Capitalise on it. Republicans will win the midterns this Nov and in 2024 a republican candidate will become president.You mean, Russians are using United States of America's President's son, supposedly most patriotic people evar ? And what will Trump do now ?
The Russians did not take kindly to Biden's recent comment about Putin having to go.Don't think one need to be this bent and out of shape explaining world events![]()
Do you understand why Russia invaded ? it's security related. Does a country have the right to act to defend its security interests when threatened or not. Of course they do. If the US can enter Iraq on such a basis then i see no problem with Russia or anyone else for that matter doing the same.I don't support the Russian invasion,
Absolutely.but this kind of economic and internet warfare can also be used on us tomorrow if there is a political or geopolitical divergence.
How well could China defend against such sanctions ? not very well either. They import fuel, food and are dependent on exports. This means China can be controlled if required.We keep showcasing all kinds of weapons during republic day, they have their place, but India has a gaping hole in security.
We export our assets, brain power, and import liability, technology and weapons. Even after 200 years of slavery Indians have not learnt our lessons.
I don't put much stock in western sanctions because Putin has not played his cards here yet and when he does he can make life unbearable in the west. To the point constituents start to question what Ukraine means for them and why they need to continue along this path. In other words they will be withdrawn at some point.Here is a article on how the sanctions were planned and orchestrated - https://www.newyorker.com/news/anna...ial-who-pierced-putins-sanction-proof-economy
we will get to face the music from the Russians.The US has told India that the consequences of a "more explicit strategic alignment" with Moscow would be "significant and long-term," he said.
"What Daleep did make clear to his counterparts during this visit was that we don't believe it's in India's interest to accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities," press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week.
Fun fact: The Ukraine has still not declared war on Russia, just as Russia has not declared war on the Ukraine. Why has the Ukraine not declared war on Russia? Because many Ukrainian senior military and security officers and other government officials, and/or their wives or other family members, have real estate and other assets in Russia, and if there’s a state of war, then Russia can legitimately expropriate that. So, the two countries remain officially at peace.
Euope has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems but the world's problems are not Europe's problems. Your problems are yours but my problem is ours.
“Don’t use a caricature version of one situation as a yardstick to pass a sweeping judgement”
- State refiners want more crude directly from Russian oil co.
- Imports from Russia to displace spot purchases from elsewhere
By
Debjit Chakraborty
June 6, 2022, 3:51 PM GMT+5:30Updated onJune 6, 2022, 6:26 PM GMT+5:30
India is looking to double down on its Russian oil imports with state-owned refiners eager to take more heavily-discounted supplies from Rosneft PJSC as international buyers turn down dealings with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
State processors are collectively working on finalizing and securing new six-month supply contracts for Russian crude to India, said people with knowledge of the companies’ procurement plans. Cargoes are being sought on a delivered basis from Rosneft, with the seller set to handle shipping and insurance matters, they said.
These supply agreements, if concluded, will be separate and on top of shipments that India already buys from Russia via other deals. Details on volumes and pricing are still being negotiated with Indian banks set to fully finance all cargoes, said the people who asked not to be identified as discussions are confidential. Indian refiners will increasingly procure supplies directly from Russian companies such as Rosneft as top international traders like Glencore Plc wind up their dealings, they added.
The state refiners include Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, while private processors are Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, which is partly owned by Rosneft. Procurement activities for state and private companies are done independently. Spokespeople at the three largest state-owned companies couldn’t immediately comment when contacted.
Both state and privately-owned refineries in India have been ramping up purchases of Russian crude as sanctions and trade restrictions rolled out by the US, UK and European Union have caused most buyers to flee and offer levels to crash. An unprecedented amount of Russian crude was heading to India and China last month as European buyers scrambled for replacements and reached as far as the United Arab Emirates for alternatives. The ensuing panic and rerouting of global oil flows have lifted prices by more 20% since late-February when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Refiners in Asia’s second-largest oil consumer have been enjoying elevated profits from turning cheap crude into fuels that are sold domestically and also in the export market to customers in Europe and the US. Russian supplies form just part of India’s overall basket of crude oil feedstock, alongside other long-term as well as spot purchases from the Middle East and Africa.
The potential ramp-up of Russian crude purchases will likely weigh on the South Asian nation’s spot imports, said the people. India has bought more than 40 million barrels of Russian oil between late-February and early-May, which comes to about 20% more than flows for all of 2021, according to Bloomberg calculations based on trade data. Russian oil arrivals into India for May were at 740,000 barrels a day, up from 284,000 barrels in April and 34,000 barrels a year earlier, according to data from Kpler.
