Sanctions on Russia

hollowdriver13 said:https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/urals-oil

Looks like Ural crude is sitting at $69 right now 🍿

The Chinese and Indians have spent their time stockpiling everything in sight, and now we are finally starting to see the inevitable, steep downward slide.

The European Council decided this past Friday to completely scrap the Visa Waiver Program agreement between the EU and Russia. Basically, Russian citizens are about to get hit with massive visa fees and much longer wait times.

Starting Monday, this suspension kicks in, which means visa fees are jumping from 35 to 80 euros. On top of that, they’re demanding extra paperwork for every application, processing is going to drag on forever, and getting those multi-entry visas just got a whole lot harder.

"The Visa Waiver Program was meant for reliable partners who share our values, giving them easy access to the EU," said Vít Rakušan, the Czech Interior Minister. He basically pointed out that Russia trashed all that trust through their unprovoked, aggressive war and random attacks on civilians, which totally undermines everything the international community stands for. He added that this move is a direct result of what Russia is doing and shows how the EU is fully committed to Ukraine.

That whole simplified visa deal between the EU and Russia had been running since June 1, 2007, making it easy for people to stay for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.

The political deal to kill the agreement happened last week during an informal meeting of foreign ministers over in Prague. They didn't go as far as some countries wanted—there was a proposal to ban tourist visas for Russians entirely, but that didn't get enough support.

Joshua Myers432 said:Look, this isn't about some grand pro-Russian propaganda machine or "Russophiles"—there's probably one in a thousand of those people left in the West, and frankly, the government should probably just provide them with psychiatric help. If you actually put Russia ahead of the West, you belong in a mental ward.

The reality here is much simpler: it's about pure self-interest. Westerners are masters at looking out for their own skin. We'll see if they actually hold the line.

In about 80% of cases, Westerners are just completely clueless.
They just swallow whatever the ruling establishment and their whole fake news, disinformation-industrial complex serves up on a silver platter.
If that weren't the case, they wouldn't be listening to those green alarmists, they wouldn't let a senile Biden gut the growth of American LNG production and exports, they wouldn't have allowed that senseless, premature shutdown of nuclear plants in Germany, and so on...

Because, honestly, all of those moves basically gave Putin the green light for this aggressive war.

I mean, you aren't exactly looking out for your own interests if you're busy shooting yourself in the foot.

That’s a pretty simplistic way of looking at it. In a democracy, the media landscape is crowded with all sorts of players, making the relationship between the government and the voters much more complex than just a two-way street. It’s multipolar, really.

For instance, that rapid shutdown of nuclear plants you mentioned wasn't actually part of Merkel's original strategy; it was just a pivot to match public sentiment later on. The same goes for how stances on immigration have shifted based on how people reacted.

In all this hype, I had a crazy thought. Honestly, sometimes I think Americans have more luck than sense. Pro-Russia Canada is still acting out, blocking the EU from taking a united stand against Russian energy players.

Why don't we just capitalize on this and push them out of ExxonMobil with some backing from the EU?🤔

Terry Green3 said:In all this hype, I had a crazy thought. Honestly, sometimes I think Americans have more luck than sense. Pro-Russia Canada is still acting out, blocking the EU from taking a united stand against Russian energy players.

Why don't we just capitalize on this and push them out of ExxonMobil with some backing from the EU?🤔

Not a chance.

more said:The main thing is just zeroing out Russia's energy revenue. Honestly, they probably won't ever get back into the market anyway because they won't have enough power left for themselves. I mean, you need to maintain drilling equipment, fix things, swap parts... and they can barely manage to service a single damn pump.

These sanctions don't really mean much when it's just a tiny handful of countries trying to enforce them on a global scale.
Russia is pumping out more oil than ever. The European Union is still buying their hydrocarbons; it’s just that now the Indians and the Chinese have baked themselves into the pricing models.😁

Terry Green3 said:In all this hype, I had a crazy thought. Honestly, sometimes I think Americans have more luck than sense. Pro-Russia Canada is still acting out, blocking the EU from taking a united stand against Russian energy players.

