EU foreign ministers have decided to extend targeted sanctions against Russian officials and the militias in eastern Ukraine until September, according to Federica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

The first batch of sanctions, which was adopted last year and targeted specific individuals accused of fostering conflict in eastern Ukraine, was set to expire in March. The sanctions included travel bans and economic restrictions.

The EU Council has also requested that the European Commission expand the blacklist of individuals it blames for the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Mogherini said after a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

"We have shown that the EU is ready to take further measures and to prepare further measures in the weeks to come if the situation doesn't improve," she said.

The council, however, has refrained from imposing broader economic measures for now.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said that Greece insisted on removing a passage which would have imposed new sanctions on Russia from the draft proposals at the ministers’ meeting. It also insisted that the final communiqué does not put direct blame for the Ukraine conflict on Russia.

http://rt.com/business/227555-eu-russia-extend-sanctions/

I hate the leaders of EU! They're pathetic beings,the sanctions imposed on Russia the previous year had little or no impact on their economy-forget the lie from the media-her economy is growing amidst all the stupid sanctions. The bilateral trade Russia has with China has been growing tremendously,they're benefitting from each other. China buys her oil and military equipments...not mentioning the growing nuclear and space technologies which Russia has been sharing with China recently. The US has always been such an azs,Obama should watch it,because when you corner a lion[putin] it will leave you in a sorry condition.

Sanctions don't work nowadays,the EU economy is hurting already,US doesn't trade with Russia much to care,they keep hauling sanctions here and there like they own the world.

They should work together with Mr Putin on how to defeat the global threat-terrorism,not escalating a war in Ukraine while blaming Russia. Ukraine remains part of Russia and trying to make her a NATO could prove to be disastrous,it's unthinkable!

Let the sanctions continue,let's see how Russia would come out of this since they are good at flexing muscles.

Any economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its response to the crisis in Ukraine will also impact the United States and its followers. But while Moscow will dust itself off and move on, the recession-hit West needs the money desperately.

People in all free thinking countries should applaud the US call for sanctions against Russia. Why? Because it exposes the West’s complete inability to use the military option. Even if President Vladimir Putin sends all four divisions of the Russian Airborne Forces into Ukraine, the US and its allies can do very little in terms of retaliation.
As the US Congress leads the strident push for an economic boycott and the Western media keeps up the blitzkrieg of hatred against Russia, what is being ignored is that sanctions are a double-edged sword that will hurt everyone in a globalised economy. Sure, Putin will lose sleep but only because he’s laughing at the West’s clumsiness.
Face it, Russia is too big to fail
Only those who live under a rock – such as Senator John McCain, Victoria Nuland of the US Department of State and Ukrainians who have attained positions of power after a violent coup – will disagree that Russia is a wealthy country. Currently, Russia’s GDP per capita is the highest of all the BRICS countries. By 2020, the Russian economy will become the largest in Europe. Foreign direct investment into Russia rose by 83 percent in 2013 reaching $94 billion, the third highest total in the world after the US and China. That looks like a country everyone wants to do business with, not boycott.
India, China can play positive role in defusing Ukraine crisis
And it’s too integrated

This isn’t 1980, when President Jimmy Carter – a peasant way over his head in events he couldn't begin to understand – led the US and its allies to impose blanket sanctions on the erstwhile Eastern Bloc. Today, on the other hand, there is a great deal of interdependence between the Russian and European economies.
The US business community has clearly stated it wants to avoid unilateral sanctions against Moscow because it believes competitors in Europe could gain market share as a result.

“We in the business community do not want to be caught in the crossfire,” says Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
Arnaud Leclerc, managing director of Swiss private banking firm Lombard Odier, says sanctions would harm the US. “In 2013, Russia exported goods worth $27 billion to the US and imported goods worth $11 billion from the United States,” he says.
Europe has its own interests to protect. The European Union currently ranks as Russia’s number one trading partner, accounting for almost 41 percent of all trade. Germany has invested heavily in Russia’s manufacturing sector while nearly 6,000 UK traders exported goods to Russia last year. Nearly 10 percent of Britain’s car exports are to Russia, and an even higher proportion of Germany’s.
Energy weapon

The Russian oil and gas pipeline network – which is 259,913 km long and can loop around the Earth more than six times – is the lifeline of Europe. Germany gets half of its daily consumption of 2.8 billion barrels of oil from Russia mainly via the Druzhba pipeline through Belarus. In 2012, Russia accounted for 24 percent of all gas exports to Germany, 19 percent to Turkey, 11 percent to Italy, 6 percent to France, 6 percent to the UK, 10 percent to other countries in Western Europe and 24 percent to Eastern Europe.

