Qatar will stop gas shipments to the EU if member states enforce new legislation on carbon emissions, the Gulf nation’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi has told the Financial Times (FT). Qatar has become an important supplier to the bloc after Brussels resolved to wean itself off Russian gas following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
If any EU country imposes penalties on Qatar under the bloc’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Doha would stop exporting its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the bloc, al-Kaabi told the outlet on Sunday.
QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company, has long-term LNG contracts with several EU countries, including Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
The EU’s corporate due diligence rules, adopted in May 2023, are part of the bloc’s strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The legislation states that non-compliance is punishable with fines of up to 5% of the company’s annual global revenue. Al-Kaabi argued that such fines would significantly impact QatarEnergy’s revenue, which directly supports the state of Qatar and its citizens.
”If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated revenue by going to Europe, I will not go to Europe… I’m not bluffing,” Kaabi said. “I cannot lose that kind of money – and nobody would accept losing that kind of money,” he pointed out.
It would be impossible for an energy producer like QatarEnergy to align with the EU’s net-zero target as stipulated by the directive because of the amount of hydrocarbons it produces, the minister explained.
If slapped with hefty penalties, QatarEnergy would not break its LNG contracts but would try and find legal avenues.
”I will not accept that we get penalized,” he said. “I will stop sending gas to Europe.”
Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the EU started replacing Russian pipeline gas with more expensive LNG from the Middle East and the US. The bloc still gets pipeline gas from Russia via Ukraine’s transit network but the agreement between Moscow and Kiev is set to expire on December 31. The authorities in Kiev have repeatedly stressed that the deal will not be renewed.
December 22, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | European Union, Qatar |
Leave a comment
Allegations that Russia was behind a Romanian social media campaign that helped independent presidential candidate Calin Georgescu win a first round vote, and which contributed to the country’s constitutional court canceling the entire election, are false, an investigation has found.
Georgescu’s campaign was not funded by Russia but in fact by the pro-Western National Liberal Party (PNL), the media outlet Snoop has reported, citing the probe’s findings.
A critic of NATO and the EU and a staunch opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, Georgescu topped the first-round vote in Romania with 22.94%, beating other liberal leftist and democrat candidates.
Romania’s Constitutional Court promptly annulled the election ahead of the second-round vote, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in Georgescu’s performance.
The documents claimed Georgescu’s candidacy was improperly promoted online, including on TikTok, by paid influencers and extremist right-wing groups, and that his campaign may have benefited from Russian interference – an allegation that Moscow has denied as “absolutely groundless.”
According to Snoop, Romania’s tax authorities analyzed financial flows and discovered that the campaign that promoted Georgescu on TikTok was in fact paid for by the PNL and run by Kensington Communication, a company which provides political marketing services, as well as online campaigns.
The briefs delivered to influencers were aimed at promoting “a responsible attitude and a mature choice” among Romanians that would help the country continue its “democratic path,” wrote Snoop.
Influencers were reportedly given a script to describe the qualities of a future president without giving a name. Some of them however left comments below the videos, providing Georgescu’s name.
“It is a shock to everyone that the public money that taxpayers had provided to the PNL was used to promote another candidate,” one expert involved in the investigation told the publication.
Kensington Communication has issued a statement alleging that its campaign had been “hijacked” or “cloned” and said it would file a criminal complaint.
The leak came on Friday, a day before the expiration of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis’ term, and just days before the supreme court is scheduled to hear the case initiated by Georgescu. Iohannis himself had earlier refused to leave office, citing the country’s legislation.
Georgescu, who was labelled “pro-Russian” by his critics, filed a lawsuit with the supreme court to challenge the annulment of the election results. The candidate’s lawyer described the situation as “a flagrant violation of the constitution” and “a coup d’état.” The first hearing is scheduled for December 23.
December 22, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | European Union, NATO, Romania |
Leave a comment
Russia has repeatedly warned that the US and its Western sponsors’ assistance to the Kiev regime will only prolong the Ukraine conflict.
Western financing of Ukraine reached a whopping $238.5 billion from February 2022 to the beginning of December 2024, which approximately corresponds to 87% of the country’s budget expenses, Sputnik’s research based on information from the Ukrainian Finance Ministry, the University of Kiel, and open data has shown.
The expenses of the Ukrainian budget in 2022-2023 amounted to $193.3 billion, while in 2024 the figure is expected to stand at $81.3 billion. It means that over the past three years, the expenses have increased to $274.6 billion, according to the analyzed data.
