Russia is making the war an economic war in Europe now. Since Europe wants WWIII, we shall get it, in spades. Inflation is now raging first, due to China giving us all the covid mess and now we have war in Europe. Europe refused to negotiate with Russia about the Donbas province. Open warfare has been going on there for several years now. Instead, we get Europe set on self-destructing by sanctioning Russia as much as possible. Only all of Europe stays alive thanks to Russian exports. Russia is an export power, not an import weakling needing free money to survive. Russia now has a gold standard!
This is because Russia produces not only oil and gas and lumber and rare minerals, Russia also has gold mines. Europe needs Russia a lot more than Russia needs Europe. This is incredible: EU leaders and EU media cannot figure out this obvious formula. You cannot destroy someone who provides you with necessary resources! Boycott them and you are screwed.
I have seen tons of childish analysis and advice about all this business. It becomes stupider, daily and today it is really off the wall, stupid. The entire business of boycotting Russia was to bankrupt Russia. Instead, this is bankrupting Europe, especially the heart of EU manufacturing, Germany!
https://www.rt.com/business/554594-european-gas-prices-soar/
Natural gas prices in Europe skyrocketed on Wednesday after Poland and Bulgaria were hit by a supply freeze from Russia in response to the countries’ refusal to pay for deliveries in rubles.
May futures on the Netherlands-based TTF trading hub climbed to $1,374 per 1,000 cubic meters on Wednesday morning, or nearly $125 per megawatt-hour in household terms, according to data from London’s ICE exchange.
Russian state energy giant and major gas exporter Gazprom said earlier on Wednesday it had completely halted gas flows to Bulgaria and Poland after the two countries failed to pay for April supplies in the Russian currency. According to Gazprom, the suspension will remain in force until payment is received in rubles.
Things are crashing and burning pretty fast now. Desperate Europeans are trying to survive all this via using firewood, for example. Now we have the Big Crash coming: the Bilderberg gang is doubling down on the insane ‘global warming’ climate change thing whereby they are going to terminate all wood burning, for example! They want battery cars, too!
They want everything electrical! While trying to stop buying cheaper Russian energy! This will cause mass eruptions of rage in all EU cities and states.
Here is a comment that shows how delusional people are:
They aren’t back firing we were well aware that we would be affected as well. Russia’s GDP is going to contract double digits if sanctions stay in place. 90% of Russia’s trade is gone. On May 1st Russia is also going to default on her debt, she has to pay in dollars as that was the agreement when she sold those bonds. She cant pay it in Rubles. We are holding huge amounts of their reserve hostage as well. The Russian Central Bank has done a really good propping up the Ruble though but even that will end eventually.
If Russia choses to default on money owed to Bilderberg banks, guess what happens next: the BANKS can go bankrupt! These are withholding Russian assets as hostage but that won’t work, either if EVERYONE IS FREEZING TO DEATH. No one understands ‘General Winter’ better than Russians. Even Russian children understand what happens next due to knowledge of this particular history.
The commenter here is typical of Europeans: what Russia sells to Europe is all the stuff Germany needs to manufacture stuff. When the manufacturing nations can’t get basic minerals and fuels, it collapses. It is already collapsing, right now and the Germans are getting antsy about this, they are beginning to lose business due to this boycott business.
https://www.rt.com/business/554587-gazprom-gas-bulgaria-poland/
The Saint Petersburg-based energy giant warned that should Bulgaria and Poland start siphoning off Russian transit gas intended for other countries, it will reduce supplies by the amount Sofia and Warsaw has illegally withheld.
Poland is being warned. There is no clever way out of this trap. Poland could start WWIII, if they so wish. But that is definitely a lose it all for Poland which is flat and easily destroyed in any wars unlike say, Switzerland.
In a statement early on Wednesday, the company explained that “as of the end of the working day on 26 April, Gazprom Export had not received ruble payments for gas deliveries in April from the companies ‘Bulgargaz’ (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland),” as required under President Vladimir Putin’s decree dated 31 March. It noted that “payments for gas delivered since 1 April must be made in rubles,” and that both companies had been notified of this “in a timely manner.”
