Rejecting G7 price caps on Russian oil, the U.S. and EU tried to cut off 70-year-old President Vladimir Putin’s oil revenue used to fuel the Ukraine War. Instead of engaging Russia in some real diplomacy, finding a way to end the Ukraine War, the G7 continues economic warfare on the Russian Federation, something bound to boomerang like it has it the past. U.S. and EU officials have embargoed Russian oil from the Feb. 24 start of the Ukraine War. Putin has offered Kiev many ways out of what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” But whether the U.S. or EU want to admit it or not, Putin was not comfortable with the U.S. and NATO arming Kiev to the teeth. U.S. and NATO have told Putin that even though Kiev has not been accepted into NATO, the U.S. and NATO will supply Ukraine unlimited cash-and-weapons to battle the Russian Federation until Putin leaves Ukraine.
Putin was in Ukraine before the Feb. 24 war and likely to stay in Ukraine for the indefinite future in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. “We will not accept this cap,” said RIA news agency, quoting Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Peskov said Russia would conduct its own analysis of the G7’s attempted $60 price cap. Russia’s crude oil runs at $67 a barrel, considerably cheaper that Saudi crude oil at around $88. Whatever the cap, Putin has been selling crude oil to China, India, Brazil, South Africa and many other countries looking for a real bargain in today’s market. President Joe Biden, 80, hoped at the outset of war that he could break the Russian economy with the most strict economic sanctions every applied to any country. Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Uyanaov said Moscow will not supply its crude oil to any country accepting the price cap.
U.S. and EU officials think that more economic warfare against the Kremlin is the way to bring Russia to its heels. Instead of working on a ceasefire or peace talks, the G7 thinks more severe economy sanctions, like an oil price cap is going to force Moscow to capitulate on the Ukraine War. New G7 price caps limits international shippers from insuring Russian oil cargos about the $60 price cap, complicating the delivery of Russian crude oil by global shipping companies. All that sounds like an impediment to Russian oil shipments but Russia ships unlimited amounts of crude oil at steep discounts to China, India, South Africa, Brazil and other countries. If the G7 wants to end the Ukraine War, why won’t anyone, other than billionaire Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, propose a realistic peace plan.. Musk’s Oct. 4 peace proposal was flatly rejected by Kiev and Washington.
Western powers think they can beat up on Russia and hope Putin runs out gas. All Western press reports talk about Putin’s terminal illness, Kremlin discontent or how Ukraine has trounced Russia in the first nine months of war. Yet Putin controls sizable parts of Kiev’s Black Sea coast, no matter how much territory Kiev has taken back. But if you listen to the Western press, Putin has lost the war and desperately wants to get out. Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky is perfectly content getting billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers to subsidize his bankrupt Kiev government. Zelenky never admits his government is bankrupt or has lost sizable chunks of sovereign territory to the Russian Federation. Zelensky decided to go to war against the Russian Federation, believing, with unlimited U.S. cash-and-weapons, he could evict the Russian military from Ukraine’s borders.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, 76, thinks more economic sanctions will eventually crack the Russian Federation. “ With Russia’s economy already contacting and its budget increasingly stretched thin, the price cap will immediately cut in o [President Vladimir ] Putin’s most important source of revenue,” Yellen said, repeating the same White House talking points. Moscow’s Washington embassy said the price caps are a “dangerous” move, signaling an escalation in the war. Putin keeps hitting Kiev’s infrastructure all over the country, letting them know they pay a heavy price for keeping the war going. Zelensky calls Putin a war criminal but he doesn’t entertain any peace proposals. So, the G7 have bought into Biden’s proxy war against the Russian Federation, knowing risks of WW III or nuclear war on the European Continent. More sanctions won’t change the Ukraine War.
Biden’s Russian oil embargo already created worldwide shortages and skyrocketing prices, leading to the worst global inflation in 40 years. “Steps like these will inevitably result in increasing uncertainty and imposing high costs for raw materials,” said Russian officials. Commodity prices have gone through the roof since the Feb. 24 Ukraine War. Biden and the G7 act like they can ignore Putin’s demands for a new security arrangement in Ukraine, where it looks like Kiev has become a client U.S. State. “Regardless of the current flirtations with the dangerous and illegitimate instrument [price caps], we are confident that Russian oil will continue to be in demand,” saying the Kremlin would figure a way to make up any lost revenue. If the intent of G7 is to bring the Ukraine War to an end, more economic sanctions and hostile actions toward the Kremlin won’t get it done.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