More about Ukraine

If Ukraine blocks Russian gas, these supplies cannot be compensated for quickly. The alternative for Europe is to import Qatari gas. But this has a nasty downside – Qatar is one of the world’s leading exporters of Islamic fundamentalism and jihadi fighters to Syria. Every euro paid for Qatari gas goes to strengthen the forces that will one day come back to haunt Europe.

Cornered bears are known to fight back

Russia has large reserves of dollars and is active in the US debt market. Currently, it holds $490 billion, the fifth largest reserves in the world. According to presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev, one option before Moscow is to abandon the US dollar as a reserve currency, or to figure out a way to use a new payments system that is not reliant on US dollars for international transactions.

Sanctions are always a double edged sword

Any economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its response to the crisis in Ukraine will also impact the United States and its followers. But while Moscow will dust itself off and move on, the recession-hit West needs the money desperately.
People in all free thinking countries should applaud the US call for sanctions against Russia. Why? Because it exposes the West’s complete inability to use the military option. Even if President Vladimir Putin sends all four divisions of the Russian Airborne Forces into Ukraine, the US and its allies can do very little in terms of retaliation.

The US is a country that grows internally. It is less impacted by events or shocks in the global economy. If Russia implodes economically, Europe will suffer, but the US will barely feel a scratch.

There's no point using military options - too costly, pointless loss of lives, and might even give your adversary some opportunity - In an economic war on the other hand, Russia has no means to fight back. It's attempt to fight back by leveling food sanctions came back to hurt its economy more than it did to the west- with food inflation now in the mid 30s. It seems to me that economic sanctions is the best strategy - It gives the West the leverage to fight in a position of strength, where Moscow is pretty much nothing but a sitting duck.

Of course, Vladimir Putin can take Kiev tomorrow if he wants to - but he will be repeating the same mistakes his soviet ancestors made - conquering a territory is only a part of the war, keeping the territory is not always as easy. The Soviets learnt this in Afghanistan, the Americans learnt it in Iraq, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

As the US Congress leads the strident push for an economic boycott and the Western media keeps up the blitzkrieg of hatred against Russia, what is being ignored is that sanctions are a double-edged sword that will hurt everyone in a globalised economy. Sure, Putin will lose sleep but only because he’s laughing at the West’s clumsiness.
Face it, Russia is too big to fail
Only those who live under a rock – such as Senator John McCain, Victoria Nuland of the US Department of State and Ukrainians who have attained positions of power after a violent coup – will disagree that Russia is a wealthy country. Currently, Russia’s GDP per capita is the highest of all the BRICS countries. By 2020, the Russian economy will become the largest in Europe. Foreign direct investment into Russia rose by 83 percent in 2013 reaching $94 billion, the third highest total in the world after the US and China. That looks like a country everyone wants to do business with, not boycott.

The Western mdeia keeps up the blitzkrieg of hatred against Russia just as much as the Russian media keeps up its information war and hatred against the West and the USA. Its all fair game - except of course, the western media have much more resources and wider reach.

Putin looses sleep everyday, and for good reasons too. Two of its biggest banks - Gazprombank and VTB are failing and they need urgent bailouts, it's reserves are dwindling, and its currency is crashing. The Russian people are getting poorer, many have lost their jobs and mortgages denominated in foreign currency have become more expensive. If i were Putin, i would lose sleep too.

Russia is not too big to fail. Russia's economy failed in 1998, and it is heading towards the same direction. If sanctions are not lifted and if Oil prices remain at the current level, Russia will fail again by the end of this year. I find it curious that you quoted foreign direct investment but you used a figure from 2013, care to use a figure from 2014? Yep, i know, that doesn't suit your pointless rant.

