EncycloReader

See also: Coronavirus and NATO war in Ukraine

Quote from Ida Auken of the World Economic Forum.

The Great Reset is the globalist, Biden junta and Liberal Party of Canada agenda to use the destruction of the U.S. and global economies by the Chinese virus pandemic and economic sanctions on Russia to implement the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Build Back Better climate agenda and the Green New Deal. It is based on the idea that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste and that fossil fuel consumption can be eliminated once and for all.^[1] Klaus Schwab, who heads the WEF, began promoting a "Great Reset" throughout 2020.^[2]^[3] Multiple world leaders also began promoting it.^[4]

Liberal media are all on-board with promoting "The Great Reset" instead of protecting the American people from the details of it.^[5] The important points of The Great Reset are that:

There will be no money, no private property, no democracy. Instead, every key decision — what you do for a living, how much stuff you consume, whether you can take a vacation — will be decided for you by a remote, unaccountable elite of ‘experts’.^[6]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized Western imperialists economic policy:

"Western partners disregard the basic principles of a market economy, free trade, inviolability of private property, and pursue an irresponsible macroeconomic policy including the uncontrolled printing of money and accumulation of unsecured debt."

Import substation[edit]

See also: Donbas war

The goal of the Great Reset and the NATO war in Ukraine was always to woo Germany away from Russia to prevent a German-Russian energy trade relationship and growing economic hegemon to rival the EU and prove no need for the NATO alliance and member states military industrial complexes. Michael Whitney writing in UNZ wrote:^[7]

"The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO. There’s also no need to transact energy deals in US Dollars or to stockpile US Treasuries to balance accounts. Transactions between business partners can be conducted in their own currencies which is bound to precipitate a sharp decline in the value of the dollar and a dramatic shift in economic power. This is why the Biden administration opposes Nord Stream. It’s not just a pipeline, it’s a window into the future; a future in which Europe and Asia are drawn closer together into a massive free trade zone that increases their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in. Warmer relations between Germany and Russia signal an end to the “unipolar” world order the US has overseen for the last 75 years. A German-Russo alliance threatens to hasten the decline of the Superpower that is presently inching closer to the abyss. This is why Washington is determined to do everything it can to sabotage Nord Stream and keep Germany within its orbit. It’s a matter of survival.

Pepe Escobar followed up:^[8]

Imports of natural gas from the US to the EU caught up with Russian imports by December 2023.

"We should always remember that the ultimate goal in the U.S. plan of training Ukrainians for war since 2014 was to alienate Germany from Russia – as Germany de facto controls Euroland economically.

Imperial control of the oceans allows the Empire to strangle Germany at will into subservience by cutting them off from Russian energy – as the British did to Germany in WWII when Britannia ruled the waves. The Wehrmacht could not supply their mechanized army with fuel. Now, in theory, Germany and the EU will have to look to the seas – and total U.S. dependency – for their natural resources.

The remote-controlled Kiev regime dominated by SBU fanatics and Azov neo-Nazis is making it even harder – by shutting off all natural gas from Russia through Ukraine into Europe, reducing the flow by more than one third.

That translates as U.S.-enforced blackmail to force the EU to increase the Ukro-weaponizing against Russia. The practical consequences for Germany and the EU will be dire – in terms of shut down industries and cost of home heating and electrical power."

Russian sanctions[edit]

See also: Magnitsky Act and Russia-Ukraine war

The European Union committed economic suicide by blindly following the dictates of NATO & Washington.^[9]

In response to Russia's Special Military Operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, corporate globalists began disemboweling themselves. Major oil companies, including Exxon, BP, and Shell, ended joint investment projects with Russian oil companies. Major retailers, including H&M, Nike, Ikea, and TJX, shut down Russian sales and closed stores. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down global services in Russia. Boeing cut off support for Russian airlines and closed its offices in Moscow, while Delta ended its Russian code-sharing arrangement. FedEx and UPS shut services to Russia. Apple, Alphabet (which owns Google), Meta (which owns Facebook), and Microsoft all have taken significant action.^[10] The Russian population, which is rich in food and energy supplies, likely will not suffer the energy and food shocks the West and the United States cut out for itself with sanctions, although Russians will be deprived of Netflix.