Aid Breakdown
The volume of financial aid sent by Western countries to Ukraine amounted to $106 billion, whereas the West’s military assistance reached $132.5 billion within the aforementioned period. At the same time, the total volume of Western aid is 43% less than the $416 billion the West promised to Kiev, per the analysis.
The US remains Ukraine’s largest donor, having sent $95.2 billion to the Kiev regime in the past three years. Two-thirds of the sum was military aid, while one-third went towards budget financing.
EU member states transferred financial and military aid to Ukraine worth $94.2 billion, with Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands being the bloc’s largest donors with $11.9 billion, $7.5 billion, and $6.3 billion, respectively. The UK sent $13.4 billion, Canada $7.8 billion, and Japan $6.7 billion.
During the December 19 Direct Line and year-end press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Ukraine can fight and exist only with the support of its Western donors.
The statement came after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Washington’s financial aid to Kiev will not change the situation on the battlefield and will lead to “new victims among Ukrainians.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, recalled earlier that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasizes that continued aid to Ukraine is a guarantee of creating new jobs in the United States.
“As if he is not speaking about financing a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in Ukraine, but a lucrative business project,” Lavrov stressed.
This followed Peskov warning that the EU’s hefty sums to Ukraine are “allocated to the detriment of EU economies which are already going through difficult times.” For example, Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is facing a second year of zero growth, in what comes as more Germans oppose Berlin’s excessive financial assistance to the Kiev regime, according to a recent opinion poll conducted by the ARD news channel.
December 22, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics | European Union, UK, Ukraine, United States |
Leave a comment
Vladimir Zelensky has “gone too far” in its dispute with Slovakia over natural gas, let alone turning Ukraine into a “zombie state” that’s entirely dependent on the West, Slovakian MEP Milan Uhrik has told RT.
Bratislava and Kiev have ended up in a bitter row over supplies of Russian natural gas across Ukraine. The country has refused to extend its gas-transit deal with Russia, on which Slovakia depends for energy supply, and which is set to expire at the end of the year.
While the country, which borders western Ukraine, has enough gas in storage to make it through the winter, the impending end of transit likely spells trouble for Bratislava in the near future, Uhrik is suggesting.
“We have a valid contract with Gazprom which we want to fulfill but Zelensky is preventing us from doing so simply because he wants to harm our economy and simply because he wants more, I don’t know, finance or more weapons from our country, and this is what we do not agree with,” the MEP said.
With a recession “coming to the European Union,” it would be “very unwise to completely cut off from Russian cheap energy sources,” Uhrik also warned.
People are getting angry [at] Zelensky because this has gone too far. He is simply testing our patience, because we did nothing wrong and yet he decides to destroy or continue with destruction, not only of Ukraine but also of our country.
The Slovakian lawmaker questioned the legitimacy of Zelensky’s “very sensitive and serious” decisions, pointing at the cancellation of presidential elections in the country, and to dwindling “support among Ukrainian people.”
Ukraine has long turned into a “zombie state” that is fully dependent on the collective West as a whole and the EU in particular, Uhrik pointed out. While the EU has helped Kiev “with more than €130 billion” (over $135 billion), in return it has been getting “even more and more demands” and “more and more insults,” with the latest row able to “easily raise a bigger conflict between Slovakia and Ukraine,” the MEP added.
December 22, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics | European Union, Slovakia, Ukraine |
Leave a comment
It’s been a bad few months for democracy. Election results offensive to the European Union were annulled in Romania; an attempted coup occurred in Georgia over elections that didn’t go the way the west wanted; the French government, widely hated, teetered over the abyss as president Emmanual Macron tried to ignore the last election; on December 16, Washington’s pet German government fell; lots of funny-business happened in the Moldovan referendum and election, amid widespread disenfranchisement of Moldovan voters living in Russia; elections were long ago cancelled in dictatorial Ukraine; and South Korea hosted an attempted coup. In short, western democracies’ storied enchantment with elections is over. As western populations grow sick and tired of their political class and vote against it, what are elites to do? Annul, cancel, overturn and ignore the elections, that’s what. The problem, for the west, is the voters.
What will happen if far-right Alternative for Deutschland sweeps the early German elections in February, or if far-left France Insoumise does the same in France? Will the U.S. through its NATO and EU tentacles annul those votes? Don’t think it won’t try. And Washington doesn’t even have to give the order, because its European puppets know exactly what’s expected of them. Granted, the Romanian front-runner, so feared by NATO, Calin Georgescu, was far right. But so what? Besides, I doubt that’s what led to the constitutional court vacating the vote. More likely it was his opposition to the Ukraine War – hence the court citing “foreign influence” (translation: Russian) via TikTok as its flimsy basis for negating the election. Incidentally, reports are coming in that the heat and internet to Georgescu’s house have been cut off, and, surprise! he can’t get anyone on the phone to help with this.
