{"id":378394,"date":"2018-09-24T16:22:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T15:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=378394"},"modified":"2018-09-24T16:22:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T15:22:35","slug":"russias-economy-little-harmed-by-wests-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/russias-economy-little-harmed-by-wests-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia’s Economy Little Harmed by West’s Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Barack Obama\u2019s economic sanctions against Russia, and the plunge in oil prices that\u00a0King Saud agreed to with Obama\u2019s Secretary of State John Kerry on 11 September 2014,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the economic damages that the U.S. and Sauds have aimed against a particular oil-and-gas giant, Russia, have hit mostly elsewhere \u2014 at least till now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazingly,\u00a0Obama\u2019s violent February 2014 coup overthrowing Ukraine\u2019s democratically elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(an overthrow that the head of the \u2018private CIA\u2019 firm Stratfor called\u00a0\u201cthe most blatant coup in history\u201d<\/span><\/a>)\u00a0has caused Ukraine\u2019s economy to plunge even further than Russia’s, and corruption in Ukraine to soar even higher than it had been before Ukraine\u2019s coup. Ukraine\u2019s economy has actually been harmed far more than Russia\u2019s was by Obama\u2019s coup in Ukraine and by Obama\u2019s subsequent economic sanctions against Russia (sanctions that are based on\u00a0clear and demonstrable Obama lies but that continue and even get worse under Trump<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas the well-being of Ukrainians plunged drastically between 2013 (the last year of the government that Obama overthrew) and 2017<\/span><\/a>, the well-being of Russians was virtually the same during 2017 as it had been during 2013<\/span><\/a> (the final year before The West punished Russia in 2014 for Russia\u2019s responses to Obama\u2019s Ukrainian coup<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n

Bloomberg News headlined on 4 February 2016,\u00a0\u201cThese Are the World’s Most Miserable Economies\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported the \u201cmisery index\u201d rankings of 60 national economies in 2015, and of 63 national economies as projected in 2016, all based on a standard ranking-system that calculates \u201cmisery\u201d as being the sum of the unemployment-rate and the inflation-rate. They also compared the 2016 projected rankings to the 2015 actual rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top rank, #1 both years \u2014 the most miserable economy in the world during 2015 and 2016 \u2014 was Venezuela, because of that country\u2019s 95% dependence upon oil-export earnings (which crashed when oil-prices plunged). The U.S.-Saudi agreement to flood the global oil market destroyed Venezuela\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

#2 most-miserable in 2015 was Ukraine, at 57.8. But Ukraine started bouncing back so that as projected in 2016 it ranked #5, at 26.3. Russia in 2015 was #7 most-miserable in 2015, at 21.1, but bounced back so that as projected in 2016 it became #14 at 14.5.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloomberg hadn\u2019t reported misery-index rankings for 2014 showing economic performances during 2013, but economist Steve H. Hanke<\/b> of Johns Hopkins University did, in his\u00a0\u201cMeasuring Misery Around the World, May 2014,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the May 2014 GlobeAsia<\/i>, ranking 90 countries; and, during 2013<\/b> (Yanukovych\u2019s final year as Ukraine\u2019s President before his being forced out by Obama\u2019s coup<\/span><\/a>), Ukraine\u2019s rank was #23 and its misery-index was 24.4. Russia\u2019s was #36 and its misery index was 19.9.<\/b> \u00a0So: those can be considered to be the baseline-figures<\/b>, from which any subsequent economic progress or decline (after Obama\u2019s 2014 Ukrainian coup<\/span><\/a>) may reasonably be calculated. Hanke\u2019s figures during the following year, 2014<\/b>, were reported by him at Huffington Post, “The World Misery Index: 108 Countries”<\/span><\/a>, and at UAE\u2019s\u00a0Khaleej Times,<\/i>\u00a0\u201cList of Most Miserable Countries\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(the latter falsely attributing that ranking to Cato Institute, which had merely republished Hanke\u2019s article). In 2014, Ukraine\u2019s misery-index, as calculated by Hanke, was\u00a0 <\/span>#4, at 51.8. That year had 8 countries above 40.0 in Hanke\u2019s ranking. Russia was #42 at 21.42. So: Russia\u2019s rank had improved, but, because of the globally bad economy, Russia\u2019s absolute number (not the rank) was slightly worse (higher) than it had been before Obama\u2019s coup in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Russia. By contrast, Ukraine\u2019s performance had suddenly gotten far<\/i> worse, ranking #4 at 51.80 in 2014, after having been #23 at 24.4 in 2013. In other words: Ukraine\u2019s \u201cEconomic Misery\u201d soared immediately after the coup.<\/span><\/p>\n

