kazakhstan, one of Russia's closest allies and a southern neighbor, is denying a request for its troops to join the offensive in Ukraine, officials said Friday.
Additionally, the former Soviet republic said it is not recognizing the Russia-created breakaway republics upheld by Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, as a pretext for its aggression in Ukraine.
Despite ceasefire accords covering the disputed land, Putin on Monday declared Russia's recognition of Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) as independent states.
The surprising development from a traditional ally of Russia has the support of the United States.
“We welcome Kazakhstan’s announcement that they will not recognize the LPR and DPR," the National Security Council said in a statement. "We also welcome Kazakhstan’s refusal to send its forces to join Putin’s war in Ukraine."
Borat hardest hit.
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I seriously doubt Turkey would take this step unilaterally. It wouldn't be strategically important anyway. This is a ground assault and naval vessels would be of little importance, even for supplies.
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I seriously doubt Turkey would take this step unilaterally. It wouldn't be strategically important anyway. This is a ground assault and naval vessels would be of little importance, even for supplies.
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There is no confirmation from Turkey that it will close the straits to Russian warships. If it were to do so it might be in contravention of the Montreux Convention which gives Russia the right for its navy it to return to or access its bases in the Black Sea. Not sure though.
@Renauda said in Sanctions?:
There is no confirmation from Turkey that it will close the straits to Russian warships.
https://news.yahoo.com/turkey-cannot-stop-russian-warships-102841759.html
If it were to do so it might be in contravention of the Montreux Convention which gives Russia the right for its navy it to return to or access its bases in the Black Sea. Not sure though.
Because the Russians respect treaties agreements so much these days, the Turks should do the same.
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@Renauda said in Sanctions?:
There is no confirmation from Turkey that it will close the straits to Russian warships.
https://news.yahoo.com/turkey-cannot-stop-russian-warships-102841759.html
If it were to do so it might be in contravention of the Montreux Convention which gives Russia the right for its navy it to return to or access its bases in the Black Sea. Not sure though.
Because the Russians respect treaties agreements so much these days, the Turks should do the same.
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I know George but “whataboutism” isn’t going to help the situation. Russian propaganda is all “whataaboutism” and look where we are now.
@Renauda said in Sanctions?:
I know George but “whataboutism” isn’t going to help the situation.
I know, and I apologize for the simplistic look. But treaties exist for a reason, and when one party fails to abide, there's no reason other parties to abide.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
