Posted on 04/01/2025 11:42:00 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The United States is ready to go "all in" on sanctions against Russia, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, signaling the administration's readiness to impose even harsher measures to pressure Moscow into peace negotiations.
-snip-
Bessent was critical of former US President Joe Biden's sanctions approach, describing them as "egregiously weak," particularly when it came to Russian energy. He argued that the weakness in these sanctions allowed Russia's military operations to continue, largely because of concerns about rising energy prices in the US.
"A major factor that has enabled the Russian war machine's continued financing was the Biden administration's egregiously weak sanctions on Russian energy, stemming from worries about upward pressure on US energy prices," Bessent stated.
Despite Biden's sanctions on Russia’s oil sector toward the end of his presidency, Bessent suggested that these actions came too late. He indicated that the current administration's stance would be different, reiterating that the enhanced sanctions imposed by President Biden would remain in place.
"This administration has kept the enhanced sanctions in place and will not hesitate to go 'all in' should it provide leverage in peace negotiations," Bessent asserted.
-snip-
"Sanctions on Moscow will be used explicitly and aggressively for immediate maximum impact," Bessent said.
Furthermore, Bessent outlined plans to intensify sanctions against Iran, which has supplied Russia with Shahed drones and short-range ballistic missiles used in attacks on Ukrainian cities. He announced that the US would target Iran's oil sector and its drone manufacturing capabilities.
"We are going to shutdown Iran's oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities," Bessent confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at caliber.az ...
Putin doesn’t care. It is in his interest to continue the war, and that is exactly what he will do.
President Trump is going to shut down Putin’s shadow oil tanker fleet.
Sounds like escalation not making peace. But that’s what you want, right?
That would be doubling down on Biden's failed policies.
This would only make sense of the tariffs in question are ones Trump wants to implement anyway.
Nothing will stop Russia from selling oil to willing buyers than need oil.
And place your bets if it is a Biden or Obama judge that halts any sanctions.
Russia better not mess wit the US. I wiould cut both Ukraine and them lose.
Get on the Trump train, Ivan.
Real sanctions are on the way from President Trump. Including the seizure of Putin’s shadow fleet oil tankers in the Baltic Sea.
Excellent. El Trumpo!
This is all on your buddy Putin.
Enough of this war on Russia. Why aren’t we sanctioning the EU nations that are banning candidates who are friendly to Trump?
WTF? This an actual news outlet?
As to sanctions, they’ve never worked in the history of mankind. Matter of fact, the only thing they’ve accomplished historically is cause war.
WW2 Japan.
The next step from sanctions is embargo.
If sanctions, or similar worked, Cuba would be a different place now.
Putin needs to get with program and accept President Trump’s Easter ceasefire.
This is nonsense from March 13th.
You post it as if it’s relevant today.
Russia’s oil exports are 7.4 million bpd. Only Saudi Arabia comes close to that.
China’s oil consumption is 16.4 million barrels/day and as of the latest official numbers, that number grew 10% from the previous year. This is well past Covid. It is not virus recovery adding to consumption.
China’s oil production is about 4.5 mbpd. That means they are importing 12 mbpd.
Russia’s pipelines into China have about a 3 mbpd capacity. The conduit to India is another 1 mbpd. The rest is tankered, or actually more often, it is intermixed in Kazahkstan with Azerbaijani crude and sent east to China in the Kazahkstan-China pipeline (the capacity of which I do not know off the top of my head, about 1 mbpd is my recall).
This would add up to about 5.5 mbpd of the 7.4 mbpd Russia currently exports.
I can’t see how these new sanctions will matter, which is besides the reality that Russia has its own Central Bank that can QE a few billion dollar equivalents per year without stressing anything, given their small debt/GDP ratio compared to the US.
I probably left off the key point.
7.4 mbpd of Russian export is 7% of the global total oil consumption. There is nowhere else to go to get that. Oil is not abundant when viewed in the context of the world’s 100 mbpd consumption (it will read 103 when the next report is out in June).
The world HAS to have that oil. It is civilization’s lifeblood. No oil, trucks don’t run and grocery store shelves go empty.
The big consumers of oil in the world are the US at about 18 mbpd, China at 16.5 mbpd, India at about 6 mbpd (rises 5%/yr) and shockingly, Saudi Arabia at 4.7 mbpd is #4 (we are talking about consumption, not production). They are all growing their consumption. You can’t cut the world off from Russian oil. You can try. Maneuvers will be found. Money pressures are countered by not having food on the shelves.
President Trump is locked and loaded for bear.
Jeez…
Thank you.
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