Did Obama save the dollar by taking western Ukraine from Russia? [W:41]

Ockham said:

I'm guessing you don't see the issue but it's funny non the less!

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MildSteel said:

Like I said folks, believe the opposite.

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MildSteel said:

I did not say merge with the EU. What I mean is that he wanted to link the natural resources of Russia with the economic resources of Europe. A glimpse of this can be seen in the relationship that Russia had with Germany. Germany exports its goods to Russia, Russia exports their energy to Germany. Putin wanted to take that to a new level. It is a very strong concept.

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Ockham said:

Because you say so.... a compelling argument.

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Growing damage from Russia's financial crisis on neighboring former Soviet states could bury President Vladimir Putin's dream of creating an economic union to rival the United States and European Union.
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The Kremlin saw Ukraine, the third biggest economy behind Kazakhstan and Russia in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of 11 former Soviet republics, as a vital member of the new union.

But after Crimea was annexed by Russia in March last year and Moscow supported separatists in eastern Ukraine, the country's central bank chief, Valeriia Gontareva, summed up Kiev's position toward Moscow.

"As a person I am really happy about what's happening with the Russian rouble," she said in December. "But as a central bank head it can't make me happy, as Russia remains an important trade partner."
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Transactions in dollars and euros could be banned within the member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The EEU countries could switch to national currencies (ruble, Belarusian ruble, Kazakhstani tenge and Armenian dram) in mutual payments by 2025-2030, the chairman of the board of directors of Russia’s National Payment Council, Alexander Murychev told the newspaper.

“It is necessary to raise a question before the national banks of the member-states on excluding the US dollar and the euro from interstate payment transactions,” said Murychev, detailing a concept for the EEU development, which was unveiled during a meeting in Kazan on Friday.
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Weaker Russian economy is extremely unprofitable for Itary, former head of the European Commission, Italy’s former Prime Minister, Professor of Economics Romano Prodi told Messaggero newspaper.

Lowered prices in the international energy markets have positive aspects for the Italian consumers, who pay less for the fuel, but the effect will be only short-term. In the long-term however the weaker economic situation in countries producing energy resources, caused by lower oil and gas prices, mostly in Russia, is extremely unprofitable for Italy, he said.

“The lowering of the oil and gas prices in combination with the sanctions, pushed by the Ukrainian crisis, will drop the Russian GPD by five percent per annum, and thus it will cause cutting of the Italian export by about 50%,” Prodi said.

“To let alone uselessness or imminence of the sanctions, one should highlight a clear skew: regardless of the rouble rate against dollar, which is lower by almost a half, the American export to Russia is growing, while the export from Europe is shrinking.”

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MildSteel said:

Well there is no use discussing with a COIN, but nonetheless



Russia's financial crisis may bury Putin's Eurasian dream | Reuters



TASS: Economy - Eurasian Economic Union set to abandon dollar, euro

Not only did Obama screw Russia, he screwed Europe as well, but they don't have a choice. They were forced to go along with it. That's why Victoria Nuland said f the EU. Obama plays a rather shrewd game.



Weaker Russian economy is extremely unprofitable for Italy - Romano Prodi | Russia & India Report

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Simpleχity;1064364423 said:

The overarching external economic purpose of the EEU is increased trade relations with China and the ten member ASEAN bloc. The EU is incidental to this core objective.

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Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have agreed to set up a full-fledged economic bloc that should act as a bridge between Europe and Asia and a counterweight to Western integration unions.

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Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed the historic Eurasian Economic Union which will come into effect in January 2015. Cutting down trade barriers and comprising over 170 million people it will be the largest common market in the ex-Soviet sphere.

"The just-signed treaty is of epoch-making, historic importance," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
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"A new geopolitical reality of the 21st century is born,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said shortly after the final treaty was signed by the three leaders.

“We see this as an open space and a new bridge between the growing economies of Europe and Asia,” Nazarbayev added.

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The Russian ambassador to the European Union has, on the founding-day of the new Moscow-led Eurasian Union, invited members of the European Union to abandon their close ties and pending trade agreement with the United States and instead join with Russia.

The invitation came alongside a dose of ridicule aimed at the United States, including a jibe at America’s food health standards, which are often quite different to those in Europe. Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan signed the new Eurasian Union into existence on New Years day, which replaces a former customs union, and Kyrgyzstan will join later.

Russia had initially hoped the Ukraine would join the Union at its inception, however a strong preference for joining the European Union among citizens of the West of the nation led to a bitter civil war last year that has seen the nation split into a number of factions and territories. Despite that, the Russian ambassador didn’t believe there was any reason why the Ukraine crisis should prove a stumbling block to Eurasian and European Union integration.

According to Russian-backed news service Sputnik, the Eurasian Union “intends to avoid some of the mistakes that have blighted and burdened the European Union — in particular, the imbalances in migration that have created serious domestic problems for member states such as UK that attract large numbers of migrant workers from other, poorer EU countries”.

