Sunday, August 31, 2014

EU threatens Russia with more sanctions over Ukraine

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. And failing to learn from history is even worse when that history is only a few months old.

from PressTV

The European Union has threatened to expand its economic sanctions against Russia over the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.
On Sunday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the 28-member bloc was working urgently on further restrictive measures.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that the EU would decide on more Russian targets for sanctions within a week if the situation became more chaotic in Ukraine.

“We said that should there be a further escalation as we had actually experienced, we may need to take additional decisions. We mandated the Commission to prepare the grounds for measures that can be taken and they have to decide on that within a week,” Merkel said.

This comes shortly after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country was close to the “point of no return” in its conflict with Moscow.

The European leaders had gathered in Brussels to draw up new measures against Moscow. The EU has already warned that the escalating conflict in Ukraine is putting all of Europe at the risk of war.

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So what the Europaean leaders are saying is: If the first thing you try fails abysmally, try the same thing again. You see its only a few weeks since this blog's parent Boggart Blog was writing:

Game And Set To Putin - Sanctions Hit EU Economies

Do you remember how the lefties cheered just a short while ago when in retaliation for Russia not obliging the warmongers of the military / industrial complex by starting World War Three in response to numerous provocations.
They praised Obamas's statesmanship when he threatened to crush the Russian economy and then cancelled the bus passes of superannuated Russian gangsters living in Florida. They went wild when Cameron and Osborne froze the bank accounts of Russian oligarchs domiciled in London, having first warned they would do this if Putin did not do as he was told. That of course gave the oligarchs plenty of time to move their money before the sanctions bit.
They creamed their pants when the EU joined in by saying if Russia did not comply with instruction on Ukraine, the EU commissioners would be very annoyed.
And they rilled on the floor laughing when The Kremlin said OK, you want to play with the big boys, here's some real economic warfare.
And now we learn this:

EU farmers say the Russian embargo on food trade is hitting them hard

(via Russia Today)
Austria is warning of catastrophic falling prices, and the Netherlands is saying losses could be triple initial estimates. A third of Lithuanian milk producers say they are facing problems.

The wholesale price of a kilogram of fruit or vegetables could halve due to excess supply, the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten cites Rupert Gsols, a federal coordinator of the Austrian Union of Market Gardeners.

There is a bumper crop of European apples in 2014; around 12 million tons against the normal 10-11 million tons. About 370,000 tons are harvested in Poland.

The economic damage to the Netherlands from the Russian boycott could be triple the original estimate and reach €1.5 billion, Dutch News cites Hans de Boer, the chief of VNO-NCW Dutch employers' organization.

“That calculation did not take into account the Dutch dealers who operate from Eastern Europe,” de Boer said.

In Lithuania, Russian countermeasures to Western sanctions are hitting milk producers the hardest, as about a third of firms face problems in finding alternative markets, RIA cites Jurate Dovydeniene, the head of the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.

Pieno Zvaigzdes, one of Lithuania’s five largest milk processing plants, suspended buying milk from farmers in the middle of month.

Even those who didn’t supply the products to Russia will suffer, Andriejus Stancikas the head of the Agricultural Chamber of Lithuania said.

“The situation became too dangerous especially for the agricultural sector, as the blockade is imposed not only on Lithuania, but to all the European Union. It would be difficult to reorient the deliveries to the West, these markets will be filled with their own production,” Stanchikas explained.

Now it's almost inevitable that some stupid little tit will come along and tell you nothing that's published by Rusia Today can be believed. Ignore them, sucvh people are pathetic lefties who cannot tolerate anyone disagreeing with them, but aren't bright enough to get anything right. I don't speak German but do speak some Swedish and with that plus help from Google translate I can tell you the article is reasonable translation of the new story from the Austrian newspaper.

Isn't it typical of politicians on being told their economic sanctions are hitting their own nations economies harder than the nation they imposed sanctions on, to say "Hey that's great, we're really teaching those Ruskies a lesson. Let's impose MORE sanctions.

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"Anti-Putin" Alliance Fraying: Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic Urge End To Russian Sanctions

When I posted a blog yesterday, Game and set to Putin (it wasn't quite match) which commented on how while Russia has shrugged off the American and EU sanctions, European farmers were being hit hard by Russia's retaliatory ban on foodstuff from the EU, Mike St. Mark replied that while the Russian leader was running rings round the USA, EU and Ukraine, he didn't think it was quite game and set at that point.
It is now. And possibly match too. I just has a belated look at US financial services news site Zero Hedge and found this. Tyler Durden who writes the posts has feeds from AP, Reuters, Press Association and all the rest at his fingertips so he's way ahead of us workaday bloggers:
Anti-Putin" Alliance Fraying: Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic Urge End To Russian Sanctions

Last week Germany reported that in the second quarter, its GDP declined by 0.2%, worse than Wall Street consensus. This happened a few shorts days after Italy reported a second consecutive decline in its own GDP, becoming the first Europen country to enter a triple-dip recession. What's worse, Europe's slowdown took place before the brunt of Russian sanctions hit. Surely in the third quarter the GDP of Germany, a nation whose exports accounts for 41% of GDP, will be even worse, with whisper numbers of -1% being thrown casually around, but one thing is certain: Europe is about to enter its third recession since the Lehman collapse just as we forecast at the end of 2013, a "triple-dip" which may become an outright depression unless Draghi injects a few trillion in credit money (which will do nothing but delay the inevitable and make it that much worse once the can can no longer be kicked), and unless normal trade ties with Russia are restored.

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