The figures in Bloomberg for Russia were: during 2015, #7 with a misery-index of 21.1; and projected during 2016, #14 with a misery-index of 14.5; so, Bloomberg too showed a 2015-2016 improvement for Russia, and not only for Ukraine (where in the 2016 projection it ranked #5, at 26.3, a sharp improvement after the horrendous 2015 actual numbers).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHanke\u2019s Annual Misery Index \u2014 2017\u201d<\/a><\/span> in Forbes<\/i>, showed 98 countries, and Venezuela was still #1, the worst; Ukraine was now #9 at 36.9; and Russia was #36 at 18.1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus: whereas Russia was economically stunningly stable at #36 from start to finish throughout the entire five-year period 2013-2017<\/b>, starting with a misery-index of 19.9 in 2013 and ending with 18.1 in 2017, Ukraine went from a misery-index of 24.4 in 2013 to 36.9 in 2017 \u2014 and worsening its rank from #23 in 2013 to #9 in 2017. During that five-year period Ukraine\u2019s figure peaked in the year of Obama\u2019s coup at 57.8. So, at least Ukraine\u2019s economic misery seems to be heading back downward in the coup\u2019s aftermath, though it\u2019s still considerably worse than it was before the coup. But, meanwhile, Russia went from 19.9 to 18.1 \u2014 and had no year that was as bad as Ukraine\u2019s best year was during that period of time.<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

And, yet: that coup and the economic sanctions and the U.S.-Saudi oil-agreement were targeted against Russia \u2014 not<\/i> against Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine\u2019s performance plunged not because of the anti-Russia sanctions, but because of Obama\u2019s coup.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the U.S. were trying to punish the people of Ukraine, then the U.S. coup in Ukraine would have been a raving success; but, actually, Obama didn\u2019t care at all about Ukrainians<\/span><\/a>. He cared only about the owners of America\u2019s weapons-making firms and of America\u2019s extractive firms. Trump did likewise, by intensifying both Obama\u2019s war against Russia and Obama\u2019s support for the Obama-imposed post-coup Government of Ukraine<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