This isn’t 1980, when President Jimmy Carter – a peasant way over his head in events he couldn't begin to understand – led the US and its allies to impose blanket sanctions on the erstwhile Eastern Bloc. Today, on the other hand, there is a great deal of interdependence between the Russian and European economies.
The US business community has clearly stated it wants to avoid unilateral sanctions against Moscow because it believes competitors in Europe could gain market share as a result.

“We in the business community do not want to be caught in the crossfire,” says Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
Arnaud Leclerc, managing director of Swiss private banking firm Lombard Odier, says sanctions would harm the US. “In 2013, Russia exported goods worth $27 billion to the US and imported goods worth $11 billion from the United States,” he says.
Europe has its own interests to protect. The European Union currently ranks as Russia’s number one trading partner, accounting for almost 41 percent of all trade. Germany has invested heavily in Russia’s manufacturing sector while nearly 6,000 UK traders exported goods to Russia last year. Nearly 10 percent of Britain’s car exports are to Russia, and an even higher proportion of Germany’s.
Energy weapon

Exported goods worth 27 billion to us and imported 11 billion dollars worth of goods from the US - Now, apply some common sense, if the relationship breaks down, who stands to lose more? Yep! Sanctions against Russia is almost one sided, it has absolutely no effect on the US.

Europe has business interest with Russia, but that is not what is at stake.

The Russian oil and gas pipeline network – which is 259,913 km long and can loop around the Earth more than six times – is the lifeline of Europe. Germany gets half of its daily consumption of 2.8 billion barrels of oil from Russia mainly via the Druzhba pipeline through Belarus. In 2012, Russia accounted for 24 percent of all gas exports to Germany, 19 percent to Turkey, 11 percent to Italy, 6 percent to France, 6 percent to the UK, 10 percent to other countries in Western Europe and 24 percent to Eastern Europe.

Who cares if the Russian oil and gas network can extend to Mars? First fact - the world is fast becoming less dependent on oil and gas. Alternative technology is likely to be the dominating trend for the next century. Second fact - the need for oil and gas is actually much more lower with lower trends in global growth. Of course, Europe and Asia still needs Russia as its gas station - beyond that, it is pretty much a useless country.

Russia has large reserves of dollars and is active in the US debt market. Currently, it holds $490 billion, the fifth largest reserves in the world. According to presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev, one option before Moscow is to abandon the US dollar as a reserve currency, or to figure out a way to use a new payments system that is not reliant on US dollars for international transactions.

If Russians will put their money where their mouth is, they will simply sell off all their US dollar reserves and change their currency into roubles - of course, this will be suicidal. The fact that they hold some dollar reserves is why their economy keeps running. The US cannot be bothered if Russia chooses to abandon the dollar.

[quote author=bookface post=30339484]

The US is a country that grows internally. It is less impacted by events or shocks in the global economy. If Russia implodes economically, Europe will suffer, but the US will barely feel a scratch.

Are you sure about this?
There is no nation in ths world that can internally generate or produce all that it needs. No nation is internally 'isolated', either from ' outside profits' or outside crisis'.
Now,if Russia implodes, and the EU suffers massively, the next on the line of the fall would be the US. The reasons are here:

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.11/eurocollapse.html.

No one is an island.

There's no point using military options - too costly..

Realy? Or that u just cant walk into a nation with enough nuclear arsenals capable of exterminating the entire globe?
Lets face it! The US can not militarily directly respond to any Russian military incursion, anywhere,anyday, Let alone at its own door steps. The little it could do was train and supply arms to Russia's foes-Georgia and Ukrain. Even its so called mercenaries (we all know they are regular foreign forces-US and NATO) covertly deployed to the East of Ukrain, are being ripped apart by the seperatists.
And the US didnt think it costly to put down men there and supply weapons.

Russia has no means to fight back.

Are you kidden me?
For instance, Russia could make America’s retreat from Afghanistan a hellish experience. A key supply line, known as the Northern Distribution Network – which brings food, water and war materials that keep America’s longest war going – runs partly through Russia or allied former Soviet republics. If Putin decides to shut down the network, the only alternative for the US military would be to be totally dependent on the Pakistan route. America’s nightmare scenario is to be trapped between the Taliban in Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban in the north.