But you can’t blame European honchos for ditching elections. They’re just following Washington’s lead. After all, the post-2016 phony Russiagate hysteria may not have succeeded in ousting Trump, as was intended, but it did provide the template for American vassals. The four years of lawfare against Trump (and then another four after he left office) blazed the trail for Europe, so that now, if a candidate not favored by political bigwigs wins, all they have to do is scream “Russian influence!” to dump the election. In other words, democracy is dying in the west. It’s kicking the bucket in Europe – and if Trump ends the Ukraine War (provided Biden doesn’t utterly sabotage his peace efforts before he takes office) or gets us out of the NATO sinkhole, you can bet your paycheck the 2028 establishment campaign will dust off the 2016 playbook and get right to work.
In western media, Georgescu has been portrayed as an unknown. This is false. He is well-known in Romania and had a diplomatic career. But he is also a religious nationalist, and that’s verboten in the EU; worse yet, the U.S., aka NATO, built its biggest military airbase in Europe – where? You got it, Romania. So Washington can’t have just anybody running that country. It must be someone who will keep everything copacetic with the U.S. A nationalist opposed to Washington’s pet proxy war in Ukraine is not that someone.
As for Georgia, there the electorate proved itself most unreliable to the Exceptional Empire. It voted in a government that actually dares to require foreign NGOs to register as such – you know, the way we do, here in the United States. But here, those NGOs don’t aim to overthrow the government, like they do in Georgia, in order for Tbilisi to open a second front against Moscow. Indeed, the vast majority of rioters against the Georgian government, who were arrested, were – I’m shocked! Shocked! – foreign, i.e. European. The icing on the cake is that the French president of Georgia refused to leave office when her term expired – a president with French and Georgian passports, who boasts Nazis in her family tree.
The EU finagled things more successfully in Moldova. That nation’s October 20 referendum on joining the EU won – kinda. In country, the Moldovan government only snagged 50 percent of the vote, but Moldovan expats in Europe gave it a boost, while the 400,000 Moldovans living in Russia found, to their dismay, only two polling stations open for them, by their government, in Moscow. That meant as few as 10,000 of them got to vote. And as East European expert and political scientist Ivan Katchanovski tweeted October 21, many pro-Russian citizens in Transdniestria could not vote. So all in all, the Moldovan referendum was a sorry excuse for a democratic exercise. Then there was also Moldova’s presidential election, equally compromised. But hey, Washington’s EU vassal got to lure a country out of Russia’s orbit, and that’s all that counts, not mere democracy, right? After all, Washington doesn’t stand for democracy. It stands for and has long stood for something quite different – power. Just look at it backing a terrorist takeover of Syria, among them a ruler on whose head Washington has a $10,000,000 bounty. Let that sink in. One American hand posts a huge reward for a terrorist, while the other hand paves his way to power. The obvious conclusion (also obvious to any student of American-backed coups and regime changes abroad going back at least 70 years) is that U.S. doesn’t stand for anything besides power (certainly not anything as antiquated and nettlesome as international law). That’s the definition of a gangster state.
If you doubt that, just peek at South Korea, where the CIA’s man, president Yoon Suk Yeol, faced a grim electoral future. The voters were unlikely to support him in the next election, given that they mostly back the opposition. And that opposition, per Col. Douglas Macgregor, wants a Korean four-star general, not an American one, to head the roughly 500,000 Korean armed forces and also wants to boot the 30,000 U.S. troops off the peninsula. This, of course, goes over in Washington with all the joy of a root canal.
So what to do? Yoon took the bull by the horns December 3 with martial law. During the few hours when it looked like our man in Seoul had pulled off a coup, the Biden gang was coyly silent. But there is nothing enduring in this world, as Gogol noted, and even the most brazen attempts at subverting democracy occasionally fail. The opposition gathered and voted against Yoon. His defense minister was deposed, jailed and attempted suicide, and Yoon’s own tenure came now, ahem, under a cloud, to say the least, as insurrection charges loomed, and he was impeached and suspended from office.
And don’t forget France, where Macron, affronted by an EU parliament vote last summer that installed many anti-Ukraine War representatives, totally lost it and, quite idiotically and hubristically, called snap elections. He promptly lost those to the left, but then snubbed the voters by breaking with tradition and refusing to appoint a left-wing prime minister. Surprising no one, the center-rightist he chose received a vote of no confidence, and Macron’s government looked likely to fall. That was temporarily forestalled by the appointment, December 13, of a centrist prime minister. But if his government does ultimately crash, expect Macron to do something really stupid, like suspend the legislature, call a national emergency or, a la Yoon, declare martial law.