During that same period (also using Hanke\u2019s numbers) the United States went from #71 at 11.0 in 2013, to #69 at 8.2 in 2017. U.S. was stable, as was Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia started with #40 at 18.9 during 2013, to #30 at 20.2 in 2017. That\u2019s improvement, because the Kingdom outperformed the global economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interim, and even in the years leading up to 2014, Russia had been (and still is) refocusing its economy away from Russia\u2019s natural resources and toward a broad sector of high technology: military R&D and production.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On 15 December 2014, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute headlined, \u201cSales by Largest Arms Companies Fell Again in 2013, but Russian Firms\u2019 Sales Continued Rising,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported, \u201cSales\u00a0by companies headquartered in the\u00a0United States and Canada have continued to\u00a0moderately decrease, while\u00a0sales\u00a0by Russian-based companies increased by 20 per cent in\u00a02013.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The following year, SIPRI bannered, on 14 December 2015,\u00a0\u201cGlobal Arms Industry: West Still Dominant Despite Decline,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported that, \u201cDespite difficult national economic conditions,\u00a0the Russian\u00a0arms\u00a0industry\u2019s\u00a0sales\u00a0continued to\u00a0rise in 2014. \u2026 \u2018Russian companies are riding the wave of\u00a0increasing national\u00a0military spending and\u00a0exports. There are now 11 Russian companies\u00a0in the\u00a0Top 100 and their combined revenue\u00a0growth over 2013\u201314 was 48.4 per\u00a0cent,\u2019 says\u00a0SIPRI Senior Researcher Siemon Wezeman. In contrast,\u00a0arms\u00a0sales\u00a0of Ukrainian companies\u00a0have substantially declined. \u2026 US companies\u2019\u00a0arms\u00a0sales\u00a0decreased by 4.1 per\u00a0cent between 2013 and 2014, which is similar to\u00a0the rate of decline seen in 2012\u201313. \u2026 Western European companies\u2019\u00a0arms\u00a0sales\u00a0decreased by 7.4 per cent in 2014.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a redirection of the Russian economy that Vladimir Putin was preparing even prior to Obama\u2019s war against Russia. Perhaps Putin redirected it in response to the entire thrust of the U.S. aristocracy’s post-Soviet determination to conquer Russia whenever the time would be right for NATO to strike and grab it. Obama\u2019s public ambivalence about Russia never persuaded Putin that the U.S. would finally put the Cold War behind it and end its NATO alliance as Russia had ended its Warsaw Pact back in 1991.<\/span><\/a> Instead, Obama continued to endorse expanding NATO, right up to Russia\u2019s borders (now even into Ukraine) \u2014 an extremely hostile act.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Putin responded by building the world\u2019s most cost-effective designers and producers of weaponry, Russia wouldn\u2019t only be responding to America\u2019s ongoing hostility \u2014 or at least responding to the determination of America\u2019s aristocracy to take over Russia<\/span><\/a>, which is the world\u2019s largest trove of natural resources<\/span><\/a> \u2014 but would also expand Russia\u2019s export-earnings and international influence by selling to other countries weaponry that\u2019s less-burdened with the costs of sheer corruption than are the armaments that are being produced in what is perhaps the world\u2019s most corrupt military-industrial complex: America\u2019s<\/span><\/a>. Whereas Putin has tolerated corruption in other areas of Russia\u2019s economic production (figuring that those areas are less crucial for Russia\u2019s future), he has kept Russia\u2019s weapons-making-and-marketing socialized \u2014 controlled entirely by the state \u2014 and thus avoids the capitalistic situation of weapons-makers controlling the Government\u2019s foreign policies and military via the \u201crevolving door\u201d between the military and private industry, and via weapons-making firms buying politicians to authorize weapons-makers\u2019 policies. Socializing the production and marketing of armaments is the only way to retain national independence. America\u2019s aristocracy had aimed to end that in Russia. Putin refused. Ever since he first came into office in 2000, he has transformed post-Soviet Russia from being an unlimitedly corrupt satellite of the United States under Boris Yeltsin, to becoming truly an independent nation<\/span><\/a>; and this infuriates America\u2019s aristocrats (who had gushed over Yeltsin).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Russian government-monopoly marketing company for Russia\u2019s weapons-manufacturers, Rosoboronexport, presents itself to nations around the world by saying<\/span><\/a>: \u201cToday, armaments and military equipment bearing the Made in Russia label protect independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of dozens of countries. Owing to their efficiency and reliability, Russian defense products enjoy strong demand on the global market and maintain our nation\u2019s leading positions among the world\u2019s arms exporters. For the past several years, Russia has consistently ranked second behind the United States as regards arms exports.\u201d That’s second-and-rising, as opposed to America\u2019s first-and-falling.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American aristocracy\u2019s ever-growing war against Russia<\/span><\/a> posed and poses to Putin two simultaneous challenges: both to reorient away from Russia\u2019s natural resources, which the global aristocracy wants to grab, and also to reorient toward the area of hi-tech in which the Soviets had built a basis from which Russia could become truly cost-effective in international commerce, so as to, simultaneously, increase Russia\u2019s defensive capability against an expanding NATO, while also replacing some of Russia\u2019s dependence upon the natural resources that the West\u2019s aristocrats want to steal.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words: Putin designed a plan to meet two challenges simultaneously \u2014 military and economic. His primary aim is to protect Russia from being grabbed by the American and Saudi aristocrats, via America\u2019s NATO and the Sauds\u2019 Gulf Cooperation Council and other alliances (which are trying to take over Russia\u2019s ally Syria \u2014 Syria being a crucial location for pipelining Arab royals\u2019 oil-and-gas into Europe, the world\u2019s largest energy-market<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the hit to Russia\u2019s economic growth-rate from the dual-onslaught of Obama\u2019s sanctions and the plunging oil prices hasn\u2019t been too bad. The World Bank\u2019s April 2015\u00a0\u201cRussia Economic Report”<\/span><\/a> predicted: \u201cGrowth prospects for 2015-2016 are negative.\u00a0It is likely that when the full\u00a0effects of the two\u00a0shocks become evident in\u00a02015, they will push\u00a0the Russian economy into\u00a0recession. The World\u00a0Bank baseline scenario sees a\u00a0contraction of 3.8\u00a0percent in 2015 and a modest\u00a0decline of 0.3\u00a0percent in 2016. The growth\u00a0spectrum presented\u00a0has two alternative scenarios\u00a0that largely reflect\u00a0differences in how oil prices\u00a0are expected to\u00a0affect the main macro\u00a0variables.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As of 15 February 2016, Trading Economics was headlining\u00a0\u201cRussia GDP Annual Growth Rate\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported: \u201cThe Russian economy shrank 3.8 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2015,\u00a0following a 4.1 percent contraction in the previous period, according to preliminary\u00a0estimates from the Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev. It is the worst\u00a0performance since 2009 [George W. Bush\u2019s global economic crash], as Western sanctions and lower oil prices hurt external trade\u00a0and public revenues.\u201d The current percentage as of 17 September 2018, is 1.9%, after having plunged down from 2.2% in late 2017, to 0.9% in late 2017; so, it is rebounding.<\/span><\/p>\n