Russia's direct trade with the U.S. is limited, and its economy is much smaller — Russia's gross domestic product (GDB) is a little above $2 trillion, America's is about $16.25 trillion:
But Russia is the world's largest exporter of energy and industrial metals, and if Putin disrupted the supply of any of its international commodities, it could indirectly hit the U.S. by raising the prices of oil and the materials needed to build airplanes, cars, and scores of other big-ticket items.
Tell me that wont affect the US?

On Gas and Oil, just forget that side.
Right now, The EU is already sweating from the seemingly inevitable prospect of getting its much needed Russian gas through Turkey, a well defined EU 'hardliner'.
What abt the Iran's P5+1? Russian can choose to derail talks.

It wasnt Russians that are now burning the EU flag and trowing unsold agric products at government officials and buildings. So the claim that Russia had suffered most from that sanction is infounded.


The Russian people are getting poorer, many have lost their jobs and mortgages.
If there is one thing i hate in my life, it is outright lies and falsehood. This is the penchant of the Main Stream Media, in collaboration with the US controlled Rating Bodies. Why?
Russia is poorer on the short run. But on the long run, it shall be stronger.

Russia is not too big to fail.

So also is your 'unskated' US whose economy, responding to both internal and external factors, crashed in 2007/2008.

Dont worry, at the end of the year, by God's grace, i will chat you up to say 'rosiya'. Because this current oil price wont last long.. Not with the US shale already suffocating from its effect.

Yeah, sorry. The 2013 investment figures i quoted was my mistake.


Sanctions against Russia is almost one sided, it has absolutely no effect on the US.

On the major economic frontiers, you are right. But in terms of 'absoluteness' on all fronts, you are wrong.

Europe has business interest with Russia, but that is not what is at stake.

Then what is at stake?
I will come nack to this later.


Who cares if the Russian oil and gas network can extend to Mars?

My bro, Europe cares, and so do China.
Its better to buy a Russian gas that is twice cheaper than the shale the US can offer.


The world is fast becoming less dependent on oil and gas.

What a fairy tale-dream! They said this 30yrs ago. But there had been no time that the world had become more dependent on oil than it currently is. For better understanding,

http://www.wintershall.com/en/company/oil-and-gas/oil-can-do-more.html

and is likely to be the dominating trend till the next century.



The US cannot be bothered if Russia chooses to abandon the dollar.

wow. You interest me the more. Pls tell us. Why then are they targeting the Nations in the de-Dollarization mode? Saddam-Iraq taking out, Gadafi-Libya taking out, Sudan torn in two, Nigeria now suffocating, Venezuela, Agentina brazil and Angola in birth-pains, and now Russia. Red alert in China-Hongkong, Egypt-Muslim brotherhood.

Appleyard:


Are you sure about this?
There is no nation in ths world that can internally generate or produce all that it needs. No nation is internally 'isolated', either from ' outside profits' or outside crisis'.
Now,if Russia implodes, and the EU suffers massively, the next on the line of the fall would be the US. The reasons are here:

The influence of global shocks on American economy is so minimal that it can be ignored - starting from Asian crises in 1997, Russia crises in 1998, European debt crises in 2009 etc.. America's economy is robust and diversified. While many countries are exposed to a shock in American economy, America by itself is relatively immune from a shock in other places.

There's no point using military options - too costly..

Realy? Or that u just cant walk into a nation with enough nuclear arsenals capable of exterminating the entire globe?
Lets face it! The US can not militarily directly respond to any Russian military incursion, anywhere,anyday, Let alone at its own door steps. The little it could do was train and supply arms to Russia's foes-Georgia and Ukrain. Even its so called mercenaries (we all know they are regular foreign forces-US and NATO) covertly deployed to the East of Ukrain, are being ripped apart by the seperatists.
And the US didnt think it costly to put down men there and supply weapons.

You still don't get it! - There's no point going to war if victory can be achieved by sitting patiently at home while you watch your enemy implode.