Lastly of course we have Ukraine, that shining example of democracy, where its president rules illegally, having cancelled elections, banned the opposition, throttled the press, exiled the church, jailed anyone he doesn’t like and press-ganged thousands of vehemently objecting Ukrainian men into the military. All this while ferociously lining his pockets with western, mainly American, funds. This is the tyranny upon which Biden bestows hundreds of billions of our hard-earned tax dollars. It’s not even supported by Ukrainians, most of whom, according to recent polls, want the war over. But Joe “War Is My Legacy” Biden, in his crazed enthusiasm for Ukrainian combat, just won’t stop. On December 11, Ukraine fired six ATACAMS into Russia. We can all thank God they did little damage, since the Russians shot two down and diverted four with electronic warfare. Had they inflicted real harm, we in the west might very well have had worse troubles than the death of democracy, namely death itself. Biden appears oblivious to this reality. For us, what’s at stake is life itself, and the whole, wondrous human and natural world. For him, it appears to be just another step on the path of endless war, another day, another dollar.
Eve Ottenberg is a novelist and journalist. Her latest novel is Booby Prize. She can be reached at her website.
December 21, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties | European Union, France, Georgia, Korea, Moldova, Romania, United States |
Leave a comment
The European Parliament has taken another step in its ongoing efforts to control the flow of information online, approving the creation of a new committee tasked with combating what it describes as foreign interference and disinformation.
Dubbed the European Democracy Shield, the initiative is framed as a safeguard for democratic processes but raises significant concerns about censorship and overreach. The committee’s establishment aligns with the European Commission’s policy agenda for 2024-2029 and is expected to begin operations next year.
At a plenary session in Strasbourg, the decision received strong support, with 441 members voting in favor, 178 opposing, and 34 abstaining.
While presented as a measure to protect democracy, critics have long questioned whether such sweeping powers risk stifling dissenting views under the guise of fighting disinformation.
The committee’s mandate extends to scrutinizing online platforms, AI-generated content, and so-called “hybrid” threats—broad categories that could potentially encompass legitimate political speech or alternative narratives.
Comprising 33 members, the Ad Hoc Committee on the European Democracy Shield will serve a 12-month term. Its composition, to be determined by political groups, will be announced in late January. The scope of its responsibilities includes reviewing existing laws for potential weaknesses that could be exploited and recommending reforms. However, skeptics may argue that this approach could lead to increased regulatory burdens on digital platforms, raising questions about freedom of expression and transparency in decision-making.
December 20, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | European Union, Human rights |
Leave a comment
The US and the EU have provided over $300 billion in financial aid and military assistance to Kiev since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
Such a huge amount of money “could have done wonders” had it been spent to improve the lives of people within the EU, he said in an interview with Kossuth radio on Friday.
Orban highlighted the evolving military situation, noting that “the balance of power on the frontlines is shifting day by day” in Russia’s favor. He also pointed out the political changes expected in the US following Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month.
These developments call for leaders in EU capitals to embrace a more pragmatic approach to ensuring stability and economic resilience within the bloc, Orban believes. However, the prime minister argued that Brussels remains out of touch with global realities, pointing to a recent European Parliament decision to continue sending substantial funds to Kiev – a move he described as a clear example of misplaced priorities.
“During the negotiation with the Americans, I received the figure that Europe and America together have spent €310 billion so far. Those are huge numbers!” the Hungarian prime minister stressed.
He argued that the hundreds of billions of euros already spent to fund the conflict could have been used to bolster European infrastructure, to develop countries in Western Balkans to the level of the EU, or beef up military capabilities. This “enormous” amount of money could have been given to Europeans to make people’s lives much better, the Hungarian leader concluded.
Russia has repeatedly warned that no amount of Western aid will stop its troops from achieving the goals of the military operation or change the ultimate outcome of the conflict. By backing Kiev, they only prolong the conflict, Moscow has argued.
Earlier this month, Orban proposed a Christmas ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, describing it as a last-ditch attempt to mediate a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. He floated the idea to Kiev and Moscow, as well as to Trump, who he personally met at his residence in Florida.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow “fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement and resolving humanitarian issues related to the exchange of prisoners.”
However, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky rejected Budapest’s offer.