European Misery Index hit an all-time high of 16.5% by October, 2022.^[11]

The West believes that by waging economic war of sanctions against civilians, with the intent of making the Russian people suffer, they will rise up in the streets to pressure their government to change policy or to overthrow it to alleviate the economic misery.^[12]

Moonofalabama predicted on the day of the special military operation, "The U.S. is pushing its European 'allies' to commit economic suicide by sanctioning everything Russia. The U.S. should be more careful. It is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil and its aircraft industry depends on titanium from Russia. Russia surely knows who is trying to hurt it the most and it surely knows how, and has the means to, hurt back."^[13] Western sanctions against Russia were successful in speeding up an alternative global trading system for 70% of the world economies that continue trading with Russia.^[14]

The United States Treasury seized Russian assets in the United States and refused to allow the Russian government to pay U.S. bond holders of Russian debt with dollars. The United States slapped over 9,600 sanctions against Russian officials, the state, companies, oligarchs and other entities, more restrictions against it than Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Myanmar combined. President Putin responded, “The calculation was to quickly undermine the financial and economic situation in our country, to provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system, and a large-scale shortage of goods in stores...We can say with confidence that this policy against Russia has failed - that the strategy of the economic blitzkrieg has failed...Moreover, the sanctions were not without consequences for the initiators themselves...I am referring to the growth of inflation and unemployment, the deterioration of economic performance in the United States and the countries of Europe, the decline in the standard of living of the Western peoples and the devaluation of their savings”.^[15]

On op-ed in The Hill observed:

"In truth, of the world’s 195 countries only 65 have agreed to join the American sanctions regime — meaning that 130 have refused, including China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, most of Asia, Africa and Latin America, countries that together constitute the vast majority of the world’s population. Consider also that the nations the U.S. currently targets with sanctions represent a powerful bloc strongly opposing what they regard as America’s economic bullying. A striking example of the rejection of U.S. assumptions of dominance was a recent meeting of the world’s leading financial nations — the G-20 Summit — when the U.S. delegation walked out on a speech by a Russian delegate and only three of the other 19 delegations followed suit. All of this tells any objective observer that it is not Russia that is the world’s most isolated superpower but perhaps the United States itself.^[16]

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev laid out a forecast for the post-Russia sanctions world which was already underway by June 2022:^[17]

After the European Union cut itself off from Russian gas supplies, Russia had no problem finding replacements for lost customers.^[18]

1- A number of global supply chains will collapse and a major logistical crisis could arise, including the collapse of foreign airlines that will be banned from flying over Russian airspace.

2- The energy crisis will deepen in countries that have imposed sanctions on Russian energy supplies, fossil fuel prices will continue to rise, and the development of the digital economy in the world will slow down.

3- There will be an international food crisis, leading to famine in some countries.

4 – A monetary and financial crisis is possible in some countries or groups of countries, combined with undermining of the stability of some national currencies, runaway inflation and the destruction of the legal system protecting private property.

5 – New regional military conflicts will arise where the situation has not been resolved peacefully for many years or where the important interests of major international players are ignored.

6 – Terrorists, who believe that the Western authorities’ attention is now distracted by the confrontation with Russia, will become more active.

7 – New epidemics will break out, caused by a lack of international cooperation on health and epidemiological issues or caused by the proven use of biological weapons.

8 – International institutions, which have not proved their effectiveness in resolving the situation in Ukraine, such as the Council of Europe, will lose their importance.

9 – New international alliances will be formed, based on Anglo-Saxon criteria that are pragmatic rather than ideological.

10 – As a result, a new security architecture is being created which recognises:

(a) the weakness of Western concepts of international relations such as “rules-based order” and other meaningless Western rubbish;

(b) the collapse of the idea of an America-centric world;

On June 20, 2022, it was reported that Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the number one supplier of crude oil to the world's largest economy, China.

Fertilizers[edit]

See also: War on farmers

Ammonia pipeline from Russia to Odessa for the production of fertilizers.

The problem with burning more natural gas for electricity means less available for fertilizer production.