In both militarily and economically, the US has huge advantages over Russia. So the US gets to choose the battle ground. If it chooses to respond militarily then there will be enormous costs - human cost, property & financial - to both sides. If it chooses to respond economically, the cost will be only to one side - Russia! The US has nothing to lose from this angle, Russia has much more to lose.

It is like fighting a pig - if you get down dirty with the pig, you will be soiled and you will stink at the end of the day - the best strategy is simply to let the pig starve.

Russia has no means to fight back.

Are you kidden me?
For instance, Russia could make America’s retreat from Afghanistan a hellish experience. A key supply line, known as the Northern Distribution Network – which brings food, water and war materials that keep America’s longest war going – runs partly through Russia or allied former Soviet republics. If Putin decides to shut down the network, the only alternative for the US military would be to be totally dependent on the Pakistan route. America’s nightmare scenario is to be trapped between the Taliban in Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban in the north.

LOL! That same route argument.

That route was opened - 8 years after NATO went into Afghanistan. If the US/NATO could survive 8 years without that route, i am pretty confident they can really do without it. Of course it will be inconvenient, but probably not the worst thing that can happen. Russia on the other hand will lose out of millions of dollars that is paid annually just to use that route. I think most people expected Russia to have closed the route already - the fact that they haven't done so shows that they consider that the benefit to them outweighs the costs to the US/NATO,

But Russia is the world's largest exporter of energy and industrial metals, and if Putin disrupted the supply of any of its international commodities, it could indirectly hit the U.S. by raising the prices of oil and the materials needed to build airplanes, cars, and scores of other big-ticket items.
Tell me that wont affect the US?

It will be the dumbest thing for Russia to do - at a time when the global supply for commodities is far more than the global demand. The cost of commodities have fallen by a large amount in the last 3 years - If Russia causes a supply shock, it will simply bring the prices back to their fair value - Russia on the other hand will see much bigger economic pain.

That's very much like shooting yourself in the foot.

Right now, The EU is already sweating from the seemingly inevitable prospect of getting its much needed Russian gas through Turkey, a well defined EU 'hardliner'.
What abt the Iran's P5+1? Russian can choose to derail talks.

Russia could derail the talks - but that will work to Iran's disadvantage not to its advantage. Iran's economy is practically stymied.

It wasnt Russians that are now burning the EU flag and trowing unsold agric products at government officials and buildings. So the claim that Russia had suffered most from that sanction is infounded.

Of course some angry farmers lost their markets - but most of them are compensated by the European council...nothing to see here, move along.

The Russian people are getting poorer, many have lost their jobs and mortgages.
If there is one thing i hate in my life, it is outright lies and falsehood. This is the penchant of the Main Stream Media, in collaboration with the US controlled Rating Bodies. Why?
Russia is poorer on the short run. But on the long run, it shall be stronger.

This is nothing from he main stream media -

You can check here for Russia media on the story:

http://itar-tass.com/en/russia/770555 : Migrants leaving Russia due to economic hardship
http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/769170 : Putin blaming the West and corruption for economic hardship

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/officials-suggest-russians-could-face-economic-crisis-by-eating-less/514850.html

: Russians are being advised to eat less

So also is your 'unskated' US whose economy, responding to both internal and external factors, crashed in 2007/2008.

I never denied that the US is too big to fail. The only difference is if the US fails, it will bring down many countries along with it, including China.

Dont worry, at the end of the year, by God's grace, i will chat you up to say 'rosiya'. Because this current oil price wont last long.. Not with the US shale already suffocating from its effect.

Oh dear! Are you crying for Russia?

Its better to buy a Russian gas that is twice cheaper than the shale the US can offer.

The US is actually less reluctant to sell its shale - It is Europe that is begging to buy.

The world is fast becoming less dependent on oil and gas.

What a fairy tale-dream! They said this 30yrs ago. But there had been no time that the world had become more dependent on oil than it currently is. For better understanding,

It appears that critical & indepth thinking is not your forte. The collapse in oil prices is not just due to shale boom, but also due to global demand factors. The demand for oil is now lower than it has ever been in the last decade. Cars are now being built to run more efficiently with lower mpg. Fuel efficiency is the dominating theme in Europe and North America

wow. You interest me the more. Pls tell us. Why then are they targeting the Nations in the de-Dollarization mode? Saddam-Iraq taking out, Gadafi-Libya taking out, Sudan torn in two, Nigeria now suffocating, Venezuela, Agentina brazil and Angola in birth-pains, and now Russia. Red alert in China-Hongkong, Egypt-Muslim brotherhood.

