Ukraine Demands Everyone Else Boycott Russia While Making Billions From Russian Gas
“If Europe continues importing gas from Russia, why shouldn’t Ukraine benefit from it?”
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Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Nearly every major American and European company has imposed its own form of sanctions on Russia even if they sometimes consist of pointless virtue signaling for the social justice set.
Lego announced a pause on shipments of toy bricks to Russia. Nike has closed all its stores preventing Muscovites from purchasing $75 t-shirts made by Vietnamese slave labor. Airbnb will no longer rent dachas, Netflix won’t allow Russians access to its library of social justice pedophilia, and Blizzard has announced Russians can’t battle orcs in World of Warcraft.
It’s unclear that denying Russians access to Disney+ or Hitachi TVs will end the war. The average Russian has less say in his country’s politics than the average Disney employee. And if Vladimir Putin really wants a pair of Nike cleats or a chance to watch The Batman then, like other sanctioned tyrants, he will have plenty of options for getting hold of them anyway.
The sanctions have even escalated into cultural boycotts of Russian artists, performers and writers, including those who, like Dostoevsky, are long dead.
Volodymyr Zelensky has virtually toured world governments urging harsh sanctions on Russia.
Zelensky demanded that the Senate ban Russian oil imports and revoke Russia's most favored nation status. According to Alaska's Senator Dan Sullivan, Zelensky argued that "stopping the purchase of Russian oil and gas around the world would be one of the most powerful sanctions possible."
In his virtual session with the Japanese parliament, Zelensky told legislators that it was “necessary to remove companies from the Russian market so that money does not go to the Russian army.” In his abrasive address to Israel's Knesset, the leader of a country that remains a major trading partner of Iran stormed, “Why has Israel refrained from sanctions on Russia? Israel needs to give answers to these questions and after that, live with them.”
A more elementary question may be why is Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state owned gas company, continuing to transport millions of cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe each month.
One answer is that Russia continues paying billions to Ukraine to transport its gas.
Ukraine earns about $2 billion in transit fees from the Russian use of its pipelines to move gas to Europe. Russia, and Putin’s cronies in particular, obviously make even more than that.
Russia cashes in an estimated $400 million a day from its gas exports to Europe.
$400 million a day would buy a whole lot of Lego bricks, Netflix fees, and Nike sneakers.
The Ukrainians claim that they would love to cut off the flow of Russian gas, but the Europeans are dependent on it. And the Europeans promise to build more windmills and solar panels to eventually one day kick the Russian gas habit, but it’s exactly that kind of green nonsense that addicted them to reliable energy supplies from Russia and helped bring on the current war.
Meanwhile Americans are expected to accept higher prices while Ukraine’s state-owned company collects billions from Russia. Zelensky stages Zoom calls with foreign governments accusing them of funding the Russian military if they don’t pull out of Russia while enabling Putin’s regime to make hundreds of millions of dollars a day. That’s a little awkward.
“If Europe continues importing gas from Russia, why shouldn’t Ukraine benefit from it?” asked an expert quoted in a media story spinning the situation.
If Russia is going to continue to watch bad movies, why shouldn’t we benefit from it?.
The European-Ukrainian hypocrisy has Russia and Ukraine making billions while Americans are expected to shoulder the burden of higher prices on everything from gas to wheat.
Meanwhile Russia’s state-owned energy company is paying Ukraine’s state-owned energy company in “hard currency”.
Without the energy exports, Russia “wouldn’t be able to finance the current war, pay salaries to its soldiers and all the crowds currently supporting Putin. It will immediately impact the regime’s support, which is why they don’t want to disrupt this revenue stream,” Naftogaz's CEO said.
Wouldn’t that be a more useful form of sanctions than boycotting Dostoevsky?
Ukraine does have the ability to cut off the flow of Russian gas any time it wants. Naftogaz claims that the Russians would just use other pipelines, but then why aren’t they doing it now?
Why is Russia paying billions to a country it’s invading that can be used to finance its defense?
Why would Russia put its economic lifeline and massive amounts of gas at risk by using a country that it’s currently bombing with all the adroit aim of a drunk in a toilet as a transit point if it could be easily replaced? Neither Europe nor Ukraine are prepared to kick their addiction to Russian gas. Putin knows it, which is why behind the scenes business is going on as usual.
The pettiness of the sanctions and the cultural boycotts are a distraction from the reality that it’s easy to pour some vodka down the drain or skip the ballet, but a lot harder to stop the gas.
Europe’s support for Ukraine is conditioned on the flow of Russian gas through the country.
Putin understands that very well which is why he's demanding that Germany and other European countries pay him for gas in rubles. Considering that the Europeans have already paid Russia some 13 billion dollars for his gas since the war began, he's calling their bluff.
Meanwhile Ukraine's energy people keep urging everyone else to boycott Russian energy.
Naftogaz's CEO had told BBC News that Europe "should make this very clear choice to get rid of this dependency on Russian gas and oil."