Poland imagines Germany will back them. This is also rather foolish. Germany is now quite terrified because they depend on Russia not only for energy to keep them competitive in world markets, Russia has all the minerals and other things Germany needs for manufacturing more stuff to sell to the world.
https://www.rt.com/business/554591-austria-ruble-gas-payment/
“We, that is, [state energy company] OMV, accepted the terms of payment, as did the German government. They [the terms] were found to be in line with the terms of the sanctions. For us, this was important,” Nehammer said at a press conference.
The Germans imagine Russia has forgotten all about WWII. Russia won’t forget at all, trust me on this one. Russia hasn’t forgotten France, either.
He added, however, that Austria still supports Ukraine-related anti-Russia sanctions.
This is called ‘having your cake and eating it, too.’ It doesn’t work in the long run.
“Before the fake news of Russian propaganda steps in,” he stressed, “of course, OMV continues to pay for gas supplies from Russia in euros. Austria adheres to the point of view and supports the jointly adopted EU sanctions.”
They pay in euros to a Russian bank that then uses these to buy rubles and the value of the euro is DROPPING while the value of the ruble is RISING due to this arrangement.
The scheme set in motion by the EU Bilderberg gang members was to bankrupt Russia and wreck the ruble. Instead, it is wrecking the euro. They give a Russian entity their euros which then are used to BUY RUBLES. This makes the ruble stronger, not weaker. The more rubles the EU buys, the stronger the ruble versus the euro. So Europe has to spend more euros to buy rubles to buy oil and gas.
A lot of people fail to understand how this works. International banks buy each other’s currencies. To keep the dollar or euro afloat, people meet IN SECRET to discuss how to protect each other while they do many stupid things. Well, Russia has thrown a spanner in the gears here!
They have to talk with Russia about currency exchanges and they have to pay up as Russia demands or the oil/gas vanishes in a flash. Huge hunks of the economic and well being of systems will collapse in days if not hours. I lived through a three day long looting/burning riot in NYC when the electrical system collapsed in 1977 and it took three days to restore power.
The riots began within MINUTES of the ConEd explosion. Riots and looting in Europe will erupt with the same speed when the slum residents pour into the streets to loot.
Berlin’s next payment for Russian gas is due at the end of May. https://www.rt.com/business/554592-russian-gas-payment-uniper/
German energy firm Uniper is admitting to the possibility of paying for Russian gas in rubles, Tiina Tuomela, the company’s financial director said during a teleconference on Wednesday.
“To date, the flow of Russian gas under our existing long-term contract remains untouched. We are in ongoing discussions with Gazprom regarding the implementation of the Russian decree on payment in rubles, given the statements of the European Commission on sanctions,” she said, as cited by TASS.
According to Tuomela, the new ruble-based gas payment mechanism does not undermine sanctions, placed by the EU on Russia amid the crisis in Ukraine. The scheme, however, is still being discussed with German authorities.
They all say this won’t undermine sanctions. This is a blatant lie. The next step is, when can they begin buying Russian materials needed for production in Germany? Another month? A week? Tomorrow? Germany is facing economic annihilation now.
Uniper’s revenues in Russia have been hit, and there are worries over the future of the company’s Russian subsidiary, energy generating company Unipro, where the latter holds an 83.73% stake. The German firm has lost €3.1 ($3.3) billion due to anti-Russia sanctions in the first three months of 2022 and expects to lose another €2 ($2.12) billion more in the months to come.
Germany is going bankrupt now, the slide downwards has begun. These are huge numbers. Worse, it is spreading the pain, rapidly as all systems, all jobs, all production grinds to a halt. Many people now are calling for WWIII thinking we can win this against a heavily armed nuclear power nation that has a gigantic territory where they can safely park stuff and over the North Pole, has total access to all of Europe and North America, quickly and easily.
