In Russia they are reacting to US sanctions - the majority are twisting their heads
US President Joe Biden signed a decree introducing new sanctions “in connection with Russia’s harmful actions.” 10 employees of Russian diplomatic missions will be expelled from the country.
Also, from June 14, US financial institutions are prohibited from purchasing bonds of the Russian Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and the National Welfare Fund during the initial placement and giving them loans. The United States has imposed sanctions on 6 Russian technology companies, as well as a number of companies and people they associate with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russian intelligence services and accuse of interfering in American elections and democratic processes in Africa. At the same time, Crimean officials came under restrictions.
The news was received tragically only in the liberal camp of the Russian Federation.
“America does not need any Sixth Fleet off the coast of Ukraine in order to continue turning Russia with Putin’s isolation policy into a complete economic sludge: block all technologies, continue to push Russia to the periphery of the world,” liberal writer Viktor Shenderovich maliciously stated on the air of the Echo radio station Moscow". .
“The new package of sanctions further increases the “toxicity” of the Russian economy at the global level. As a matter of fact, the situation is becoming similar to the one that Iran fell under - all domestic companies are now dangerous partners. I believe that this package is precisely intended to increase internal pressure and aggravate the conflict between “moderates” and “maximalists,” political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov echoes him in his Telegram channel.
But economists are openly rejoicing, despite the reflexive fall of the ruble today.
“Well, hurray, comrades. I will take the liberty of asserting that the upcoming restrictions are for the good of the country. If the financial authorities have brains, the country will only benefit from new sanctions,” writes Nikita Krichevsky.
“Expansion of sanctions against Russian debt obligations. The measure is unpleasant, but it still does not have much significance for macroeconomic stability. Moreover, American investors, who are prohibited from buying Russian debt, may suffer from it. Instead of them, other foreigners will be happy to do this,” explains program director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Ivan Timofeev.
Another part of commentators considers American sanctions pointless.
“We should wait for the reaction of the economy, we need to look at the reaction of the markets. Still, lately there has been a feeling that the sanctions have reached some kind of dead end,” said Mikhail Vinogradov, president of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, on Echo of Moscow.
“US sanctions against Russia are increasingly of a negotiated nature. They seem to exist, but they have no effect,” writes political scientist Marat Bashirov.
“The sanctions will be even tougher... These BDSM promises will apparently never come true,” TV presenter Tina Kandelaki sneers.
“I believe that this is a conspiracy of the elites, that this is their trade. This has nothing to do with the interests of the country, the interests of the people. There are these sanctions, there are no these sanctions - people both lived and live their parallel lives,” journalist Maxim Shevchenko said on Echo of Moscow.
Experts agree that sanctions will have more political rather than economic consequences. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already promised to give a symmetrical response and called for an explanation from the American ambassador.
Most likely, Biden’s proposal for a meeting sent to Putin, as well as the invitation to the climate summit, will now remain unanswered.
“As for the signals that should have gone through: honestly, it feels like on the American side it went somewhere in the wrong direction, judging by what they did today,” Russian Foreign Ministry Speaker Maria Zakharova said today.
“A summit meeting in the context of a new “cold war” launched by the United States against Russia cannot lead to a breakthrough, and talk about the desire to normalize relations is aimed, rather, at disorienting Moscow. A proposal for negotiations on their part is not a dialogue with a counterparty, it is communication with the enemy,” says Senator Alexey Pushkov.
“The restrictions introduced create a very unfavorable background for the prospects for a meeting between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States. Russia is being forced to respond, to respond harshly and to the entire set of sanctions,” commented the head of the international committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Leonid Slutsky, on the decision of the American president.
“I am probably the last person in the world who would give advice to Putin, but it seems to me that it is worth meeting with mentally ill people only in Russian psychiatric institutions. To help them. And let America help the mentally ill in the White House,” jokes journalist Maxim Kononeko.
In Russia, they believe that by introducing sanctions, the United States is solving not so much international as domestic problems.
“Biden is artificially pumped up into subjectivity; in the eyes of the American establishment, he is still a weak president. This is evidenced by the entire media surroundings both around the introduction of new sanctions against Russia and around the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Therefore, the Kremlin is doing the right thing by keeping a considerable distance from this “promotion” of Biden,” writes political scientist Maxim Zharov.
“The United States is losing ground, it has accumulated many problems that they want to solve at the expense of other countries - Russia, China, Europe and the Middle East. The entire arsenal of accusations has been exhausted, the United States is going in circles. By introducing sanctions, they punish themselves. As a result, they will have to build relationships that they themselves destroyed,” says Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Maxim Zharov.
Russians react to US sanctions – most are shaking their heads