Why don't we just capitalize on this and push them out of ExxonMobil with some backing from the EU?🤔

On top of all that, why hasn't the European Union finally stepped up and implemented a system where strategic decisions are made by a democratic majority? Why should we still allow a single country to hold everything hostage and block progress for everyone else? Isn't that exactly what a functional union is supposed to prevent?
We really need to start providing updates on the fly. Why wait until everything is finalized? It’s high time we start keeping everyone in the loop in real-time!

lp

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...er-2022-09-07/

So, I was just reading this and thinking about how much things are shifting lately. Basically, Nigeria—which, let’s be real, sits on some of the massive gas reserves globally—is stepping up to strike deals with the European Union to ramp up production. They're looking to beef up supply specifically to fill that huge gap left behind by Russian gas.

It’s pretty wild to watch the fallout in Europe unfold like this; honestly, it looks like we'll end up having Africans pumping that stuff out even more affordably than the Russians ever did.

feralnomad35 said:https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...er-2022-09-07/

So, I was just reading this and thinking about how much things are shifting lately. Basically, Nigeria—which, let’s be real, sits on some of the massive gas reserves globally—is stepping up to strike deals with the European Union to ramp up production. They're looking to beef up supply specifically to fill that huge gap left behind by Russian gas.

It’s pretty wild to watch the fallout in Europe unfold like this; honestly, it looks like we'll end up having Africans pumping that stuff out even more affordably than the Russians ever did.

Honestly, you’re hard-pressed to find a better market for selling gas than the European Union.
You’d have to be absolutely delusional to try and blackmail a customer like that by threatening to cut off deliveries. 🤦

Best,

Donna Harris11 said:These sanctions don't really mean much when it's just a tiny handful of countries trying to enforce them on a global scale.
Russia is pumping out more oil than ever. The European Union is still buying their hydrocarbons; it’s just that now the Indians and the Chinese have baked themselves into the pricing models.😁

Belgium has about 10 million people, while Nigeria has 200 million.

Yet their economies are pretty much on the same level.

feralnomad35 said:https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...er-2022-09-07/

So, I was just reading this and thinking about how much things are shifting lately. Basically, Nigeria—which, let’s be real, sits on some of the massive gas reserves globally—is stepping up to strike deals with the European Union to ramp up production. They're looking to beef up supply specifically to fill that huge gap left behind by Russian gas.

It’s pretty wild to watch the fallout in Europe unfold like this; honestly, it looks like we'll end up having Africans pumping that stuff out even more affordably than the Russians ever did.

Well, if there were an option to just drop an LNG tanker right there, drill a hole straight into the Nigerian soil, and fill it up to the brim... that would be wonderful. But based on what little I know about Nigeria... it's a total wildcard. Honestly, it reminds me of those stories you hear about Venezuela...

Who knows, maybe one day it actually happens...

brightheron64 said:Well, if there were an option to just drop an LNG tanker right there, drill a hole straight into the Nigerian soil, and fill it up to the brim... that would be wonderful. But based on what little I know about Nigeria... it's a total wildcard. Honestly, it reminds me of those stories you hear about Venezuela...

Who knows, maybe one day it actually happens...

The tiny bit of knowledge I possess regarding Nigeria is this: when it looks like a certain windfall might slip into a private pocket, things start moving at lightning speed. It’s just like here in the States—once people see a chance to line their own pockets, every door swings wide open, and a few windows might get unlatched too, if necessary.

Can we actually pull off a price cap on the Russian oil industry? Here's an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld via DW News

Terry Green3 said:In all this hype, I had a crazy thought. Honestly, sometimes I think Americans have more luck than sense. Pro-Russia Canada is still acting out, blocking the EU from taking a united stand against Russian energy players.