Why people think WWIII would be survivable baffles me greatly. Here is the NY Times, one of the dumbest newspapers on planet earth, pretending there is no problems with all of Europe not getting Russian energy anymore:
Gazprom’s announcement on Tuesday that it would suspend natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria is not likely to have a major impact on the overall European gas market, analysts say. But it comes as a warning that further, more serious cutoffs of fuel from Russia could be in the offing as the war in Ukraine grinds on.
The price of gas in Europe is skyrocketing now. I would suggest this is a gigantic problem. I have proof of this below, inflation is raging in Europe now.
The move “increases the risk of other early terminations for other European contracts,” wrote Giacomo Romeo, an analyst at Jefferies, an investment bank, in a comment.
That Jefferies chap is 100% correct.
For Europe, the gas stoppage comes at a good time, if there is such a thing. With the spring weather turning warmer, gas consumption, which surges in the winter, is in decline, easing some of the pressure that has kept prices elevated for months.
There is no ‘good time’ to stop fuels. Do cars need to run? Do trucks need to run? Do trains need to run? Do airplanes need to fly? I could go on and on and on. Duh. Why is the NYT so childish? Well, they are silly leftists so they never grow up or learn anything from history. I remember the first oil crisis many, many years ago!
In a note to clients on Tuesday, analysts at Goldman Sachs said that they expected the Russian cutoffs to “have only a modest physical impact” on the supply and demand balances in the key northwest European market.
I bet those ‘analysts’ are paid a lot of money to be delusional. I bet most were born around the time we had the first major fossil fuels mess during a Middle Eastern war when Saudi Arabia shut down. I remember the massive inflation from the Vietnam War compounded by the New Deal welfare mess and the Middle Eastern war.
I remember when a can of soup was 8 cents.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225698/monthly-inflation-rate-in-eu-countries/
Parts of Europe now have over 15% inflation. This is not good. Germany, that used to be very careful about inflation thanks to the 1920’s mess, has 7.6% inflation which is rising rapidly now.
And the looting goes onwards. We had the same looting here in the USA. Money was printed like mad during the covid mess. We will pay for this for a long, long time. Add wars and voila: economic hell.
Culture of Life News 
Elaine, you have written about previous efforts to trash the dollar more than a decade ago. No matter how hard Bush and Obama tried, they just couldn’t make the dollar worthless.
To keep the dollar or euro afloat, people meet IN SECRET to discuss how to protect each other while they do many stupid things. Well, Russia has thrown a spanner in the gears here!
Well, Biden has accomplished that goal! Thanks to idiotic ‘sanctions’. . . And of course, the Euro is going to be toast as well.
Ten years ago, there was the SWIFT system, a gigantic bank-of-banks in Switzerland, controlling all the world’s money. That system gave the controllers the ability to keep the Ruble down, or manipulate any currency flowing through it, such as the Yuan. Now a lot of transactions are forced to flow AROUND it. Too bad for the controllers, and too bad for the world’s reserve currency.
The infantile deluded psychopaths in the Biden administration thought that the Ruble would collapse if it were cut loose from SWIFT. And they still have their heads in the sand.
What’s even funnier is that the Petro-Ruble is now a real thing.
Even if all the sanctions are cancelled and Russian banks are re-introduced to SWIFT, the Russian currency is resource-based now. It cannot be arbitrarily crushed by the money gnomes in Switzerland.
Blame Biden (not a fan) for everything. Because it feels so good to do that.
If only ‘ya had failed casino tycoon buffoon Trump in charge it’d be a shining city on a hill.
Keep believing the Big Lie of the Stolen Election because that feels so good too.
The Politics of Grievance and Loser only lose when election is rigged – the Lost Cause is the Confederacy and Trumpfoonery.
Interesting to see the cheering section for Russia ‘5th column’ so active.
Save the last match for me; burn the place down when you leave.
I read a News item today saying that Germany was sending Ukraine an Anti Air missile System. Apparently it is a very High Tech weapon system. This is pouring gasoline on an already burning fire.
