Insight Bureau: Over the last 22 years of Putin’s rule in the country, there’s only one thing that we undoubtedly learned about him is the fact that he has systematically and repeatedly tried to weaken and undermine the West.
But his invasion of Ukraine seems to be doing the opposite, managing to unite most of the international community in its condemnation of Russia’s aggression toward its neighbour.
“NATO is united — more so than at any point since the Soviet collapse — with a renewed sense of purpose and mission,” Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, commented.
“So too is the European Union: Germany supports ending their economic dependence on Russia and is nearly doubling their defense spend; France is on board … even Moscow-tilting Hungary has condemned the invasion, favored a crippling sanctions regime, and is allowing in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees,” Bremmer said in emailed comments.
The West is using Ukraine as a weapon the weaken Russia. In the disguise of war, several sanctions have been imposed on the invader by the western countries like USA, the UK, Germany and many more.
On the 20th of April, the United States rolled out new sanctions against more than 40 individuals and entities, including the Russian privately-owned commercial bank, the Transkapitalbank.
According to the US, the bank has helped sanctioned clients by providing an alternative communication channel to SWIFT — the dominant system for global financial transactions.
Turkey has also accussed some of its allies of wanting the war in Ukraine to last longer in order to weaken Russia.
“There are countries within NATO who want the war to continue,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk in an interview. “They want Russia to become weaker.”
This further proves the actual motive of the West, that is only to use Ukraine as another weapon to defeat Russia and make a strong foothold as world powers again.
Among the other latest sanctions that are to be imposed by the US are:
• to ban any new investment in Russia, economic measures are being taken
•US is planning to impose severe sanctions on two Russian financial institutions – Alfa Bank and Sberbank.
•Critical major state-owned enterprises to be hit with sanctions too.
•Sanctions on various Russian government officials and their family members, including President Putin’s adult children and relatives of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Meanwhile the UK has also imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and has pledgd to ending all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of 2022.
Some of the sanctions already in place are:
•Military goods and mercenaries
Dual-use goods are items serving both a civilian and military purpose, such as vehicle parts. A ban on the export of these have been imposed by the UK,EU and US.
Russia’s Wagner Group is a private military firm which functions as an arms-length unit of the Russian military. Sanctions have also been imposed on the group by the UK.
•Flights
Countries like US,UK, EU and Canada have banned all Russian aircrafts from entering into their airspace.
Private jets chartered by Russians have also received the same plight.
•Oil and gas
Oil and gas imports from Russia have also been banned by the US, with UK planning to phase out all the imports by the end of 2022.
Europe has switched to alternative energy resources and is committed to making itself independent well by the end of 2030.
Germany has put on hold permission for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to open.
•Financial measures
$630bn of Russia’s foreign currency reserves are in stake as the Western countries have frozen the assets of Russia’s Central Bank.
Due to this the value of the rouble has slumped by 22%, which has pushed up the price of imported goods and led to a 14% rise in Russia’s rate of inflation.
Russia can no longer make debt payments using the $600m it holds in US banks, ultimately making it a struggle for Russia to repay its international loans.
The EU also said that it would target 70% of the Russian banking market and key state-owned firms to hamper the country financially.
Responding to these measures, Russia’s President Putin has said he will make “unfriendly” nations pay for their imports of Russian gas in roubles, which would push up the value of the currency.