Naftogaz's former head met with Senate members and told them that Putin believes that "the energy supply is so important to the West" that "they’ll always be forgiven, that Western countries will crawl back on their knees asking for their oil and gas.”
He’s got a point, but Ukraine has the power to change that. All it has to do is pull the plug.
Europe and Ukraine are asking Americans to make sacrifices while they keep on doing business with Putin.
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Greta's Green Goddesses claim we can do away with such energy, yet as crunch time hits, Europe imports $13 billion worth in the middle of a war.
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And ordinary Ukrainians are taking it up the ass while their leaders play games. Sounds familiar.
much like ordinary Americans
Thank you, Daniel. I've nor encountered this information anywhere else. It needs to be known.
pass it along
you rarely hear about the important things in the media
Great stuff, Daniel, as always. Thank you.
Daniel Greenfield for President! If not president, then, with Steve Miller, Chief Policy Advisor. His clear-eyed analysis is uncanny. We are lucky to have him. God bless him!
Are the website developers aware that it no longer operates properly on iPhones? it doesn't show the comments at all and misses out the images.
there seem to be some issues with the comments, not sure what the underlying issue may be (not using an iPhone)
Hahaha, like I say the boomers who run FPM are tech illiterates.
But you come back daily for lessons in life.
That's a sign of a leftist, knows some tech, but nothing else.
You couldn't run a lemonade stand
get back to washing the skid marks out of your panties. Your boifriend wants you back on your knees.
From here on in I will not watch nor read anything on the war in Ukraine without keeping this amazing information in mind. Thank you, Daniel Greenfield.
I do not really understand how American food and gas prices are through the roof because those two countries are battling it out. But that is neither here nor there. What I do understand is that the entire world is being primed for a tyrannical digital Great Reset - which especially requires the destruction of the West, Israel and America. Are Russia and Ukraine actually a part of this?
Right now the world is being fed the idea that the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people against what has turned out to be a militarily inept superpower is what has bogged down the war in Ukraine. The world is rooting for Ukraine. If Putin subdues Ukraine - he will have full control over the Ukrainian gas line into Europe and will no longer have to shell out money to them for transit rights. While he sits back and collects his gas fees from Europe.
How will globalist Communists like Biden and the European leaders get in Putin’s way to stop him from interfering with the global reset? Or will they? They sure don’t seem to be stopping him now. Is Putin a loose canon barreling through their plans? Or is he aiding and abetting it all?
Biden's policies are mainly what caused prices to rise.
it's not just the war
our prices were going crazy long before this, but a disruption in energy and wheat from a major producer of both is going to mess with the world market prices, which is going to impact us
The bigger question: WHY are WE buying Russian Oil?!!!! The Ukraine and Europe's asses are over a barrel ! Not so with us!
“Why has Israel refrained from sanctions on Russia?" Because many of the Russian oligarchs are members of the chosen tribe.
No, because it was acting as an INDEPENDENT intermediary in a PEACE process.
Your new copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has just been sent, replacing your old one, torn and tattered from endless re-reading. A companion volume to Mein Kampf, sharing pride of place in your library.
Could be its entire library.
Jew hating P.O.S. Your armband and little brown short shorts are in the mail.
And the moustache!!!
Yes indeed, but it's probably a fake one.
How much is Nick Fuentes paying you to suck him off?
If you hadn't noticed, Israel is located in a dangerous part of the globe, surrounded by enemies, hell bent on its complete destruction and annihilation. Said enemies are closely aligned with and controlled by Russia, and, as such, Russia need not engage in a direct fight with Israel, itself, as it has numerous proxies, in the area, ready and willing to do its bidding, in attacking Israel, at any time. Israel's first and foremost objective, which is the same as that of any other sovereign state, is self-preservation. Israel needs to, first, act in its own self-intetests in doing whatever is necessary to maintain its own safety. All sovereign states do precisely the same. . .they act in a manner in which their self-interests come before those of others in the world. There are 195 countries in the world, and rabid antisemites, like you, choose to laser focus of what Israel is doing or not doing to prevent the war in Ukraine. Where are your challenges to Canada? Australia? Any of the other Middle Eastern countries? Crickets. Just snide remarks that some, not all, of the Russian oligarchs may be of Jewish ancestry, and that Israel forms its foreign policy based upon said oligarchs. Utilizing the same flawed theory, Pelosi and Cuomo, both Catholic and both of Italian ancestry, represent specimens of disgusting human beings. . .should all Italians and Catholics being painted with the same brush? Does Italy base its foreign policy on the actions or behavior of these two miscreants? Does the Catholic Church bear any responsibility for these two individuals? Israel, like any other government, acts and responds in a manner which is based upon its own, selfish reasons, as do all sovereign bodies. Israel is not alone in that conduct, so don't pretend that it is. . .learn something about the world and how countries and governments act, or, try to act, in their respective self-interests. Put down your copy of Mein Kampf and try to learn something of importance.