Sanctions Leave Out Oil

14 points by imoldfella 4 years ago | 10 comments

sharken 4 years ago |

Key quote from the story:

"I don’t think Russia is blind to what is going on and it must indicate to them that the West does not really have the stomach for a painful fight over Ukraine.”

The West will help Ukraine but not too much. As we've seen with SWIFT, it's still possible that this decision will be overturned.

lowkey 4 years ago |

Not from the article, but I read elsewhere that the sanctions also have a carve-out exclusion for Italian luxury goods - certainly not a NEED

Also, in the case of the United States, Canada and Germany our energy dependency on Russian oil is entirely self-inflicted. There were other options but the short-term optics of environmental concerns superceded the desire for energy independence - now we are seeing the implications of those decisions.

throwaway_4ever 4 years ago | |

The Roman Empire went from being the birth of modern western civilization, to a people crucially dependent on selling unnecessary handbags to Russian war tyrants.

LatteLazy 4 years ago |

We NEED russian gas and oil. They need to sell it to us. So no neither side CAN sanction it for now.

The best we can do is a huge, rapid expansion of import capacity from other countries.

bcrl 4 years ago | |

It's not a need, it's a want. Oil and gas are fungible products and can be replaced by goods from other countries. Right now Europe just doesn't WANT to change, as it will cost a significant amount of money to revamp supply chains, and vendors from other regions already know that they can charge higher prices. How much is Europe's security really worth?

LatteLazy 4 years ago | | |

Right now we don't have the infrastructure to import enough gas from anywhere else. I'm all in favour of building that infrastructure. But until that gas actually happened, an actual supply shortage would literally mean some people died of hypothermia or lack of reliable electricity supply.

vanusa 4 years ago | |

We NEED russian gas and oil.

No, it's just a "want" (based on price point) like the other commenter said. Europe has other needs, like long-term security and stability. If these become threatened, it can easily (enough) find ways to offset the rise in prices caused by climbing down from Russia's teat.

They need to sell it to us.

On that point you are absolutely correct.