Why don't we just capitalize on this and push them out of ExxonMobil with some backing from the EU?🤔

It’s not pro-Russian, it’s pro-Canadian; they’re just looking out for their own people's interests, unlike that crew in Brussels who seems stuck in that "eat cake, ladies" mindset.
Or like when you remember that idiot Johnson's comment after some old lady told him she was riding the bus just to stay warm because she couldn't afford gas due to prices in England, and Boris basically goes, "Well, I ORDERED that drivers shouldn't kick you off so you can stay warm."😁

The European Union is never going to stick its nose into stuff like that—we're on our own, just like if we decided to sell off the entire coastline to the Italians right now; nobody from Brussels would step in and tell us if it's actually a smart move.
They don't give a damn what we do with our own resources as long as we keep paying our "membership fees."

Nancy Howard4 said:It’s not pro-Russian, it’s pro-Canadian; they’re just looking out for their own people's interests, unlike that crew in Brussels who seems stuck in that "eat cake, ladies" mindset.
Or like when you remember that idiot Johnson's comment after some old lady told him she was riding the bus just to stay warm because she couldn't afford gas due to prices in England, and Boris basically goes, "Well, I ORDERED that drivers shouldn't kick you off so you can stay warm."😁

The European Union is never going to stick its nose into stuff like that—we're on our own, just like if we decided to sell off the entire coastline to the Italians right now; nobody from Brussels would step in and tell us if it's actually a smart move.
They don't give a damn what we do with our own resources as long as we keep paying our "membership fees."

Europe finally showed some unity after a long time, and all thanks to Putin.
Yeah, we pay dues, but we pull way more out than we put in. Just look at our cities and how much infrastructure has been built thanks to those funds.

Nathan Thomas12 said:Europe finally showed some unity after a long time, and all thanks to Putin.
Yeah, we pay dues, but we pull way more out than we put in. Just look at our cities and how much infrastructure has been built thanks to those funds.

In theory, yeah. But America is losing a massive amount of talent here—everything from skilled tradespeople to top-tier engineers. So, joining the European Union actually leaves the US in a deficit.

I can't remember the exact figure, but I think some Germans calculated that the total investment society makes in a single person who earns an engineering degree is about a million dollars. That includes everything from birth through graduation—you know, parents paying for food and raising them, local communities providing daycare and schools, all the way up to the government footing the bill for college. It adds up fast.

I could easily drop a few more million on training astrophysicists and nuclear engineers—only for them to end up back in Washington, D.C., signing paperwork because there’s basically zero actual work for them out here.

Kate Lewis3 said:In theory, yeah. But America is losing a massive amount of talent here—everything from skilled tradespeople to top-tier engineers. So, joining the European Union actually leaves the US in a deficit.

I can't remember the exact figure, but I think some Germans calculated that the total investment society makes in a single person who earns an engineering degree is about a million dollars. That includes everything from birth through graduation—you know, parents paying for food and raising them, local communities providing daycare and schools, all the way up to the government footing the bill for college. It adds up fast.

Spot on. But the exodus of talent isn't the root problem—it's the symptom. The actual cause is the systematic looting and gutting of the country over the two decades leading up to joining the European Union. If this place had been managed with any sense of patriotism, our standard of living would be way higher, and people wouldn't feel the need to pack their bags and leave.
Plus, during that last big recession before we integrated into the EU, the government showed zero empathy for anyone struggling. The crisis absolutely wrecked the construction sector and hit pretty much everyone else too. Instead of getting a break or a moratorium on payments while they looked for work, people just lost their jobs and then lost their homes.

analogbear5 said:I could easily drop a few more million on training astrophysicists and nuclear engineers—only for them to end up back in Washington, D.C., signing paperwork because there’s basically zero actual work for them out here.

The second blunder is just flushing taxpayer money down the drain on specialists the country doesn't even need right now—or anytime soon, for that matter. And don't even get me started on those liberal arts degrees that serve absolutely no practical purpose in today's economy.