Most chemical fertilizers rely on natural gas as a “feedstock” or key ingredient in the production process. Through a series of reactions, hydrogen in the methane gas (CH4) is transferred to form ammonia (NH3.) Nitrogen in the ammonia is essential for chlorophyll and amino acid synthesis inside all plants. Although the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, plants cannot use free nitrogen. Nature has ways to get nitrogen into the soil as ammonia, but it’s not enough. Anthropogenic fertilizers solved this problem, and have supported massive increases in crop yields (and thus, population) in the last century. Without man-made chemical fertilizers, many people will starve to death.

When renewables such as “wind” or “hydro” fail, more natural gas has to be burned for electric power. The problem with burning more natural gas for electricity is that — if it's done in an “unplanned” fashion, without raising production, finding reliable new import channels, or keeping more in storage — there is less remaining for fertilizer production.

A number of fertilizer plants in Europe have shut down due to the natural gas shortage.

CF Industries Holdings, Inc., the U.S.-based fertilizer giant, put out a red alert stating that (as summarized by Bloomberg) “farmers won’t be able to get what they need.”

Sanctions effect on fertilizers[edit]

American and European sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports killed global food production for the 2022 growing season.^[19] Russian and Belarusian fertilizers account for 40% of potash-based fertilizers necessary for global food production. The sanctions took effect for the 2022 spring planting season in the northern hemispheres. The President of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union. Macky Sall said, "Anti-Russia sanctions have made this situation worse and now we do not have access to grain from Russia, primarily to wheat. And, most importantly, we do not have access to fertilizer. The situation was bad and now it has become worse, creating a threat to food security in Africa.... We must work together to resolve these problems so that sanctions are lifted on food products, in particular, grain, and fertilizer.^[20]

African Union members cannot buy fertilizers and grain because of the stranglehold America has on the international payment system through the SWIFT network of payments between international banks. An alternative payment system to by-pass the SWIFT network is being considered, lowering the demand for and value of dollars globally.

In a panic the Biden regime encouraged agricultural and shipping companies to buy and carry more Russian fertilizer when faced with famine and mass starvation after imposing sanctions on Russia, Bloomberg News reported.^[21]

Food shortages[edit]

Multiple food processing plants were destroyed by fire in late 2021 and early 2022.^[22]

On March 24, 2022 Biden claimed that economic sanctions on Russia were never meant to deter a Russian incursion into Ukraine while he prepared Americans and Western NATO bloc countries for the approaching food shortages.^[23] The NATO alliance decided it is more important to follow the climate change agenda than it was to feed people.^[24] The U.K and Germany proposed trying to avoid further conflict by generating more food.^[25] The U.S. and Canada blocked the effort saying that maintaining the shift toward new renewable energy development is more important.

In Ukraine, as of the spring of 2022, there was almost no large-scale planting outside of areas under Russian control.

Delivering food to the world's poorest countries became much more difficult and costly.

On May 11, 2022 reports surfaced of NATO looting Ukrainian gran reserves.^[26]

On June 23, 2022 Natural News released a full list of nearly 100 fires targeting food processing facilities in the United States since 2020. The list is presented in chronological order noting a sharp uptick in fires occurring in 2022.^[27]

On July 6, 2022 Dutch police fired on Dutch farmers protesting environmental regulations attempting to shut down family farms.^[28]

Energy shortages[edit]

Despite sanctions, Russia still met its OPEC production quota.

While the European Union’s decision to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States may seem to solve short-term supply energy problems on the continent, it also consolidates the EU’s fossil fuel energy infrastructure. At the same time, it weakens that of renewable energy, creates a leadership vacuum on addressing global climate change, and may well undermine how the EU implements its European Green Deal. The Kyiv region and everything east of the Dniepr River was more-or-less out of diesel as of April 2022. As was the agricultural center and west of the country where Russian forces did not advance. Russia bombed diesel storage facilities which runs not only military vehicles but tractors as well. Any new supplies would have to come from where it normally does, that is, Russia or Belarus.^[29]

AFP reported on April 21, 2022 that Biden regime treasury secretary Janet Yellen told reporters a ban on Russian oil, gas, and coal could ultimately cause more harm than good.^[30] This, after the Biden regime implemented such a ban, and threatened India and other countries with sanctions for not implementing such bans.^[31] A European energy ban would raise global oil prices "and, counterintuitively, it could actually have very little negative impact on Russia, because although Russia might export less, its price it gets for its exports would go up."

