Obvious. Sure. Wonderful you figured it out when no one else did.

You keep saying this, but we all know that some sanctions against Russia will also affect Europe and force us to find alternative solutions for anything they supply. Are you trying to imply, through repeating this, that we should not be sanctioning Putin?

Since Eritrea was one of the 4 countries which supported Russia they probably had Plan B for the current scenario.

Of course they are but it's all about the asymmetry of pain. One Euro NOT exported to Germany hurts Russia disproportionately more than it hurts Germany.

Btw a good joke on some Eastern-European forums:

The soviet army isn't strong, it's just long

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

It's more complicated than that. As komsomolez pointed that they are predominantly on their own. Particularly right now when they are negotiating with all sides at the same time to strike the sanctions deal. Taking sides right now jeopardizes their biggest foreign-policy goal.

Meantime in Serbia there was a pro-Putin "little gathering". I'm sure they went with the EU in regards with the sanctions though. They are more vocal Putinistas and pan-slavistas in the online parallel world.

Of course.

The Serbs, unfortunately, can't get over the disintegration of Yugoslavia and keep on blaming "the west" for this. The majority of Serbs I know still continue to deny the fact that the disintegration happened BEFORE NATO bombed them and in fact it bombed them to stop the genocide. Russia was vehemently opposing the NATO intervention and up to this day continues to support Serbia incl with "advanced" weapons systems. This explains their staunch pro-Russian position, but they are coming increasingly at odds with the EU for this.

Having said that, carving out Kosovo from them and basically handing it to Albania was a massive, massive mistake by the EU and NATO. This should not have happened as the EU and NATO essentially did what Russia is trying to do now: arbitrarily re-drawing borders with no understanding of what actually is going on on the ground.

There are other sources besides Russia. China for instance. China is a big investor in Africa btw. (and not only, ovs.)

The wheat prices will go up that's for sure, but not only because of this war but also because the last year's production wasn't that good in other traditional producer countries due to climatic conditions.

However the major driver for the wheat price increase will be precisely the war. Russia and Ukraine combined represent over 20% of global wheat exports and this is absolutely massive. The yield increases in the rest of the world will definitely struggle to match even half of this missing wheat. In Europe we're ok, well have to suffer higher prices as we are predominantly self-sufficient, but the Middle East will suffer hugely as it's a major importer from both countries.

Culturally, I think France will suffer the most - the 1 EUR baguette is gone


The scale of some of the Russian convoys that are being attacked and destroyed by the Ukrainians has to be seen to be believed.

They'll start a new fad and promote a gluten free diet...like the rest of the civilised world...

Good question.
I think you first have to ask if sanctions are working, will they hurt Putin and the hawks in the Kremlin enough to bring them to the negotiating table? I think not, on the contrary they hurt ordinary people, those who have no stake in this war, a lot of whom are already struggling to get by. Will sanctions be the trigger that gets these "huddled masses" to rise up and overthrow Putin? Again, I think not. Will they hurt "the Rich" enough for them to force Putin to back down. Again, no, not if they don´t want to end up suicided or sent to Siberia.
Sanctions are good for a few things though. As a double edged sword they not only hurt Ivan and Natasha, they hurt us, you and me and I don´t like being hurt.
However Sanctions are a good way to get "our" civilians to feel that "our" governments are at last doing something, a slather of balm for the outraged.
They are also a godsend for enemy propaganda: "Look how these evil western capitalists are torturing us, let´s all rally round, close ranks and really, really hate them!"
The way I see it is that these sanctions are burning bridges that should not be burnt.

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

Sanctions are not meant to stop this war, they are meant to raise the cost of FUTURE potential conflicts as they change the calculus for other countries who consider re-drawing borders.

We need to understand that sanctions on their own are not a policy. Sanctions are part of a policy of limiting conflict as much as possible. You can look at it the other way around: the previous sanctions after the 2014 invasion of Crimea were not strong enough to serve as a deterrent for Russia to invade Ukraine. These current sanctions are strong and all evidence suggests they are working as intended. The good thing is that the West imposed heavy sanctions, but not the absolutely heaviest, so they still have even more firepower there.

Honestly slammer, I think you just have pretty bad judgement, and this is far from the first serious topic where I have thought that.

Sanctions have already hurt Russia with a few short days, especially the freezing of foreign assets, and the whole point of them is not only to punish them for waging this war, but also to reduce their economy to the point where they then find it difficult to continuing waging war. Will it hurt Russian civilians? Yes, but that is the price of this conflict and the need to know that their leader has caused that and no-one else. There needs to be harsh negative negative consequences for Putins actions, or he will simply do the same again in future.

He is razing a country and indiscriminately using massive weapons against civilian populations and then denying it. He is agreeing to humanitarian corridors and then reneging on those agreements. He is committing atrocities in Europe and if he isn't stopped now then he may use the momentum to carry on to the next country.

He burnt the diplomatic bridges several days ago during each escalation. We need to leave him some avenue of retreat, but lets not act like the US, UK and EU are the aggressors here. That honour belongs to the despotic strongman dictator trying his best to erase an entire country of innocents by any means necessary all because of his pride and ego and likely accelerated his ambitions because COVID reminded him of his own sense of mortality.

this is the biggest lie in all of this. support of the war in ru is 73% so ivan and natasha can go f&^&k themselves in line to Ikea

And....what's left afterwards if you don't agree with these sanctions?

Just hand in Ukraine to Putin and then other territories to various power-hungry guys? Don't you think we should keep in check these individuals?

You're being funny now, slammer.

77% of the voters voted for Putin in the last presidential election, maybe sanctions will convince them to vote otherwise in 2024.

It also makes it difficult for Russia to import supplies needed for their military.

Are you suggesting Western nations send troops instead? I assume not.

So how do you believe western nations should respond?

I am starting to believe Putin believed his own propaganda that the Ukrainians would welcome the Russian troops.

Sanctions, embargo, blockades are all a form of siege warfare and that is what these sanctions against Russia are.
One goal of sanctions is to enable the so-called Veto-fraction, that is to empower those with enough clout to effect a course change and I don´t see that happening in Russia.
But you are correct, sanctions are working, they disrupting and will keep on degrading normal life in Russia to the point where you could consider them a human rights violation. That is why the UNHRC generally frowns on large scale sanctions.
How far would you want Sanctions to go, and for how long?
Consider this: If left to his own devices Putin will take Ukraine, with or without sanctions. I do not doubt that for a moment. Then what? How long will sanctions last, long enough to force Russia to make deals with China or India?
There is no easy way out of this and regardless on what the west does they will be dammed if they do and dammed if they don´t leaving the only tried and tested method to stop the invasion of UA a military one.

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

I totally agree with you but it is so frustrating that the West has woken up so late after decades of basically facilitating Putin's army. We shouldn't have had such a devastating war nearby in order for the governments to pay attention to Russian companies, imports, exports, investments, mass media involvement, political and administrative infiltration etc. These sanctions or at least a part of them should have come much much earlier.

Right and in the next elections it will be 99% of the votes go to Putin, just like the good old days of the CCCP and the remaining 1% ends up in gulag.
How to respond? Dunno, but I get the feeling that these sweeping sanctions are a knee jerk reaction and that saner heads should prevail, but that´s not going to happen.
But, here is the rub. Let´s say sanctions actually have an effect on Putin. So much that his back is to the wall, do you for a moment think that he will roll over and concede defeat? I think he will see them as an act of war and act accordingly.

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.