The US have made several enemies and several partners - but speculations that the US will purposely target a country due to "de-dollarization" is simply brainless. Those who speculate "de-dollarization" in the media are mostly ignorance dunces who know nothing about global trade. Most of the countries that you mention survive only because they have a huge trade-surplus relative to the US. i.e they sell more to the US more than the US buys from them. In addition, many of them sell more goods to the US more than any country. For example, more than a fifth of china's total export is to the US - in return, China will be paid in US dollars . If China wishes to "de-dollarize" it will simply have to stop trading with the US - if it does so, many others - such as India will quickly take its place.

@bookface

-that the US is a country that grows internally...

Yes.

But if you think that The US cannot be hurt by changes in the external economy, then you are in for a surprise.

The United States is the world's second biggest importer. Main imports are: capital goods (29 %) and consumer goods (26 %). Others include: Industrial Supplies (24 %); automotive vehicles, parts and engines (15 %); foods, feeds and beverages (5 %). Shipments from China represent 19 % of the total imports, followed by Canada (14.5 %), Mexico (12 %), Japan (6 %), and Germany (5 %).

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports

What this implies is that, any major change or torbulence, expecially as it relate to Europe, will send the US economic on a down hill.

Now, this is where the EU comes in.

Not long after the Berlin Wall fell a quarter of a century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States squandered its peace dividend in an attempt to maintain global dominance, and Europe quietly became more prosperous, more integrated, and more of a player in international affairs. Between 1989 and 2014, the European Union (EU) practically doubled its membership and catapulted into third place in population behind China and India. It currently boasts the world’s largest economy and also heads the list of global trading powers. In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for transforming Europe “from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”

In the competition for “world’s true superpower,” China loses points for still having so many impoverished peasants in its rural hinterlands and a corrupt, illiberal bureaucracy in its cities; the United States, for its crumbling infrastructure and a hypertrophied military-industrial complex that threatens to bankrupt the economy.
As the only equitably prosperous, politically sound, and rule-of-law-respecting superpower, Europe comes out on top, even if -- or perhaps because -- it doesn’t have the military muscle to play global policeman.

But things are changing rapidly.

The European project is currently teetering on the edge of failure. Growth is anemic at best and socio-economic inequality is on the rise. The countries of Eastern and Central Europe, even relatively successful Poland, have failed to bridge the income gap with the richer half of the continent. And the highly indebted periphery is in revolt.
Politically, the center may not hold and things seem to be falling apart. From the left, parties like Syriza in Greece are challenging the EU’s prescriptions of austerity. From the right, Euroskeptic parties are taking aim at the entire quasi-federal model. Racism and xenophobia are gaining ever more adherents, even in previously placid regions like Scandinavia.
Perhaps the primary social challenge facing Europe at the moment, however, is the surging popularity of Islamophobia, the latest “socialism of fools.” From the killings at the Munich Olympics in 1972 to the recent attacks atCharlie Hebdoand a kosher supermarket in Paris, wars in the Middle East have long inspired proxy battles in Europe. Today, however, the continent finds itself ever more divided between a handful of would-be combatants who claim the mantle of true Islam and an ever-growing contingent who believe Islam -- all of Islam -- has no place in Europe.

Notwithstanding, the real deal is the economic aspect.

The standard of living in Hungary, 25 years after the fall of Communism, remains approximately halfthat of neighboring Austria. Similarly, it took Romania 14 yearsjust to regain the gross national product (GDP) it had in 1989 and it remains stuck at the bottom of the European Union. People who visit only the capital cities of Eastern and Central Europe come away with a distorted view of the economic situation there, since Warsaw and Bratislava are wealthier than Vienna, and Budapest nearly on a par with it, even though Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary all remain economically far behind Austria.

