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Quoting from this live stream today, by Alex Christophorou, Alexander Mercouris, and Gonzalo Lira: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4G7ttsNp0&t=995s https://ww

Quoting from this live stream today, by Alex Christophorou, Alexander Mercouris, and Gonzalo Lira: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4G7ttsNp0&t=995s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4G7ttsNp0&t=995s 16:35 “Something I noticed from the moment I heard this Euros per Rubles program, you see, the Europeans, in their sanction-mania, basically put a guillotine between the European economies and the Russian economy.“ “As a practical matter, it is now illegal to trade Euros for Rubles in the European zone, and so, the only way to get Rubles is by going to Gazprom, because the system, for those that don’t know, the system is very simple: if I am a European company that needs to buy gas for whatever reason, I go to Gazprom Bank, I make a deposit in Euros, Gazprom Bank opens a parallel account in my name in Rubles, they are the ones who exchange my Euros for Rubles, and I take those Rubles and I pay Gazprom for the gas that I need. That’s the system.” “Now the thing is, you see, I can not show up with Rubles and pay. Gazprom Bank has said specifically that nobody can do this, because they want to close some loopholes that is not important for this conversation, but the point is you can only go with Euros, deposit them, and get Rubles. But who values those Euros? Gazprom. Gazprom can set whatever price it wants for those Euros that I deposited with them. If they want to be generous, they can give me 85 Rubles per Euro. If they want to be nasty, they can say 65. And how am I to challenge that? How am I to get any kind of redress? I can’t.“ “In fact, there is no way for me to get Rubles to buy the gas that I need for my company. And you see, because of the scheme, or the program, whatever you want to call it, Gazprom Bank can give preferential treatment to any company that it wants to, from any nationality. Say, I’m a Serbian company, now Serbia uses the Dinar but of course for their foreign currency exchanges they use the Euro, they would have Euros, they would go to Gazprom Bank, they would deposit them, and because I’m a Serbian company and Serbia is friendly to Russia, it’s not on the «unfriendly nations» list, on the contrary, Gazprom can say «oh, Mr. Serbia, here you go, 85 Rubles per Euro», but if I’m a German company, Gazprom can easily say «well, you’re only going to get 70 Rubles per Euro», and that price differential, which in this hypothetical case is 20%, would render one company extremely profitable, competitive, because it would have cheap energy, because these Rubles can only be used to buy gas, and so, what Gazprom Bank is doing by this scheme, is essentially, it will be able to fine-tune, and literally crash, any country’s economy if they don’t play their game.” “And worst of all, the Russians are expanding the system to encompass not just natural gas, but also oil. Rosneft which is the big oil company in Russia is planning on rolling out a program very similar to Gazprom’s, and they will probably be linked up somehow eventually. And the same can be said insofar as agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, metals, different gasses, different industrial products. So all of a sudden, the Kremlin will have enormous power over the Eurozone, as a practical matter, the Russians, if they start to fiddle with the exchange rate for different companies from different countries, they get different rates, will have essentially broken the Eurozone, because the Euro will no longer be fungible, it will have different valuations in different places, geographically, and the consequences of this will be catastrophic for Europe.” “I mean, people haven’t really thought this through. This is a big deal.”

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
My next question: which Americans/Westerners have their grubby mitts involved with lobbying Gazprom?!
- FrenchAmerican 4y ago
  That's totally imaginary. As if Putin, through Gazprom, could decide the price paid by the EU for its fossil fuels. Putin doesn't have to sell and the EU doesn't have to buy. Cheaper price for Serbia and Hungary? Well, those countries will be economically sanctioned. The EU can bankrupt both countries at will. Not that the EU wants to. But there is no love for Serbia in the rest of Europe. Ugly nationalists with blood on their hands. We used to like Djokovic. Even that isn't the case anymore. And Hungary just received notifications of the blocking of all EU money for their recent very undemocratic elections. If Putin thinks the EU will implode because of this blackmail, he lives in a imaginary world. The EU is like NATO: it arises to unity when challenged. Putin has made NATO stronger than ever. Now he's about to do succeed in doing the same for the EU. Well, Hungary will have to choose a side soon. Frankly, I'd be sad for the Hungarian people if they are expelled from the EU. But I like the idea of expelling undemocratic countries out of the EU. So Putin cut the pipelines. Well, that would trigger a recession in the EU. But no soldier from the EU is killed, because the Ukrainians are doing the fighting. So the public opinions won't withdraw their support to the Ukrainian cause. On the contrary, in my opinion, but that point is debatable. But a recession in the EU just when the USA's growth is decreasing sharply.... that would lead to recession in China too. I can't see the Chinese leader risking that this very year, because he needs to appear strong to be confirmed in a lifelong mandate in power. And Putin would take a huge risk by cutting the pipelines, e.g. the flow of euros when its war in Ukraine is not getting momentum, even after the change in strategy. Russian troops are doing better, for sure, but their territorial gains are super slow. We'll see. PS: my admiration to the Ukrainian people for its courage and fortitude. May the Russian people find the same courage and get rid of Putin.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago

My next question: which Americans/Westerners have their grubby mitts involved with lobbying Gazprom?!

FrenchAmerican 4y ago
That's totally imaginary. As if Putin, through Gazprom, could decide the price paid by the EU for its fossil fuels. Putin doesn't have to sell and the EU doesn't have to buy. Cheaper price for Serbia and Hungary? Well, those countries will be economically sanctioned. The EU can bankrupt both countries at will. Not that the EU wants to. But there is no love for Serbia in the rest of Europe. Ugly nationalists with blood on their hands. We used to like Djokovic. Even that isn't the case anymore. And Hungary just received notifications of the blocking of all EU money for their recent very undemocratic elections. If Putin thinks the EU will implode because of this blackmail, he lives in a imaginary world. The EU is like NATO: it arises to unity when challenged. Putin has made NATO stronger than ever. Now he's about to do succeed in doing the same for the EU. Well, Hungary will have to choose a side soon. Frankly, I'd be sad for the Hungarian people if they are expelled from the EU. But I like the idea of expelling undemocratic countries out of the EU. So Putin cut the pipelines. Well, that would trigger a recession in the EU. But no soldier from the EU is killed, because the Ukrainians are doing the fighting. So the public opinions won't withdraw their support to the Ukrainian cause. On the contrary, in my opinion, but that point is debatable. But a recession in the EU just when the USA's growth is decreasing sharply.... that would lead to recession in China too. I can't see the Chinese leader risking that this very year, because he needs to appear strong to be confirmed in a lifelong mandate in power. And Putin would take a huge risk by cutting the pipelines, e.g. the flow of euros when its war in Ukraine is not getting momentum, even after the change in strategy. Russian troops are doing better, for sure, but their territorial gains are super slow. We'll see. PS: my admiration to the Ukrainian people for its courage and fortitude. May the Russian people find the same courage and get rid of Putin.