The World Bank\u2019s April 2015\u00a0\u201cRussia Economic Report”<\/span><\/a> went on to describe \u201cThe Government Anti-Crisis Plan\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

On January 27, 2014, the government adopted an anti-crisis plan with the goal to ensure sustainable economic\u00a0development and social stability in an unfavorable global economic and\u00a0political environment.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

It announced that in\u00a02015\u20132016 it will take steps to advance structural changes in the Russian\u00a0economy, provide support to systemic entities\u00a0and the labor market, lower inflation, and help vulnerable households\u00a0adjust to price increases. To achieve the objectives of\u00a0positive growth and sustainable medium-term macroeconomic development the following measures are planned:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Provide support\u00a0for import substitution and non-mineral exports;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Support small and medium enterprises by lowering financing and\u00a0administrative costs;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Create opportunities for raising financial resources at reasonable cost in\u00a0key economic sectors;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Compensate vulnerable households (e.g., pensioners) for the costs of\u00a0inflation;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Cushion the impact on the labor market (e.g. provide training and increase\u00a0public works);<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Optimize budget expenditures; and<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022Enhance banking sector stability and create a mechanism for reorganizing systemic\u00a0companies.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

So: Russia\u2019s anti-crisis plan was drawn up and announced on 27 January 2014, already before Yanukovych was overthrown, even before Obama\u2019s agent Victoria Nuland on 4 February 2014 instructed the U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine whom to have appointed to run the government when the coup would be completed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(\u201cYats,\u201d who did<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>get appointed). Perhaps, in drawing up this plan, Putin was responding to scenes from Ukraine like\u00a0this<\/span><\/a>. He could see that what was happening in Ukraine was an operation financed by the U.S. CIA. He could recognize what Obama had in mind for Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cRussia Economic Report, May 2018: Modest Growth Ahead\u201d<\/span><\/a> says:<\/span><\/p>\n

Global growth continued its 2017 momentum in early 2018. Global growth reached a stronger than-expected 3 percent in 2017 \u2014 a notable recovery from a post-crisis low of 2.4 percent in 2016. It is currently expected to peak at 3.1 percent in 2018. Recoveries in investment, manufacturing, and trade continue as commodity-exporting developing economies benefit from firming commodity prices (Figure 1a). The improvement reflects a broad-based recovery in advanced economies, robust growth in commodity-importing Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), and an ongoing rebound in commodity exporters. Growth in China \u2013 and important trading partner for Russia \u2013 is expected to continue its gradual slowdown in 2018 following a stronger than-expected 6.9 percent in 2017.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s economic plan has softened the economic blow upon the masses, even while it has re-oriented the economy toward what would be the future growth-areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The country that Putin in 2000 had taken over and inherited from the drunkard Yeltsin (so beloved by Western aristocrats because he permitted them to skim off so much from it) was a wreck even worse than it had been when the Soviet Union ended. Putin immediately set to work to turn it around<\/a><\/span>, in a way that could meet those two demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently, Putin has been succeeding \u2014 now even despite what the U.S. aristocracy (and its allied aristocracies in Europe and Arabia) have been throwing to weaken Russia. And the Russian people know it<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

PS: The present reporter is an American, and used to be a Democrat, not inclined to condemn Democratic politicians, but Obama\u2019s grab for Russia was not merely exceedingly dangerous for the entire world, it is profoundly unjust, it is also based on his (and most Republicans\u2019) neoconservative lies, and so I don\u2019t support it, and I no longer support Obama or his and the Clintons\u2019 Democratic Party, at all. But this certainly doesn\u2019t mean that I support the Republican Party, which is typically even worse on this (and other matters) than Democratic politicians are. On almost all issues, I support Bernie Sanders, but I am not a part of anyone\u2019s political campaign, in any way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Despite Barack Obama\u2019s economic sanctions against Russia, and the plunge in oil prices that\u00a0King Saud agreed to with Obama\u2019s Secretary of State John Kerry on 11 September 2014,\u00a0the economic damages that the U.S. and Sauds have aimed against a particular oil-and-gas giant, Russia, have hit mostly elsewhere \u2014 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":378395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[1036,96,3604,93,535,524,523,755,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-378394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-global-news","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-usa","17":"tag-usa-news","18":"tag-warfare","19":"tag-white-house","20":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378398,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378394\/revisions\/378398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}