As the geopolitical tensions between the west and Russia over efforts to draw Ukraine, a vast nation in eastern Europe, which has a long border with Russia, into NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the military alliance of the USA with European nations and Canada, the news continues to shift from the COVID propaganda pandemic towards the possibility of a Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory triggering a refional or even global war western leaders continued today to run around like headless chickens, impotently threatening Russian leader Vladimir Putin with "sanctions like never before."
Its good to know the mainstream news cycle is catching up with Boggart Blog. Once upon a time we would be weeks, sometimes months ahead of them in our reporting but yesterday we confidently reported that if the economic and trade sanctions threatened by the USA's Biden Administration were imposed and Putin retaliated, it would hit America's allies harder that Russia.
And today this:
No SWIFT, No Gas: Russia Responds To Western Threats As US Tries To Orchestrate Workaround
from Zero Hedge:
While the situation along the Ukrainian border appears to be deescalating - aside from US/UK's panic coalition, a top Russian official says that if the West follows through on a threat to cut the Kremlin off from the SWIFT payment system, Europe won't receive Russian oil, gas, or metals.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was in discussions to ban Russia from the Swift global payments system with the United States, calling it a "very potent weapon."
"I'm afraid it can only really be deployed with the assistance of the United States though. We are in discussions about that," he added.
Nikolay Zhuravlev, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council, responded to Johnson's threat - telling Russia's state-owned TASS that Europe would suffer the consequences of such a move.
"SWIFT is a settlement system, it is a service. Therefore, if Russia is disconnected from SWIFT, then we will not receive [foreign] currency, but buyers, European countries in the first place, will not receive our goods - oil, gas, metals and other important components of their imports. Do they need it? I am not sure," said Zhuravlev - who noted that while SWIFT is convenient and fast - it's not the only game in town when it comes to financial transactions.
"SWIFT
is a European company, an association which involves a lot of
countries. To make a decision on disconnection, a single decision of all
participating countries is required. The decisions of the United States
and the UK are definitely not enough. I'm not sure that other
countries, especially those in which the share of trade with Russia is
significant will support the shutdown," he continued.
Couldn't be clearer, Putin does not care about sanctions because he knows they will not stick. Politics in the USA, UK and EU operates in a series of contiguous bubbles, leaders are divorced from reality and while the west's major economies have been obsessing over sustainable energy follies, extending the reach of government into citizens private lives and promoting gay and trans rights, the old allies, Russia and China have been extending their influuence and simultaneously making the west dependent, on Chia for manufactured goods and Russia for oil and gas (the latter does not apply to the USA which is self sufficient in energy but has problems of a different sort, starting with societal breakdown.
The upside of this for us thousands of alt_news contributors who are sick to the back teeeth of COVID stories day after day is that 2022 promises to be a more interesting and varies than '20 or '21. Bring it on, as Vladimir Putin might say to NATO bosses.
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