December 20, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics, Militarism | European Union, United States |
Leave a comment
Slovakia is considering retaliation against Ukraine over its refusal to continue transit of Russian gas to the EU nation, according to Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Kiev is determined not to renew a multi-year transit contract with Russia, which allowed the fuel to flow across its territory despite the armed conflict between the two nations. Slovakia is one of the recipients of the gas, which Ukraine intends to halt next year.
A “serious conflict” is possible if Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “doesn’t release our gas,” Fico wrote on Facebook on Friday. He included excerpts from his press conference in Brussels on Thursday, after he and Zelensky discussed the issue at a meeting held behind closed doors in the Belgian capital.
Bratislava is sympathetic towards Kiev’s situation and Zelensky’s predicament, the prime minister said, but Slovakia is “not at any war” either with Russia or Ukraine, and the Slovaks are not servants doing the bidding of Zelensky. Kiev is “losing decisively,” while Zelensky “absolutely rejects any ceasefire,” he said.
Fico said the proposals regarding the gas situation, which Zelensky outlined to him at a European Council meeting, seemed “absurd.” One idea was to allow the flow to continue on condition that Russia would not receive any payment until the end of the Ukraine conflict.
“What fool will give us gas for free?” Fico asked journalists.
Slovakia is helping Ukraine by providing non-military assistance, including by transferring electricity to its capacity-starved power grid, the prime minister said. Relations between the two nations cannot be a one-way street, Fico asserted, adding: “I cannot completely rule out reciprocal measures.” His government will consider its options over the next week, he said.
Kiev previously floated the idea of letting gas that is not Russian in origin to be pumped through the Soviet-built pipelines on Ukrainian territory. Azerbaijan could be the source of such supplies, according to officials.
On Tuesday, European buyers of Russian pipeline gas, including Slovakia’s SPP, warned the European Commission that the looming termination of Ukrainian transit posed significant risks to members of the EU, and urged Brussels to act.
The escalating row has been caused by Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, during his annual Q&A marathon. Russian gas giant Gazprom “can live” without the transit, he insisted.
December 20, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics, Militarism | European Union, Slovakia, Ukraine |
Leave a comment
For a while now, emerging AI has been treated by the Biden-Harris administration, but also the EU, the UK, Canada, the UN, etc., as a scourge that powers dangerous forms of “disinformation” – and should be dealt with accordingly.
According to those governments/entities, the only “positive use” for AI as far as social media and online discourse go, would be to power more effective censorship (“moderation”).
A new report from the US House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government puts the emphasis on the push to use this technology for censorship as the explanation for the often disproportionate alarm over its role in “disinformation.”
We obtained a copy of the report for you here.
The interim report’s name spells out its authors’ views on this quite clearly: the document is called, “Censorship’s Next Frontier: The Federal Government’s Attempt to Control Artificial Intelligence to Suppress Free Speech.”
The report’s main premise is well-known – that AI is now being funded, developed, and used by the government and third parties to add speed and scale to their censorship, and that the outgoing administration has been putting pressure on AI developers to build censorship into their models.
What’s new are the proposed steps to remedy this situation and make sure that future federal governments are not using AI for censorship. To this end, the Committee wants to see new legislation passed in Congress, AI development that respects the First Amendment and is open, decentralized, and “pro-freedom.”
The report recommends legislation along four principles, focused on preserving American’s right to free speech. The first is that the government cannot be involved when decisions are made in private algorithms or datasets regarding “misinformation” or “bias.”
The government should also be prohibited from funding censorship-related research or collaboration with foreign entities on AI regulation that leads to censorship.
Lastly, “Avoid needless AI regulation that gives the government coercive leverage,” the document recommends.
The Committee notes the current state of affairs where the Biden-Harris administration made a number of direct moves to regulate the space to its political satisfaction via executive orders, but also by pushing its policy through by giving out grants via the National Science Foundation, once again, aimed at building AI tools that “combat misinformation.”
But – “If allowed to develop in a free and open manner, AI could dramatically expand Americans’ capacity to create knowledge and express themselves,” the report states.
December 19, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | Canada, European Union, Human rights, UK, United Nations, United States |
Leave a comment
By Ahmed Adel | December 17, 2024
The Council of the European Union announced the approval of the 15th round of sanctions against Russia on December 16. Clearly, by imposing a new package of sanctions, the EU is willing to continue destroying its own industries by persisting on a policy of economic warfare despite the boomerang effects.
“This package of sanctions is part of our response to weaken Russia’s war machine and those who are enabling this war, also including Chinese companies. It shows the unity of EU member states in our continued support to Ukraine,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
“Our immediate priority is to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position. We will stand by the Ukrainian people on all fronts: humanitarian, economic, political, diplomatic and military. There can be no doubt that Ukraine will win,” she added.