Forget deficit spending to enable countries to grow their way out of economic crisis. Forget debt renegotiation. The unemployment rate in Greece and Spain now hovers around 25%,with youth unemployment over 50%, and all the EU members subjected to heavy doses of austerity have witnessed a steep risein the number of people living below the poverty line. The recent European Central Bank announcement of "quantitative easing" -- a monetary sleight-of-hand to pump money into the Eurozone -- is too little, too late.

The little investments it has with Russia has suffered tremendiously due to the sanctions and counter sanctions.
Now, Greece is on the verge of leaving the EU. Various member-states economies are shrinking, and should Russia crash, The EU's death would all the more be accelerated.
And the US itself would suffer massively for the following reasons.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/11/17/these-states-will-suffer-the-most-in-the-event-of-an-eu-collapse/

bookface:


The influence of global shocks on American economy is so minimal that it can be ignored - starting from Asian crises in 1997, Russia crises in 1998, European debt crises in 2009 etc.. America's economy is robust and diversified. While many countries are exposed to a shock in American economy, America by itself is relatively immune from a shock in other places.




You still don't get it! - There's no point going to war if victory can be achieved by sitting patiently at home while you watch your enemy implode.

In both militarily and economically, the US has huge advantages over Russia. So the US gets to choose the battle ground. If it chooses to respond militarily then there will be enormous costs - human cost, property & financial - to both sides. If it chooses to respond economically, the cost will be only to one side - Russia! The US has nothing to lose from this angle, Russia has much more to lose.

It is like fighting a pig - if you get down dirty with the pig, you will be soiled and you will stink at the end of the day - the best strategy is simply to let the pig starve.




LOL! That same route argument.

That route was opened - 8 years after NATO went into Afghanistan. If the US/NATO could survive 8 years without that route, i am pretty confident they can really do without it. Of course it will be inconvenient, but probably not the worst thing that can happen. Russia on the other hand will lose out of millions of dollars that is paid annually just to use that route. I think most people expected Russia to have closed the route already - the fact that they haven't done so shows that they consider that the benefit to them outweighs the costs to the US/NATO,



It will be the dumbest thing for Russia to do - at a time when the global supply for commodities is far more than the global demand. The cost of commodities have fallen by a large amount in the last 3 years - If Russia causes a supply shock, it will simply bring the prices back to their fair value - Russia on the other hand will see much bigger economic pain.

That's very much like shooting yourself in the foot.



Russia could derail the talks - but that will work to Iran's disadvantage not to its advantage. Iran's economy is practically stymied.




Of course some angry farmers lost their markets - but most of them are compensated by the European council...nothing to see here, move along.



This is nothing from he main stream media -

You can check here for Russia media on the story:

http://itar-tass.com/en/russia/770555 : Migrants leaving Russia due to economic hardship
http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/769170 : Putin blaming the West and corruption for economic hardship

: Russians are being advised to eat less




I never denied that the US is too big to fail. The only difference is if the US fails, it will bring down many countries along with it, including China.



Oh dear! Are you crying for Russia?




The US is actually less reluctant to sell its shale - It is Europe that is begging to buy.




It appears that critical & indepth thinking is not your forte. The collapse in oil prices is not just due to shale boom, but also due to global demand factors. The demand for oil is now lower than it has ever been in the last decade. Cars are now being built to run more efficiently with lower mpg. Fuel efficiency is the dominating theme in Europe and North America



The US have made several enemies and several partners - but speculations that the US will purposely target a country due to "de-dollarization" is simply brainless. Those who speculate "de-dollarization" in the media are mostly ignorance dunces who know nothing about global trade. Most of the countries that you mention survive only because they have a huge trade-surplus relative to the US. i.e they sell more to the US more than the US buys from them. In addition, many of them sell more goods to the US more than any country. For example, more than a fifth of china's total export is to the US - in return, China will be paid in US dollars . If China wishes to "de-dollarize" it will simply have to stop trading with the US - if it does so, many others - such as India will quickly take its place.

good points again.. I would have love to take them up as they come. But right now, something is wrong with my phone.
Once am trough with fixing it, i shall return..

And, 'am i crying for Russia? Hhahahahahaha.. Not so, brother. I was only recognizing the supremacy of God's will over our ability to live.

C u later.

Stay well.