After sanctions and refusing ruble-payments - How to deal with a Russian cut-off? | DW News

The European Commission plans to impose an 'orderly' end to its imports of Russian oil as part of sixth round of sanctions on Russia.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announcing Wednesday the EU would phase out deliveries of Russian Crude and Oil Products out by year's end. It also wants to step up sanctions on the financial sector, disconnecting Russia's biggest bank "Sber-bank" from the SWIFT payment system. The proposed measures will need approval from all 27 member states. Hungary and Slovakia have already said they'll seek exemptions.

Europe and Russia are also sparring over gas imports: Moscow continues to demand that European companies pay in rubles instead of the euros and dollars called for in contracts. It's cut off two countries -- Bulgaria and Poland -- for refusing to make ruble-payments. Neighboring countries are now coming to their aid. DW's Jack Parrock visited the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

Follow DW on social media:
#Ruble #Sanctions #RussianOil

[reginaldlagrone]

So, let me get this straight. Instead of buying fossil fuel directly from Russia. The EU will buy fossil fuel from Greece who buy their fossil fuel from Russia. That makes a lot of sense.

[whyindeed]

Every time they announce more sanctions, we just find out that the previous round of sanctions; was no where near as comprehensive as they told us it was.

[andreinastase]

We already see what is happening.
10 states already agreed to pay in rubles including Germany.
Next to be cut off should be UK and Romania.

[luckyea]

Impact of sanctions on the Russian economy:

1. Economic growth for the first quarter of this year amounted to 3.7%. At the same time, if we take industry separately, it grew by 5.9% over the quarter, and in March, compared to February, the growth in industry amounted to 9.9%.

2. Unemployment remains at a historically low level and is not going to rise - 4.1%

3. Suddenly, budget revenues increased by a third (30.4%), which caused a budget surplus of 2, 417 billion rubles, which is 3.6 times more than last year's surplus. And that's for the quarter.

4. Inflation has been declining for several weeks in a row. Gasoline prices began to decline in March and continued into April. Inflation is declining because Russia has stopped its imports, today prices are slowly untied from world prices.

The impact of sanctions on the economy of Germany and the EU:

1. The volume of imports from Russia to Germany, expressed in financial terms, rose to historical records. And we are not talking about energy supplies, but about other types of goods. This is written by the German edition of Die Welt. The Federal Statistical Office of Germany reports that the turnover with the Russian Federation in March alone amounted to more than 3.6 billion euros (in 2014 it was 3.5 billion), which is 44% more than last year.

2. Europeans began to suffer from the closure of the Russian skies in response to the closure of the European skies for Russian companies. Because of this, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently had to fly to Japan via the North Pole, with refueling in Alaska. The total lengthening of the flight in one direction was an hour and a half. But this is for the chancellor, and for ordinary people, the delay compared to the normal route through Russia and China can be much longer. In addition, flying over the pole is more dangerous than flying over populated areas. There is nowhere to make an emergency landing and refuel, so the preparation of cars and pilots requires increased attention.

3. European Union airlines have been hit hard by sanctions against Russia. This is stated in the draft resolution of the European Parliament (EP). As noted in the draft, the aviation sector is faced with rising costs, rerouting and flight cancellations. The document states that the increase in the route for flying around the airspace of the Russian Federation and Belarus takes up to four hours one way, which leads to problems with refueling and an increase in the working day of the crew. The EP also drew attention to possible interruptions in the supply of titanium used in the construction of aircraft in the near future, the main producers of which are Russia and Ukraine.

4. Germany is experiencing an inflationary shock in the food retail sector. This is stated in an article in the German newspaper Handelsblatt. The publication recalled that food prices rose by more than 6 percent in March. At the same time, the cost of fresh vegetables increased by more than 14 percent, and vegetable oil - by 17 percent. The consumer climate in Germany is deteriorating. According to the GfK forecast, the consumer climate index will decrease by 26.5 points. This is the lowest value for all time of measurements. Company expert Robert Kechkes explained that consumer budgets have shrunk due to overall rising costs. The reason for this was the strong uncertainty of the Germans, he added. Earlier, the country's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported that annual inflation in April 2022 in Germany will accelerate to 7.4 percent, which is a record for many years.