The new package includes, in particular, a list of personal sanctions against 54 individuals and 30 organizations that, according to the Council’s announcement, are “responsible for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
The restrictions are intended to “address the circumvention of EU sanctions through targeting” Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” and weaken the country’s military industry.
Specifically, 52 third-country vessels were sanctioned, which the bloc claims are involved in oil imports from Russia, the delivery of war material to this country, and/or “the transport of stolen Ukrainian grain.”
The new economic restrictions also target Russian defence companies, chemical plants, and civilian airlines. For the first time, sanctions are fully applied to several Chinese entities for cooperating with Russia.
Since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February 2024, the EU has adopted numerous restrictive measures against Russia. According to the Castellum.AI database, more than 19,500 individual and sectoral sanctions have been triggered against Russia since the start of the military operation.
However, despite Russia becoming the most sanctioned country in the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the 22nd Congress of the United Russia Party that the Russian economy continues to develop despite the unprecedented Western sanctions.
“Russia is developing, the economy is growing and this is amid sanctions, literally unprecedented in world history, against the background of gross interference and pressure on the part of the governing elites of some countries,” the president said on December 14, adding that foreign blackmail and attempts to stop Moscow will come to nothing.
“Russia is confident, it is conscious of its righteousness and its strength, and this is why all objectives set for the short and long term will certainly be met,” Putin said.
The Russian president’s comments followed the EU’s announcement on December 11 that member states had agreed to the 15th EU sanctions package against Russia. Now, even as European companies more openly express their interest in returning to the Russian market, the EU acts against the interests of citizens and the business community alike as prices escalate and the cost of living gets out of hand.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that the country will stand up to the pressure of sanctions that the West began imposing on Russia several years ago and continues to intensify because they lack the courage to admit the failure of such punitive measures.
Rising costs, driven partly by a rejection of Russian energy, are causing Europe to lose its global competitive advantage. Although Europe has maintained energy supply security, prices on the European market are now much higher than before. Some analysts predict a further rise in energy prices and the danger this poses to the European industry.
It is worth remembering that current gas prices in the European Union are almost five times higher than those in the United States. As a September report on European competitiveness points out, EU companies continue to face electricity prices between two and three times higher than the US.
A separate study by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Deutsche Industrie und Handelskammer or DIHK) finds that high energy costs and a lack of reliable supplies are holding back industrial production, while “the risk of deindustrialization,” according to Siegfried Russwurm, chief executive of the industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp, “continues to increase.”
The energy crisis and the resulting economic recession in Europe are partly due to the EU’s refusal to accept cheap and reliable energy supplies from Russia. With these economically suicidal measures, Brussels wanted to force Moscow into capitulation. However, Russia has reoriented its export flows, particularly towards Asia.
Meanwhile, European buyers have been forced to purchase energy sources from alternative suppliers at higher prices, which obviously affected the competitiveness of European producers and hit the continent’s major economies. In effect, the anti-Russia sanctions have boomeranged, but Europe continues to insist on this economically suicidal policy.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
December 17, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics, Russophobia | European Union, Russia |
Leave a comment
With its submissiveness to the US and contempt for its president-elect, the bloc’s set itself up for a perfect storm of punishment
For a man his age, incoming US president Donald Trump has a knack for cultivating a bad-boy image. Refreshingly direct to the point of rude honesty, or dishonesty, as the case may be, he has no time for polite circumlocution. His threats are harsh, his demands unvarnished, including toward Washington’s so-called allies in Europe, which really are, at best, clients, and, more realistically, just vassals. In that spirit of candid, no-frills domination, Trump already has a long record of threatening NATO, which he sees – plausibly – as a scam in which European members fleece the US to free-ride on its insane (but that’s a different story…) military spending.
Or, in the genteel English still cultivated at The Economist, “through NATO, America is the guarantor of the continent’s security.” Yeah, right, by firing missiles at Russia… The problem with Trump is that he is uncouth enough to know the real relationship is much more like Don Corleone “protecting” your funeral parlor. And he behaves accordingly: Even during his first term in the White House between 2017 and 2021, he started scaring other NATO members into higher military spending, while never allowing them to feel safe about his commitment. Art of the tough deal: Keep ‘em guessing, keep ‘em on their toes. And it worked, too: the European spongers began to pay more. So, there will be more of that, rest assured. If, that is, there will be a NATO to speak of.
