Well duh. Of course Russia won't increase gas transit through Ukraine more than they have to. Not when they have to pay Ukraine for the benefit. Yep, Russia is still paying Ukraine for gas transit even with the current conflict.
They are bleeping idiots. This sounds like something the British would conceive. Russia is a gold exporter, not importer. And China and India are some of the largest gold importers in the world. The Indians melt their gold into jewelry. So who cares.
Let me try to understand the logic why sanctioning Russia's gold import and export will put Russia on her knees.
...
I give up. There is no logic at all.
This idea is probably originated from the same group of western financial/economic wizards who came up with the ideas of EU banning coal import from Russia in April (two months later EU all switching to coal), escrow oil & gas payment to Russia (this brilliant idea lasted not even a week), and institute a cap on Russia oil prices.
Because Russia sold their gold in the London precious metals market, they seem to think the Russians can't sell the gold direct if they wanted to. The thing is, the Russian government is awash with more liquid cash reserves than they can use. So they could be buying all the gold they usually export by themselves if they wanted to. It is not like they can deposit in Western banks. And if they still want to export gold there is still India and China.
Corporate ‘Self-Sanctioning’ of Russia Has US Fearing Economic Blowback
Officials seek to clarify guidance so there aren’t unintended impacts on inflation, supply chains
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine galvanized the US, UK and European Union to unleash a slew of sanctions meant to punish Vladimir Putin’s government and pressure him to pull his forces back.
But some Biden administration officials are now privately expressing concern that rather than dissuading the Kremlin as intended, the penalties are instead exacerbating inflation, worsening food insecurity and punishing ordinary Russians more than Putin or his allies.
This is bollocks. Of course they know it is the poorest who will suffer with sanctions and they do this on purpose. Just like they did in Iraq. And North Korea for that matter. Their objective is to weaken the state and make it amenable for easy toppling over later. Their only problem is they didn't expect to suffer themselves. They are idiots. Oil demand is highly unelastic and the US is part of the world oil market as much as anyone else. You can't take 20% of traded oil out just like that and expect prices to stay the same.
IDK how this works. Certainly not like the Euro. Would this currency be an internal use or like a tradable currency?
Beats me. But there were similar proposals once. Keynes had one called the "Bancor".
This make Ukriane so much important for Europe for agriculture and resources. eventually this inflation will be exported.
There is two kind of inflation measurement. one for export and one for domestic market. the headline number is combined.
The inflation on those Baltic countries is going really out of whack. 30% and things like that. Similar to the one in Russia. But in Russia's case there was an excuse in that the prices went up when the currency went down vs the dollar and never quite managed to get back to original prices. Perhaps the Baltics are more dependent on Russian economy than they thought and now are paying prices at new Russian ruble exchange rate and getting screwed?