5. Consumer prices in the euro area in April rose by 7.5 percent in annual terms, according to preliminary data from the Statistical Office of the European Union. This is an absolute record in the history of calculations. Inflation has accelerated, in March it was 7.4 percent. Inflation exceeds the target of the European Central Bank (set at two percent) by more than three times. This trend is associated primarily with the rise in energy prices, despite the fact that the growth rate slowed down to 38 percent (compared to 44.4 percent in March). The lowest inflation rates over the past 12 months were recorded in Malta (4.5 percent), France (5.1 percent) and Portugal (5.5 percent), the highest in Lithuania (15.6 percent), Estonia (14 .8 percent) and the Czech Republic (11.9 percent).

6. After the imposition of sanctions against the subsidiary of the Russian holding Novatek, Novatek Green Energy in Poland, the supply of blue fuel to dozens of municipalities was stopped. In Bulgaria, the cost of gas due to the cessation of supplies from the Russian Federation increased by 50%.

7. The euro crashed to the lows of early 2020, before the lockdown.

Impact of sanctions on the US economy:

1. The US economy contracted in the first quarter of 2022 by 1.4 percent year on year.

2. The US trade deficit in March amounted to $109.8 billion against 89.8 billion a month ago. The pace of deficit expansion is unprecedented.


The West poured all military surpluses onto Ukraine, and also took on the maintenance of the Ukrainian economy in the amount of 5-7 billion dollars a month.

Inside the countries that support anti-Russian measures, political problems are intensifying due to rising world prices.

[anon-san]

So.... If you plan to shut off russian gas by end of year, what is stopping russia from cutting off gas and oil right now and cause a massive energy crisis in Europe. Economic warfare can be done from both sides. Serious question.

[CharDhue]

*Give sanctions
*Get expert opinion on how the sanctions is effective
*Give another sanctions
*Get another expert opinion on how the sanctions is effective
*Another sanctions
*Repeat 🔁

[sSales]

It's lovely that Bulgarian have to purchase the same Russia oil and gas from third party countries at record high prices...lovely economics

[Boatperson]

I thought Russia had already been “de-Swifted”??

[mukulmukul]

What would Russia do with dollar payment for gas. They can't use dollars international market. It's like giving gas for free

[rahuldinesh]

How many total rounds of sanctions are there or is the number infinity? Value of Russian Rouble is highest in two years now and Natural gas is double the price it was before the war started. Is Europe sanctioning itself?

[sokinguyen]

A strange war when some are selling more oil, some are selling more weapons, some are earning more reputation. The only lost are civilians who pay their extra living cost, life, home...

[boydnair]

The price of oil will skyrocketing once the sanction is enforced..Good luck EU

[enriquelaroche]

Europe to hold it's breath and hope Russia turns blue.

[benbo]

Well Chjna and India are happy to purchase more. Don't forget customers like to buy more when you sell at a discount. This is just from business point of view.

[caveman-zdyv]

If you don't want to buy Russian oil from russia buy Russian oil from somewhere else. This is a reality for poland now. They done it before. Let's face it 20 percent of world's energy just can't disappear.

[spaceshuttledoorgunner]

What happens after the Russian energy cut off? The common EU citizen have to pay bill, that's what. Starts to feel like Ursula and company have already bought shares of the transiting companies and future deals that we are not aware about. Smart move rich people.

[imyourdad]

Whatever, whichever or whomever they put sanctions on, as long as they keep on buying gas oil from Russia, it simply won't matter to them. It's like taking away a small piece of candy from a child who has a large cone of icecream too.

[untitledmixture]

EU: we cut our import by the end of the year!
Ukraine by the end of the year: doesn't exist

[Middle-Eastt]

Who else remember USA sanctioned IRAN and was searching all ocean in the world to catch and seize IRAN oil tankers, am sure Russia will do same to Europe. All tankers destine for Europe could be target by Russia just as UK and USA did to others in the past.

[terry]

Even if EU successfully decouples itself from Russian oil on a long time, it will done at higher cost. This increased energy prices will make EU very much less competitive on world markets.