#4,
How does Germany plan to deliver it? The Russians got tired of all the NATO ammo and missile shipments, and yesterday they blew up the railroad tracks from Poland.
@ #1
=========================
Jim R, a small correction
SWIFT is a clearing system. It serves as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated. It is based in Belgium, near Brussels.
The BIS, based in Basel, Switzerland, is the bank-of-banks.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution[2] owned by central banks that “fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks”.
European elites are incredibly arrogant and stupid. They claim it is “worth paying the price” to support Ukraine, but they are not the ones who are paying.
@7
They are insane, their time is up.
You keep thinking Russia is any less of a puppet than any other zombie state in this world.
It is being ALLOWED to undertake these steps. Just as China is being ALLOWED to be an industrial nation. It’s all the same group at the top moving their circus Trans freak show from one country to the next.
The only way to stop them is paradoxical. It starts by changing your own life on the personal level. Everyone needs to be kind and uncompromisingly honest in all things. If everyone acted this way it would be like an acid environment to the black mold controllers. Not only would they not be able to do dirty deeds, they would not be able to fob it off on everyone else via scapegoat magic rituals.
1) theguardian.com: Lloyds (bank) says customers cutting back on streaming and gyms as inflation bites. ‘Bank warns of more loan defaults amid cost of living crisis as it reports 14% fall in first-quarter pre-tax profit.’
2) france24.com: Macron targeted by tomatoes on first public appearance after re-election. ‘His security detail moved swiftly, shouting “projectile! projectile!” and covering Macron’s head with their hands before protecting him with a black umbrella.’
3) express.co.uk: Prince Andrew (the Duke of York) humiliated as he’s stripped of major British honour in crushing vote. ‘PRINCE ANDREW is to lose his Freedom of the City of York after York City Council voted unanimously to strip him of the honour.’
“It starts by changing your own life on the personal level. Everyone needs to be kind and uncompromisingly honest in all things.”
That sounds good even if imo somewhat naïve.
Does it take into account that reciprocity may not happen or that there ARE bad people in the world or that there are crazy people in the world.
And often those types crave power; power over other people.
Saints can become martyrs easily even if they try to avoid it.
Even if they weren’t sickos going in – “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Psycho sickos once they experience power are loathe to give it up.
To wit Trump lying about losing the election in a brazen attempt to overthrow an election that democratically voted him out of office.
#6,
Thanks, Kenogami — I guess I don’t pay that much attention to them after all… 🙂
I think of all those European financial orgs as being one thing, but they really have lots of moving parts.
dailymail.co.uk: Not now, bird flu! China confirms first human case of H3N8 strain. ‘The H3N8 variant — one of several types of bird flu — is common in horses and dogs and has even been found in seals. Yet no human cases had been reported until now. Nicola Lewis, an influenza expert at the UK’s Royal Veterinary College, said genome analysis of the case — identified just a three-hour drive north of Wuhan — showed it is a reassortant. This means it contains a mixture of genes from viruses which have been detected previously in poultry and wild birds.’
Currency games are fun! Note how Russia is using GOLD to back the ruble now!!!
HELLO, everyone, this goes back to before WWI. Russia knows this, Putin is not stupid.
Another Putin worshipper flushed out of the brush.
This is Treason; Lock her up!
Zeke finally admits to being a Nazi.
Currency games are fun!
I know, right? The propaganda story from “Biden” was that they were crushing the Ruble, and it bounced right back.
And now that Europe is required to buy Rubles, they will keep going up at the expense of the Euro! Middle class Russians will suddenly have financial power they have never known, ever!
There’s this popular notion I’ve heard all my life, “war is good for the economy” —
Well, there are just a couple of implicit requirements never mentioned with that. No one ever mentions:
1. You must win the war,
2. There must be something worth winning in the contest.
In WWII, the USA won the whole planet.
75 years later, it has frittered away all that advantage. In more ways than I can list in a simple comment here.
@ 17 EMS
Almost like you’ve fallen for Putin’s ‘de-Nazi-facation’ rationale for justifying invading Ukraine.