On June 20, 2022 Germany announced it would fire up carbon producing coal burning electrical plants once again to compensate for the U.S.-mandated loss of Russian LGN and in order to charge the growing demand for electric vehicles which were supposed to reduce carbon emissions.^[32]

In the midst of the suicidal energy crisis adopted by the European Union at the urging of the United States, Biden junta Energy Commissar Jennifer Granholm warned U.S. energy producers not to ship anything they produce to Europe.^[33]

According to data from the World Bank, the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the European Union was just over $17 trillion US dollars in 2021. According to analysts for Goldman Sachs, it was estimated that households within the EU will pay an additional $2 trillion for electricity in 2023. That scale of energy cost will out 12% of the purchasing strength within the total EU economy, leaving Europeans with only enough to buy food and energy and nothing else.^[34]

Natural gas[edit]

On February 7, 2022 Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, wrote:

"The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases [of Russian gas] is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27 [2022]: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor.^[35]

Druzhra pipeline

After being kicked out of the SWIFT payment network and the petrodollar system in which global crude oil contracts are valued in dollars, Putin announced all gas contracts with “unfriendly” countries must pay for Russian gas in rubles. Since all the large Russian banks are sanctioned, buyers in "unfriendly" countries must find smaller Russian banks to work with, meaning they won’t get the best rates, and there will be other transaction costs and inconveniences. Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and many thinktanks said for decades that Russia's biggest problem was eighty to a hundred billion dollars a year leaking out of the country as the rich took their profits to London, Cyprus, or Switzerland. Sanctions ended those capital outflows, and recapitalized Russia’s banking system. All the new demand for Russian currency is expected to lift the ruble above where it was when sanctions hit, literally making Russia profit from sanctions.

On May 10, 2022 Reuters reported that Ukraine announced it would close the flow of gas through a transit point which it said delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe through Ukraine.^[36] </ref> By mid May 2022 seventeen countries in Europe, including Germany and Italy, agreed to open accounts with Gazprombank, as Russia advised them to do and to pay for oil and gas in rubles.

Not long after the U.S. convinced its European satellites to boycott Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) and buy it from the U.S. at a much higher price, a fire put a Texas plant, which processed LNG for export, offline.

In August 2022, Ukraine shut off the flow of Russian gas to Europe through the Southern Deuzhba pipeline.^[37]

In October 2022 Politico reported that French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the French National Assembly,

"We must not allow the conflict in Ukraine to result in American economic domination and a weakening of Europe...We cannot accept that our American partner sells its LNG at four times the price at which it sells it to its own companies."^[38]

Crude oil[edit]

Joe Biden, who on the day he seized power limited America's productive oil capacity, reversing America's role as the largest exporter of oil to a net importer again, announced America was at war and wrote to American oil companies on June 15, 2022 demanding they increase production: "At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable”.

After the EU passed an anti-free market, Sovie-style price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian crude oil in early December 2022, The Economist magazine commented, "“The European Union oil price cap may result in violent spikes...Everything depends on how Moscow responds...The Kremlin could cut its oil exports, relying on a smaller group of non-Western tankers and insurers, and sending global prices spiraling”. BP, formerly known as British Petroleum before going global, owns a 19.75% share of the Russian energy giant Rosneft. In December Rosneft paid BP a £580 billion pound sterling dividend payment (USD $712 billion). Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky called the money paif to the NATO ally which was supplying lethal weapons to the Zelensky regime, "blood money."^[39]

Shale oil[edit]

Shale oil comes from fracking. The best geological prospects to increase oil production lie with the huge Bazhenov shale oil formation in Siberia.^[40] A November 2022 article in oilprice.com announced, The U.S. Shale Oil Boom Is Officially Over.^[41]

Deisel[edit]

In June 2022 it was reported that the United States had only 8 weeks of diesel fuel supply remaining.^[42]

Electricity[edit]

Nazi propaganda from World War II depicting Russians as 'The Subhuman'.^[43] Azov Battalion Commander Andriy Biletsky said "Ukraine's mission is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade against Semite-led Untermenschen."^[44]

Under the sanctions, Western countries refuse to pay in dollars or euros for coal, natyral gas, or uranium used to generate power in electric plants in the West.

