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sanctions, Alberta, etc
There are some comments in English-language Russian media about how the sanctions are harming those who are applying them, but most of such comments are related to the European countries, which Russia trades with a lot more than with Canada. The sanctions seem to violate WTO guidelines, so they are creating a disorganizing effect on international trade generally. Pepe Escobar, who writes for a Hong Kong Chinese paper, calls it "Empire of Chaos" for this and other reasons.
It's weird to see the Canadian government, led by an Alberta Conservative who's been such a uncritical cheerleader of the oil and gas industry, implement foreign policy that does harm to that industry. But then, Harper's pro-US political views maybe trumps his support for domestic industry.
It's clear with the recent OPEC meeting that the views of countries like Nigeria and Venezuela and Iran, which depend on a higher price of oil to break even, differ radically from the views of some of the Gulf States and the Saudis. Probably a higher price is better for those who want to see less dependence on the oil and gas industry for Canadian economic growth.
Anyway, political sanctions ought to be more widely agreed than these ones are to be effective. The Russian government has implemented counter-sanctions, especially relating to agricultural products from Europe, and it seems they are hurting the Europeans at least as much as the NATO-country sanctions are hurting the Russians.
I don't really agree with the reasoning behind them, in any case, as it seems to me that NATO expansion, and what the Russians are calling "the US playing chicken with Russia" , are the real reasons for the conflict in Ukraine, just as the Americans goaded Saakashvili in Georgia to attack South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August of 2008. The neo-cons, whose views Kasparov is a shill for, dominate US foreign policy and think of global affairs as a chess board (Brzezinski's idea) on which they can manipulate pieces and pawns at will. I don't believe they really care about Ukrainians, they just want a fight or war. Gives chess a bad name if you ask me. The beauty of chess is uglified by this unnecessary association with the shallow materialism and spiritual impoverishment of the neo-cons.
eta: the Russians have "pivoted" to Asia - and China in particular - and Obama has the short stick at this point. Lame duck city. The way the Chinese managed the US President at APEC was brilliant. The Chinese have always been masters at this sort of thing. Good on them. I think the neo-cons expected the same sort of venom in Chinese-Russian relations that characterizes their own relations and attitudes towards the rest of the planet, and, lo and behold, not everyone shares the same misanthropy of the neo-cons. May they choke on their own bile.
The world is changing, a unipolar world of a single Empire is unsustainable, and all sorts of unpredictable things are happening. I think we live in interesting times.
Originally posted by Gary Ruben
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It's weird to see the Canadian government, led by an Alberta Conservative who's been such a uncritical cheerleader of the oil and gas industry, implement foreign policy that does harm to that industry. But then, Harper's pro-US political views maybe trumps his support for domestic industry.
It's clear with the recent OPEC meeting that the views of countries like Nigeria and Venezuela and Iran, which depend on a higher price of oil to break even, differ radically from the views of some of the Gulf States and the Saudis. Probably a higher price is better for those who want to see less dependence on the oil and gas industry for Canadian economic growth.
Anyway, political sanctions ought to be more widely agreed than these ones are to be effective. The Russian government has implemented counter-sanctions, especially relating to agricultural products from Europe, and it seems they are hurting the Europeans at least as much as the NATO-country sanctions are hurting the Russians.
I don't really agree with the reasoning behind them, in any case, as it seems to me that NATO expansion, and what the Russians are calling "the US playing chicken with Russia" , are the real reasons for the conflict in Ukraine, just as the Americans goaded Saakashvili in Georgia to attack South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August of 2008. The neo-cons, whose views Kasparov is a shill for, dominate US foreign policy and think of global affairs as a chess board (Brzezinski's idea) on which they can manipulate pieces and pawns at will. I don't believe they really care about Ukrainians, they just want a fight or war. Gives chess a bad name if you ask me. The beauty of chess is uglified by this unnecessary association with the shallow materialism and spiritual impoverishment of the neo-cons.
eta: the Russians have "pivoted" to Asia - and China in particular - and Obama has the short stick at this point. Lame duck city. The way the Chinese managed the US President at APEC was brilliant. The Chinese have always been masters at this sort of thing. Good on them. I think the neo-cons expected the same sort of venom in Chinese-Russian relations that characterizes their own relations and attitudes towards the rest of the planet, and, lo and behold, not everyone shares the same misanthropy of the neo-cons. May they choke on their own bile.
The world is changing, a unipolar world of a single Empire is unsustainable, and all sorts of unpredictable things are happening. I think we live in interesting times.
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