Although India’s purchases of Russian crude aren’t illegal or in breach of any sanctions, the country has come under pressure from the Biden administration and EU to stop doing business with Moscow in order to cut off the Kremlin’s access to oil revenue and funds. The Asian nation has reiterated that its volume of Russian imports are minuscule as compared to Europe’s purchases, and just a tiny fraction of the country’s total consumption.
“We don’t send people out there saying go buy Russian oil, we send people saying go buy oil,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, said at a conference on Friday. “Now you buy the best oil you can in the market. I don’t think I would attach a political messaging to that.”
Discounted Russian oil has provided some financial relief to India -- which imports more than 85% of its needs -- just as inflation skyrockets alongside surging prices of everything from food to fuel. The access to cheap crude is already boosting India’s petroleum imports, which grew almost 16% in April from last year. The share of oil from the Eurasian region, which includes Russia, expanded to 10.6% in April versus 3.3% a year earlier, according to ministry data.
Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, June 5, 2022, 10:30 PM·3 min read
Europe's extreme dependency on Russian energy products from oil to natural gas is made clear recently from the manner in which they have approached sanctions – with incrementalism, slowly sinking back into the bushes.
The latest agreement among member nations on export bans targeting Russia is largely oil focused, not natural gas focused, with the union demanding an immediate 70% decrease in Russian oil transferred BY SHIP. Oil transferred by pipeline will continue to flow into the EU for now. The ban is intended to expand to 90% of all shipborne Russian oil by the end of this year. Natural gas imports from Russia will also continue.
While some European nations are more dependent on Russian energy than others, overall 40% of the EU's needs are supplied by the country's industry. It is not surprising that they are seeking an incremental approach to sanctions, they simply would not be able to survive another winter if they were to go cold turkey and block Russian imports completely. Of course, this does not mean that Russia has to operate on Europe's timetable.
Russia is already reducing exports of natural gas to multiple EU countries, with Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany being the latest to see losses. The EU's ban was oil and ship focused because they cannot find an alternative source for natural gas that would resolve shortages if they banned everything. Germany in particular would be destroyed by the loss of natural gas supplies from Russia with its 42% dependency.
The solutions offered by governments and in the mainstream media neglect certain realities. Namely, they claim that output can be increased or diverted to Europe to fill the gap. Joe Biden has suggested that the US is a “net exporter” of oil (this advantage has swiftly declined since he entered the White House according to the IEA) and that the US could help alleviate European demand. The IEA and OPEC members like Saudi Arabia have offered to increase market availability and output of oil if Russian exports are hit with sanctions.
The problem is that increased production is a fantasy stifled by the realities of labor shortages, increased drilling costs due to inflation and shortages in raw materials caused by supply chain disruptions. There is little chance that production capacity will ever be able to match EU demands, according to experts in the drilling industry.
So what does this mean?
It means that in order for Europe to fulfill its energy needs while banning its primary import source, the union will have to leach existing supplies from the global market. In other words, supplies will be greatly reduced in the West and prices are about to spike exponentially in order to feed the EU.
Despite all of this economic bluster, Russia has shown considerable resilience to sanctions on oil as both China and India have increased purchases in tandem with Europe's bans. The wider implication of this is that Europe and the West will be facing reduced global oil supplies and paying a premium while countries like China and India will be enjoying increased supplies and lower prices from Russia.
India's plans
In May, the British-Dutch oil and gas giant Shell began negotiations with a consortium of Indian energy companies to sell its stake in the Sakhalin-2 project.
According to Reuters, the companies ONGC Videsh and Gail, in particular, wanted to take the place of Shell. The European company demanded that the negotiations go on two separate tracks - the purchase of a stake in the project and the acquisition of long-term contracts for the supply of LNG and crude oil, which Shell entered into with the Sakhalin-2 plant.
Also in May , it became known that the Indian ONGC was thinking about buying a 30% stake of the American ExxonMobil in the Sakhalin-1 project. The company plans to acquire energy assets at a low price in order to "secure energy supplies" to the country. ONGC, along with other participants in the Indian market - Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil - also held preliminary negotiations on the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in the transnational giant BP in Rosneft .
Things are moving faster than I expectedHave you thought about why SWIFT has no viable alternatives despite being a glorified messaging system that can be replaced by WhatsApp.
Why do all international transactions happen in USD and are cleared by the federal reserve?
................some day by sheer size of our population as India progresses we will become an economic rival to the US, at 1/3 their per capita income. What happens then?
(I may be wrong, happy to learn.)
While I agree that a local currency trade is helpful in some ways, establishing a common trade currency which is not under control of US, EU or UK is the key.Things are moving faster than I expected