The Finnish company Metsä Tissue cut back production of toilet paper because of electricity costs.^[45]

Germany's prices surged to 1,050 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) before falling to 610 euros in August 2022.^[46] In 2021, the approximate cost was only 85 euros per MWh.^[47]

Neon gas[edit]

Russia controls 80% of the world's supply of neon gas, a vital component in the production of microchips.

EU caves in to Putin[edit]

In July 2022 the European Union prepared what they called a "seventh sanctions package", which in fact rolled back many of the disastrous sanctions the EU leveled months earlier that had a devastating impact on European, African, Asian, and Latin American economies. The new "sanctions" package:

lifted sanctions on the export of Russian food and fertilizers;
lifted sanctions against third parties who transport Russian food, fertilizers, and oil;
lifted sanctions on transportation insurers of Russian exports;
lifted sanctions on exports of aviation parts to Russia;
lifted sanctions on Russian pharmaceutical and medical products;
reopened the rail link from Belarus to Kaliningrad.

Financial[edit]

Inflation[edit]

Fearing hyperinflation in Ukraine, Germany announced it would end its program that offered a fixed exchange rate of the Ukrainian hryvnia to euros on October 30, 2022.^[48]

Global impact[edit]

European Union and American sanctions that banned shipping and their insurance companies from transporting Russian exports of energy and food had a devastating impact on the economy of people living in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Ukraine[edit]

By mid-November 2022 nearly half of Ukraine's electrical and natural gas infrastructure, built by the former Soviet Union which the Ukrainian government despises and wants to eradicate every last vestige, was wiped out. Kremlin media advisor Sergey Savchuk observed, "the time for jokes is over and Russia is ready to continue to carry out forced decommunization, disabling the legacy of the Soviet Union, so hated for modern Ukraine."^[49] GDP was reported to have fallen by 41%,^[50] and inflation accolated to 26.6% annually.^[51]

China[edit]

In mid-October 2022 China barred the reselling of natural gas imports from Russia and the United States to the European Union.^[52]

India[edit]

India, the world's second largest wheat producer, banned exports on May 13, 2022 in anticipation of the global economic food crisis created by NATO and the West with Russian sanctions and NATO and the West's tampering in Ukrainian's internal affairs.^[53] According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, “India has been the main buyer of the cargoes out of the Atlantic that Europe doesn’t want anymore.”^[54]

After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand on September 16, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued the following statement:

"The relationship between India and Russia has deepened manifold. We also value this relationship because we have been such friends who have been with each other every moment for the last several decades and the whole world also knows how Russia's relationship with India has been and how India’s relationship with Russia has been and therefore the world also knows that it is an unbreakable friendship.

Personally speaking, in a way, the journey for both of us started at the same time. I first met you [Mr. Putin] in 2001, when you were working as the head of the government and I had started working as head of the state government. Today, it has been 22 years, our friendship is constantly growing, we are constantly working together for the betterment of this region, for the well-being of the people. Today, at the SCO Summit, I am very grateful to you for all the feelings that you have expressed for India."^[55]

Sri Lanka[edit]

Sri Lanka had been promoted by the WeForum since 2018 as one of their model countries for how ESG was going to work and be spectacular.^[56] For a period, the article had been deleted off of the website of the WeForum.^[57] It has since been restored.

Food riots erupted in Sri Lanka in April 2022. The government fell on April 4, 2022.^[58] In May 2022 rioters burnt down the homes of 38 politicians to protest inflation and food shortages.^[59]

On July 9, 2022 hungry protesters stormed the presidential palace.^[60] Sri Lankan journalist Indrajit Samarajiva, writing an article in the New York Times entitled Sri Lanka Collapsed First, But It Won’t Be The Last”, observed:

"The system is in crisis, its shaky foundations exposed by the tumbling dominoes of the Ukraine war, resulting in food and fuel scarcity, the pandemic, and looming insolvency and hunger rippling across the world. Sri Lanka is Exhibit A. We were once an economic hope, with an educated population and a median income among the highest in South Asia. But it was an illusion. After 450 years of colonialism, 40 years of neoliberalism, and four years of total failure by our politicians, Sri Lanka and its people have been beggared. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa deepened our debt problems, but the economy has been structurally unsound across administrations. We simply import too much, export too little and cover the difference with debt. This unsustainable economy was always going to collapse. But we are just the canary in the coal mine. The entire world is plugged into this failing system and the pain will be widespread."^[61]

By September 2022 inflation hit 70.2%.