Even less noticed is the fact that the new old US president – and thus capo dei capi of the West – is not much kindlier disposed toward the EU. And yet there it is: Trump’s frank, open, and long-standing dislike for that strange bureaucratic behemoth that is about as democratic as the former Soviet Union, less efficient than the Habsburg Empire, and so full of its global “norm-setting” mission that even American “indispensability” looks oddly old-fashioned by comparison.
As early as the beginning of 2017, when the great American bruiser gate-crashed the White House for the first time, The Economist warned its European readers to “be afraid” of Trump, a man harboring “indifference” and “contempt” for the EU. Really? How unheard of! The raunchy-tycoon-turned-peremptory-president, the British establishment Pravda of neoliberalism and Russophobia explained, would seek to shatter the EU by playing “bilateralism.” That, of course, is Euro-babble for respecting individual countries’ governments by taking their sovereignty more seriously than power-grabbing delusions of grandeur in Brussels. And – oh, horror! – he might even try to talk Russia. (Spoiler: back then he did not – big mistake.)
That, however, was 2017. Now, things have moved on. Even before Trump won his second presidential election by crushing his Democratic opponents, The Economist admitted that “’Trump-proving’ Europe” is a notion doomed to fail, which means EU leaders may well become “geopolitical roadkill.” How so, you may wonder?
Well, first of all there is Russia. Regarding Moscow, Trump seems ready to talk, and in a substantial manner we have not seen since the end of the Cold War: He has publicly signaled that he does not believe in trying to coerce Moscow by further escalation; his freshly appointed advisers Mike Waltz and Keith Kellogg, though known for ambiguous signals in the past, will fall into line, as they should as public servants. And if not, they’ll be fired, Trump-style, fast and without remorse.
To say the least, Trump no longer feels as restrained by Washington’s deep-state, deep-freeze Cold War re-enactors as during his first term. Sure, it’s the US: there is always the possibility someone might try to murder him, again. But if he stays among the living, which is likely, then it’s payback time: Talking to Russia now is one delicious way in which he will dish out well-deserved retribution for both the media-lawfare circus of Russia Rage (aka ‘Russiagate’) in which his opponents weaponized slander and disinformation against him. And, more importantly, Russia has been winning the war in Ukraine, not only against Kiev but also, in effect, against the West. In sum, Trump has less reason to be afraid of his own backstabbers at home, and Washington has more reason to be much more careful about Russia.
Moscow, meanwhile, has made it clear repeatedly that any new agreements would have to be mutually beneficial. The time of Gorbachevian naivete will never return. Yet, at the same time, Russia does seem open to – serious – talks: The Russian leadership does not merely carefully watch Trump, as you would expect. It also sends back calibrated pings that signal cautious appreciation of his overtures, as recently over his criticism of firing Western missiles at Russia.
Hence, nightmare number one for the EU: Trump is serious about ending US support for the failed project of inflicting a geopolitical demotion on Russia via a proxy war in Ukraine. That will leave not only the regime of Ukraine’s past-use-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky high and dry but remaining fanatics in the EU as well. In the best-case scenario, the US will leave the European vassals with the cost of the postwar, whatever shape that may take. Trump has already said as much. In the worst-case scenario, EU elites could try going it alone. That is, worst-case for them, in every (un)imaginable way: economically, politically, and yes, militarily, too.
And behind Trump’s willingness to make good on his election promise to end the American cluster-fiasco in and over Ukraine, lurks the possibility of a much larger turn toward – wait for it! – diplomacy in the US-Russia relationship. Perhaps it is early days to mention that other long-forgotten D-word – and it would also take two to tango, of course – but a phase of détente cannot be excluded. If it were to take place, America’s European vassals would come to regret burning their bridges with Moscow to please Washington.
Then, nightmare number two, there is the economy. The US-EU relationship is the single largest trade connection in the world, worth about $11 trillion per year. That, you may think, constitutes a lot of common interest and thus reasons for treating each other if not gently then, at least, cautiously. Nope, that’s not how this works, because the relationship is lopsided, and Trump is furious about it. For him, the EU’s trade surplus with the US is yet another way in which shifty Europeans have been milking America. His weapon of choice to retaliate and rectify the situation are, of course, tariffs, the higher the better. Even before his re-election, Goldman Sachs warned that his rule could cost the EU as a whole a full percent of GDP. And yes, that’s a lot, especially for a continent already largely economically depressed, demographically declining, and with badly squeezed public finances.
What can EU leaders, those sadly submissive vassals about to be abused even worse than usual by their hegemon, do now? Frankly, not much. It’s already too late: They have made themselves dependent as never before on whoever happens to win the strange event Americans call “elections” and gets to mess with the world from the White House. And that is not at all Trump’s fault, by the way. (No, and not “the Russians!” either…).
