This is quite a clever move by Russia imo.
In the past couple of days the German & French governments have insisted that they can't possibly do without Russia's gas.
Now they're gonna have to buy it in rubles which has a bunch of implications
Russians are already starting to feel the economic warfare that the west is waging on them - about 60 medicines are no longer available there due to the "sanctions"
Europeans haven't yet started feeling this economic war but they will.
(5 votes)
Comments
(Old Spike)
Oh snap!!!
(Old Spike)
lol, that was only a matrter of time. they also threatened the world with nuclear strikes the other day.
(Site Administrator)
no they didn't
(Old Spike)
hihihihi. of course not, hun, of course not.
(Site Administrator)
Should be easy to prove, unless you're talking shit again.
Your not even attempting to prove it shows it's the latter.
(Old Spike)
Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that if there is an existential threat for Russia, the country can use the nukes.
Didn't define "existential threat" of course so it could mean anything. Now call me a pessimist but I have 0 confidence in them when they feel cornered.
Now please go on and sweet talk this to us....
(Site Administrator)
your link is a fail & so is your ability to parse information.
I saw that part of the interview Peskov gave to Amanpor.
I'll just put it here so you can see how he was prompted twice by the CNN propagandist & said that their policy on the use of nuclear weapons is public (a decent journalist would have this knowledge but this isn't really journalism now is it) ... then he summarized their policy by saying that if there's a threat to Russia's existence then nukes can be used in accordance with their (publicized) policy...
compare what was said to your comment:
"they also threatened the world with nuclear strikes"
do you honestly think that's a fair assessment of that section of the interview?
(Old Spike)
yes, you keep forgetting who is the aggressor here.....
(Site Administrator)
I'm not forgetting anything, you're just gullible.
there was no threat issued by Peskov, this is plain to see.
he answered her question (twice) & stuck by Russia's stated policy.
the rest was done by spin doctors who can easily fool the Russia Bad NPCs like you.
(Old Spike)
"I'm not forgetting anything...."
So who is the aggressor in this conflict then?
(Old Spike)
(Old Spike)
nice red herring. the "soviet union" separated, this was down to an internal decision or rather a breakdown of the system.
(Old Spike)
And what did NATO do that it wasn't supposed to?
(Old Spike)
so no answer, which of course is an answer (and what I expected).
(Site Moderator)
Flashing the nuke card because of mean words.
(Site Administrator)
that's right, Putin put the nukes on high alert last month in response to threats being made by (nuclear-armed) NATO. NATO had triggered Article 4 which was what they'd used as a mechanism to destroy several countries in the past 25 years. They'd called Ukraine an "ally" and were saying they'll defend every ally, while they have thousands of trainers/adviser & bases in Ukraine. The nuclear deterrance has worked as intended & may have saved Europe from a bigger disaster.
The MiG hot potato between US & Poland was funny to see. Little bit nerve wracking but still funny.
(Site Moderator)
"Nuclear deterrance has worked as intended"
Yeah it works. Thats why nations want to join NATO.
(Site Administrator)
why do you think the Soviet Union & Russian Federation weren't allowed to join NATO?
(Site Moderator)
They need to westernize a bit more before we can let them in.
Infact once they are ready for NATO, there wouldn't be a need for it anymore.
(Site Administrator)
so Ukraine & Georgia are "western" enough to join a security cooperation arrangement but Russia's isn't
cool story bro!
(Site Moderator)
As far as I know, Ukraine never really was ready for NATO, not for some time.
Too unstable and too much corruption. I have a feeling someone else knows this too and wants to keep it that way.
(Site Administrator)
It was quite clear they didn't meet the requirements to process their application any further but their application was accepted & Russia's wasn't, despite Russia having a cleaner system than Ukraine's.
Like you said, it defeats the purpose of NATO to have Russia in it. And that says it all really. In the words of NATO's first secretary general, the purpose of NATO is to "Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down"
this Ukraine crisis has been a boon for this agenda, ticked every box. No wonder NATO embraced literal Nazis to make it happen.
(Old Spike)
Isn't this Russia's only move? Can you expand why it is clever?
(Old Spike)
It isn't clever (trump would probably say it is) it is one of the very few moves that remain.
(Site Administrator)
it props up the value of the ruble by forcing gas customers to purchase it in order to buy gas
it also is a bit of a leg sweep on the way energy is traded - the 'petrodollar system'
it's a breach of contract but so is stealing Russia's foreign reserves as the 'unfriendly countries' have done so it's gonna have to be hashed out by lawyers.
It makes the (illegal) sanctions backfire with no cost to Russia, that's why I think it's smart.
No I don't think it's their only move. They have commodities the world needs & a military that can protect them. They can selectively disrupt the global economy at will & cause all kinds of problems if the economic war escelates. A nuclear option might be to just turn off the gas until the theiving bastards give back Russia's money.
Another move they've made is saying they'll make their foreign bond interest payments in rubles. Not sure how that's going but it's not as clever as the energy-ruble thing I don't think.