Pakistan[edit]

In March 2022 the Pakistani government fell into crisis as the Washington, D.C. establishment pressured it to take sides against Russia. Populist prime minister Imran Khan responded to 22 Western ambassadors asking him to condemn Russia: "What do you think of us? Are we your slaves...that whatever you say, we will do?"^[62] On April 8, 2022 Khan was ousted by globalists.^[63] Protests erupted in support of Khan and against the new puppet regime immediately.

After the change of leader, Pakistan sent air attacks against Afghanistan. Under Khan, they refused to give space to US forces for a new attack base against Afghanistan, whether the Taliban is in control or not.

Bangladesh[edit]

Riots erupted in August 2022 in Bangladesh to protest a 50% increase in gas as result of European Union sanctions on Russia.

United Kingdom[edit]

An email sent from Hunter Biden to his business partner Devon Archer on April 13, 2014 contained information from a classified State Department memo one week before Joe Biden visited Ukraine to meet prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The email predicted an escalation of Russia’s “destabilization campaign, which could lead to a full scale takeover of the eastern region, most critically Donetsk":

“The strategic value is to create a land bridge for RU to Crimea. That won’t directly affect Burisma holdings but it will limit future UK exploration and utilization of offshore opportunities in particular.

It will also result in further destabilization of UK nationally and for whatever govt is in power. And the US will respond with even stronger sanctions. Those sanctions will threaten the tenuous support of the EU which does not have the political will to incur steep energy price increases.”^[64]

As a result of the UK self-imposed sanctions against itself, average household energy expense occupied 20% of median household income.^[65]

According to the London Sunday Times, the UK has been bypassing its own sanctions on Russian oil. Russian-origin oil shipments, worth about £200 ($236) million, were reportedly delivered to UK ports after ship-to-ship transfers, a practice widely used when large tankers that are unable to dock due to their size transfer their cargo to smaller vessels. The UK has purchased at least 39 shipments of Russian oil since February 2022, although the cargoes were registered as imports from other countries, the Sunday Times reported, citing tanker traffic data and trade statistics.^[66]

Netherlands[edit]

By October 2022, inflation in the Netherlands reached 17%.^[67] On October 24, 2022 it was reported that the Netherlands broke ranks with the US and EU and issued 91 waivers against Russian sanctions.^[68]

Germany[edit]

German environmentalist and Green party Finance and Economic Minister Robert Habeck bowing to the Qatari Trade Minister, begging for more fossil fuel imports after the EU imposed Russia sanctions.^[69]

In January 2022, Germany closed half of its six remaining nuclear power plants despite rising energy costs. Germany's lofty sustainable climate utopia goals did not include plans on how to replace the energy that was being provided by its safe, clean and reliable nuclear power plants.^[70]

Hanover, Germany became the first major metropolitan area to try and reduce the use of natural gas by removing hot water from public buildings. Other measures include switching off public fountains and blacking out night-time lights on major buildings. The head of the Bundestag Committee on Energy and Climate, Klaus Ernst, in an article published in the Berliner Zeitung wrote, “Energy sanctions against Russia turned out to be a serious mistake! A major recession is inevitable. Threatening the energy supply of Europe’s largest economy is hara-kiri, it harms citizens and industry and does not help Ukraine in any way."^[72]

German food inflation 9 months into Russia sanctions regime.^[73]

Annalena Baerbock, the Foreign Minister of the alleged "democratic" nation of Germany, speaking of the the weapons that Germany has given to Ukraine to allegedly defend "democracy", said in English to a globalist conference, "If I give the promise to people in Ukraine, 'we stand with you as long as you need us', then I want to deliver, no matter what my German voters think, but I want to deliver to the people of Ukraine."^[74]