Take, for instance, the EU’s wannabe despot Ursula von der Leyen. Building her own power grab – like Stalin, as it happens – on a mix of executive apparat overreach, crony networking, and ideological bigotry, she has made one serious mistake that may cost her dearly: She has cozied up so shamelessly to the outgoing Biden administration that, serious rumor has it, Trump cannot stand her. So, alternatives are in demand: Maybe he likes Italy’s Giorgia Meloni better? Or originally the Netherlands, now NATO’s Mark Rutte, who is constantly praised for his alleged “Trump-handling” skills?
But here is the problem with that, frankly, silly approach: Trump is not an idiot. Attempts to “handle” him are insultingly obvious and, if he tolerates them temporarily, then it’s only to handle his would-be handlers back. And then the irony is, of course, that the only EU leaders Trump respects, such as Viktor Orban of Hungary, are outcasts among their own: Good luck recruiting them now to make up for how much he disrespects all the others. Maybe they’ll even help, a little, Ursula, Olaf, and Emmanuel. But it’ll cost you, because they will – rightly – set their own conditions and gain great leverage.
What about Danegeld perhaps? Danegeld, you must know, was what the hapless inhabitants of the British Isles paid the seaborne Viking marauders in the Dark Ages. The system was simple: pay up or be plundered and slaughtered. You think that sounds a little primitive for today’s sophisticated Europeans? Never underestimate how low they will stoop. Ursula von der Leyen has already suggested that one way to mollify Trump might be to just buy even more perversely expensive LNG from the US. Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, has gone even further, pleading for a whole ‘Buy American’ program, including – surprise, surprise! – arms to assuage Trump’s ire.
Desperate? You bet. Humiliating? Obviously. Yet what’s worse, it’s not going to work. Here’s why: Even if Trump condescends to accepting such tributes from his European subjects, he will never lose sight of the one thing that really interests him (apart from his own money, power, and fame): American advantage. Whatever the Europeans will offer and however low they will kowtow, in the end, any deal will be good only for one side, the US. That’s ironic, because Russia, for one, and possibly China as well can expect the minimum of respect that makes mutual benefit at least possible. That’s because they have stood up to American bullying. For the Europeans, though, it’s a Catch 22 now. One way or the other, they will pay even more dearly than before for their historic failure after the Cold War: When they should obviously have emancipated themselves from the US, they sold out worse than ever. And without need. To paraphrase a past master of politics: It’s worse than a crime, it’s self-abuse.
Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.
December 14, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Corruption, Economics, Militarism | European Union, NATO, United States |
Leave a comment
The EU has failed to overcome its dependence on Russian energy, and needs a new plan to wean itself off Moscow’s supplies, the bloc’s new energy chief told Politico on Thursday.
In his first interview since taking the post, Dan Jorgensen highlighted the growth in Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases.
The share of Russian LNG on the EU market reached 20% this year, according to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, despite Brussels’ pledge to stop consuming Russian fuel by 2027.
“It’s obvious to everybody that something new needs to happen because… now it’s beginning to go in the wrong direction,” the EU Energy commissioner said, while pledging to present “a tangible roadmap that will include efficient tools and means for us to solve the remaining part of the problem.”
The new measures will target “gas primarily, but also oil and nuclear” and will be formulated by mid-March, Jorgensen said, noting that five EU countries still rely on Russia for nuclear fuel.
The EU declared its intention to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Supplies of higher-cost US fuel have replaced much of the cheap pipeline gas that was previously delivered by Russia.
However, efforts have stalled in recent months, and the EU continues to buy billions of euros’ worth of Russian gas each month. In 2024, the bloc is expected to import 10% more LNG from Russia than in 2023, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.
Politico noted, however, that any plan to sever energy ties with Russia in the next few years would be strongly opposed by EU members that are still heavily reliant the imports, particularly Hungary and Slovakia, whose leaders Viktor Orban and Robert Fico have resisted energy sanctions on Russia.
Jorgensen’s proposal is also likely to come just weeks after a long-term contract for Russian gas transit via Ukraine is set to expire, on December 31. The EU still receives around 5% of its gas from Russia via Ukraine’s gas transit network, according to the latest data.
Last month, Bloomberg warned of an imminent energy crisis in Western and Central Europe due to the latest US sanctions against Russia’s Gazprombank, the primary bank for energy-related transactions. The outlet said that rapidly depleting gas reserves and potential supply cuts from Russia threaten to exacerbate an already difficult situation.
December 12, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Economics, Russophobia | European Union, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine |
Leave a comment
Aletho News 