By Mario Munoz Lozano
Chief correspondent of Prensa Latina in Russia
According to the newspaper El País, the 55 boutiques of this clothing line will be franchised and will keep the jobs of their 800 employees. In March, the brand announced the temporary cessation of operations in that country due to transportation and delivery difficulties.
After 32 years in the country, McDonald’s said goodbye to the huge Eurasian nation, Apple also stopped selling its products, Coca-Cola announced in early March that it would cease operations, and so did Nestlé, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nike. Among others Ford, General Motors and Toyota Volkswagen.
The list is endless, and according to the Russian authorities, there is no comparison in the world, even with the punitive measures imposed on Iran, the DPRK and Cuba.
According to the Castellum.AI database, since last February 22, 8,225 new restrictive measures against Russia have been activated by June 15, in addition to the 2,754 that have been in effect since then.
The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan and European Union (EU) countries, the latter with their six packages of sanctions, targeted key sectors of trade, finance, energy, exports, aviation and Russian space away.
The restrictions included the disconnection of national banks from the international Swift payment system, the closure of airspace to their airlines, the paralysis of the international reserves of the Central Bank of Russia, the embargo on oil purchases by Washington and, in a few months, by the European Union.
They were also extended to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and other senior officials and businessmen in the country, affecting their property, businesses, and ability to travel to many countries.
BACK LIKE A BOOMEANG
However, the effects of the restrictions are already being felt internationally, as according to the Moscow authorities, a country as big as Russia cannot be blocked, let alone in such a connected world.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that if the EU imposes an embargo on the Eurasian country’s oil supplies as planned, it will seriously disrupt the world market and worsen energy balances in Europe, which “will be going through a difficult period.” .
“At the same time, the Americans will take advantage of the situation, that’s obvious, and they will feel much better than the Europeans. The Europeans will have a hard time. It’s probably a decision that affects everyone,” said the head of the Kremlin’s press service.
The Moscow authorities stressed that the illegal actions of Western countries against Russia are already having and will have a boomerang effect.
On March 8, US President Joe Biden approved a ban on the import of oil, oil and its derivatives, gas, coal and coal products from Russia to this country.
It also suspended investment in Russia’s energy sector and funding for foreign companies investing in the Eurasian nation’s energy production.
At the time, European leaders realized they could not support Washington because the decision would have a major impact on the economies of some countries in the region, a situation that didn’t change a bit.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has warned that if Western countries completely refuse to import it from Russia, the price of oil could soar.
At a meeting with members of that country’s Liberal Democratic Party, Novak stressed that in such a situation, Russia would redirect its supplies from the West to the East and create new chains. “In fact, Russian oil companies are already doing it,” he added.
Regarding the US embargo on Russian energy sources, Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy and Finance of this nation Alexei Belogoryev stated that the United States is not the country’s key market today.
The expert recalled that the volumes delivered to this North American country were transported by sea and not through gas pipelines, so they can be diverted to the Asia-Pacific region.
ACHILLES HEEL OF SANCTIONS
As much as the EU leadership insists on the embargo on Russian gas purchases, it is clear that the need for fuel weighs heavily on many of its member states.
Faced with this dilemma and with US pressure on the EU to stop buying from Russia, some countries of the so-called old continent are aware of their nations’ energy needs and that meeting the demands would amount to economic suicide.
Budapest has agreed to pay for Russian gas in rubles, a requirement Moscow has imposed since March 31 on buyers hostile to the country.
But Hungary isn’t the only nation, with more and more companies buying Russian gas using ruble accounts despite conflicting warnings from the European Commission (EC).
Almost half of the 54 companies that have contracts with Gazprom Export have already opened accounts in rubles to pay for Russian gas, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nóvak reported in recent days.
“According to my data, about half of these companies have already opened special accounts in foreign currency and rubles with our bank, which guarantee receipt of foreign currency earnings, conversion into Russian currency and payment for gas,” he explained.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, the directive of the community bloc is “close to the limit” of its ability to impose restrictive measures against Russia because they could not deal a hard and precise blow to the “lucrative energy industry”.
“The unbiased picture shows how limited the EU is in backing tough rhetoric with action, which requires unanimity from all 27 member states,” the US agency’s article conceded.
ZERO SELF ISOLATION
Speaking to the plenary session of the Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid down concrete guidelines on the principles of national economy development and stressed that the first thing he would never do was go down the path of self-isolation and self-sufficiency.
The President assured that the country will not impose any obstacles on companies that decide to return to the national market after abandoning it due to foreign sanctions. “Time will pass and many of our partners, at least from European countries, will return to the Russian market and will be happy to work here. I have no doubt. Life will only force them to do so. And we will not put any obstacles in their way, we are open to everyone,” he said.
Similarly, he said that despite foreign restrictions, Moscow will continue to work with Western companies that have remained in the domestic market.
However, he acknowledged that the anti-Russian measures posed many challenges for the country. He explained that some companies have problems with access to components, several technological solutions are no longer available for Russian companies, and logistics are also affected.
However, he emphasized that such challenges also open up new opportunities. “All of this is an incentive to build an economy with full, not just partial, technological, productive, human and scientific potential and with scientific sovereignty,” he said.
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