German Producer Prices went from 7.9% to 45.8% in August 2022, effectively turning the country into a Third World nation, and completing the suicidal path the German government and Green Party set the country on by blindly following U.S., E.U., and NATO diktats in the sanctions war against Russia.^[75]

On September 16, 2022 Germany dispensed with capitalism and democracy when it seized the private assets of Rosneft.^[76]

Austria[edit]

Natural gas prices surged 119% in October 2022 in Austria due to Russia sanctions and the sanctions replacement of Russian natural gas with American natural gas.^[77]

Switzerland[edit]

Switzerland will jail anyone who heats their home above 19 degrees Celius for up to 3 years.^[78] In December 2022 Switzerland announced a ban on electric vehicles to preserve electricity and avoid black outs.^[79] Virtually all Western regimes were recommending consumers to purchase electric vehicles just a few months earlier, to ease the impact of higher costs caused by the self-inflicted harm Western regimes did to themselves by sanctioning fossil fuels.

Poland[edit]

Inflation has taken a heavy toll on the economy of Poland as a result of Russia sanctions, increasing from 15.6 percent in July 2022 to 16.1 percent in August, a new 25-year high. Poland then signed an oil deal with Russia, disregarding EU sanctions, and even imported coal. In August the government urged citizens to go into state forests and begin gathering firewood from the forest floor for the winter, but ordered them not cut down any trees.

Slovakia[edit]

On September 27, 2022 Slovakia's prime minister Eduard Heger is reported to have said that soaring electricity costs had left the country's economy at risk of "collapse".^[80]

On December 15, 2022 the Slovak government's support for Russia sanctions and aid to Ukraine suffered a no confidence vote in parliament and fell.

Hungary[edit]

On November 15, 2022 Hungary received notification from Ukraine that the power station near Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine was damaged and the pipeline will be shut down.

In February 2023 President Victor Orban observed, "Sanctions have pulled over €10 billion out of the pockets of Hungarians...The punitive measures were supposed to hit Russia, but hit Europe...Leaders of the bloc were seeking to end to the conflict in Ukraine, but a year has passed, and this has not happened...We did not deprive Russia of resources, we gave Russia even more money, and Russian energy supplies, in monetary terms, grew by 70%”.^[81]

Finland[edit]

Finland found a way to circumvent EU sanctions; a Finnish semi-cab can cross the border into Russia, hook up a Russian trailer, and cross back into Finland.

Norway[edit]

Energy resource rich Norway refused to pass along natural gas discounts, preferring to gouge its NATO allies in the midst of the aggressive war NATO initiated against ethnic Russians living in the former territory of Ukraine.

Estonia[edit]

Inflation rose 18% year-over-year in April 2022, electricity increased 119%, pipeline gas 237%, and rents 34%. By August 2022, Estonia's inflation rate was 22.7%, the highest in Europe.

Romania[edit]

Romania’s central bank, the National Bank of Romania (BNR), hired well-known astrologer and fortune teller Minerva.^[82]

Spain[edit]

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez of the Socialist Wokers Party called for not wearing neck ties as a way to save energy.^[83]

Brazil[edit]

Brazil nixed Biden's Russophobic efforts to boot Russia out of international forums.

Peru[edit]

On April 5, 2022 the leftist regime in Peru imposed a state of emergency after riots erupted over inflation and food shortages.^[84] The US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, worked for the CIA for 9 years, as well as the Pentagon. One day before the December 7, 2022 coup against democratically |elected President Pedro Castillo, Kenna met with Peru’s defense minister, who then ordered the military to turn against Castillo.^[85]

Japan[edit]

Japan refused to seize Russian bank assets, stating that it was illegal, despite Western urging and resumed oil imports from Russia in July 2022.

By September 2022 Japan increased its purchases of liquified natural gas (LNG) by 200%.

In the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2022 (Apr.-Sept.) Japan's trade deficit with Russia increased 165%,

The Japanese edition of JB Press published an article that Western sanctions did not affect the economic cooperation between Japan and Russia. Rather, this cooperation only became closer and stronger. The export of goods from Japan to Russia in value terms at the end of 2022 significantly exceeded the volume of exports in 2021. Over the 12 months of 2022, Japanese companies supplied goods to Russia worth 1.825 billion Japanese yen. For the whole of 2021, the export of Japanese goods to Russia amounted to 1.550 billion yen. Even excluding December, the growth of Japanese exports to Russia in 2022 amounted to 17.5%. This figure looks surprising against the backdrop of the mass exodus of Japanese companies from the Russian market. German exports in November 2022 compared to November 2021 fell by 53% while Japanese exports to Russia grew.

Japanese cars have become the main item of Japanese export to Russia.

With regard to Russian exports, the Japanese government achieved benefits for Japanese companies when buying Russian oil and liquefied gas. Sanctions do not actually apply to the supply of Russian energy resources. The Japanese authorities, unlike their American and British counterparts, have refused to dispose of profitable assets in the Russian oil and gas projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2. According to Japanese economists, this allowed Japanese companies to save more than $20 billion and continue to receive Russian energy resources on preferential terms.

It is reported that the abandonment of Russian LNG will increase the cost of gas imports by Japanese companies by 35% of current costs.

Japanese authorities did not follow the example of American officials who imposed a ban on the import of Russian seafood. The Japanese government has said supplies of Russian salmon, crabs and sea urchins are critical to the fishing industry.

United States[edit]

In December 2022 an electric Jeep maker announced plans to close its Illinois plant and move to Mexico.^[86]

CCP global pandemic[edit]

See also: CCP global pandemic

Impact on civil rights[edit]

See also: Coronavirus civil rights

COVID-19 Coronavirus has impacted civil rights with respect to several issues, including the constitutional rights to assembly and travel.

The CDC attempted to prohibit gatherings of 50 or more people, which implicates the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble (including religious services, the impediment of which also constitutes a violation of freedom of religion).

Curfews, beginning as early as 8 p.m. in New Jersey, implicate that same right and also the right to travel.

Mandatory quarantines implicate multiple First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Supply chains[edit]

Stress related to the spread of the virus has led to panic-buying across the United States, as major grocery retailers had their shelves largely emptied of basic necessities, such as this Kroger in Columbus, Ohio, March 2020 (cr. Dan Keck).

President Donald Trump said that the coronavirus outbreak highlighted the importance of bringing back to the United States previously offshore supply chains for medicine and gear that are needed to fight the spread of the outbreak. Steps have already taken to mitigate the risk to public health because of the country's reliance on other countries for key medication and equipment. The outbreak showed the importance of bringing manufacturing back to America so that we can produce at home the medicines and equipment and everything needed to protect the public's health.

Rosemary Gibson, senior advisor at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, said that the reliance on foreign countries for life-saving medicines made the United States vulnerable. Gibson provided details of the depletion of America's pharmaceutical industrial base. The US can no longer make penicillin; the last U.S. penicillin fermentation plant closed in 2004. Industry data reveal Chinese companies formed a cartel and colluded to sell the product on the global market a below market price and drove all US, European, and Indian producers out of business. Once they gained the dominant global market share, prices increased.

America's pharmaceutical supply chain is a devastating indictment of pre-Trump national security and public health policy. A nation heavily reliant on vital medicines and their ingredients from an increasingly hostile and secretive China is a devastating indictment of pre-Trump national security and public health policy.

Shortages[edit]

A critical shortage of masks occurred within the first month. American hospitals were overly dependent on Chinese made medical supplies. Hospitals in the US were already having to ration their inventory amid one of the worst flu seasons in decades. Masks were only available in departments such as intensive care units, divisions involved with infection, prevention and emergency departments in some hospitals.

White House Manufacturing and Trade Advisor Peter Navarro advocated for a return to U.S. production of medical products as a matter of national security. In his first three years President Trump positioned the U.S. to withstand supply chain disruption better than most countries. Starting from a position that the U.S. was too dependent on Chinese products, Trump pressured companies to return to the U.S. or find alternate suppliers outside China. During the two-year tariff battle many companies did exactly that. As a result, those companies are less dependent on Chinese component goods. A proactive position is now helping many U.S. companies avoid the China economic meltdown.

Procter & Gamble warned that the company's 17,600 products use 9,000 materials that come from 387 factories / suppliers across China, and that all of them may be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.^[87]

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