Speaking to European news service EUobserver, Russian ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said: “Our idea is to start official contacts between the EU and the EAEU as soon as possible. Chancellor Angela Merkel talked about this not long ago. The EU sanctions [on Russia] are not a hinder”.

“I think that common sense advises us to explore the possibility of establishing a common economic space in the Eurasian region… We might think of a free trade zone encompassing all of the interested parties in Eurasia”.

“Do you believe it is wise to spend so much political energy on a free trade zone with the USA while you have more natural partners at your side, closer to home? We don’t even chlorinate our chickens”, a reference to American food manufacturing processes.

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Mason66 said:

Can we put this Obama accomplishment of saving the US Dollar up there with his Nobel Peace Prize?

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Ockham said:

not linked to Obama saving Western Ukraine

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The Kremlin saw Ukraine, the third biggest economy behind Kazakhstan and Russia in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of 11 former Soviet republics, as a vital member of the new union.

But after Crimea was annexed by Russia in March last year and Moscow supported separatists in eastern Ukraine, the country's central bank chief, Valeriia Gontareva, summed up Kiev's position toward Moscow.

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Fearandloathing said:

yeah "up" as in where the sun don't ever shine

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MildSteel said:

Like I said folks, just believe the opposite

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Ockham said:

You're quote identifies Russia and former Soviet republics - Crimea annexed by Russia.

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Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, was quoted by state news agency Xinhua late on Thursday as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to "abandon the zero-sum mentality" with Russia.

He said the "nature and root cause" of the crisis was the "game" between Russia and Western powers, including the United States and the European Union.

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MildSteel said:

Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia's security concerns over Ukraine | Reuters

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Ockham said:

Where's the part where Obama saves Western Ukraine from Putin in that "root cause"?

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As reported by the Financial Times, on Thursday, hours before meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference that the US is to prevent Russia from integrating more closely with its neighbors in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

“There is a move to re-Sovietise the region,” said the US Secretary of State. “It’s not going to be called that. It’s going to be called a customs union, it will be called Eurasian Union and all of that. But let’s make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it.”

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MildSteel said:

If the situation in Ukraine does not result in a military conflict between the U.S. and Russia, Obama will have successfully taken western Ukraine from Russian control. This combined with the crippling effects of the current sanctions that have been imposed against Russia, along with the huge decline in the price of oil means that Russia's Eurasian Union project has been stifled for a long time. The Eurasian project would have fused European and Russian resources into a formidable union that would rival the economic power of the U.S. and thus would have severely eroded though not entirely destroyed the power of the U.S. dollar. As such Obama may have saved the U.S. dollar.

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MildSteel said:

Do I have to draw pictures?

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A Kremlin aide was quoted on Tuesday as saying that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to US banks.

Mr Sergei Glazyev, who is often used by the authorities to stake out a hardline stance but does not make policy, was cited by RIA news agency as saying Moscow could recommend that all holders of US treasuries sell them if Washington freezes the US accounts of Russian businesses and individuals.
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“If sanctions are applied against state structures, we will be forced to recognize the impossibility of repayment of the loans that the US banks gave to the Russian structures. Indeed, sanctions are a double-edged weapon, and if the US chooses to freeze our assets, then our equities and liabilities in dollars will also be frozen. This means that our banks and businesses will not return the loans to American partners,” he said.

Additionally, Glazyev said, Russia would likely dump the dollar to reduce its dependence on the U.S. financial system and switch to other currencies. “We have wonderful economic and trade relations with our Southern and Eastern partners,” he said. “We will find a way not just to eliminate our dependence on the U.S. but also profit from these sanctions.”

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New Integration Project for Eurasia – Making the Future Today

January 1, 2012, will see the launch of a key integration project, the Common Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

This project is, without exaggeration, a milestone for our three countries and, in fact, for all post-Soviet states.
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Because of the global financial crisis, nations are looking for new sources of economic growth. This has made integration processes even more relevant. We are really facing the need to seriously upgrade our partnership principles, both in the CIS and in other regional alliances. We are focusing primarily on developing trade and industrial cooperation.

Essentially, we need to turn integration into a stable and long-term project that will be easy to understand and attractive to people and businesses and that will not depend on ever-changing political – or any other – circumstances.
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Since July 1, 2011, we have removed all border controls for the circulation of goods within our three countries, which signaled the emergence of a full-fledged customs union with clear prospects for implementing even the most ambitious business initiatives. Now we are taking it a step further, moving on from the Customs Union to the Common Economic Space. We are setting up a huge market with some 165 million consumers, with harmonized laws and with the free circulation of capital, services and manpower.

It is crucial that the CES be based on coordinated efforts in key institutional areas: macroeconomics, fair competition, technical regulations, agricultural subsidies, transport, and natural monopolies’ tariffs. In time, we will also harmonize our visa and migration policies, which will enable us to cancel border controls on our internal borders. In other words, we will have our own version of the Schengen Area, which proved to be very helpful to the Europeans themselves and to all the people coming to the EU to work, study or travel.

We no longer need to maintain security along the 7,000 kilometer border between Russia and Kazakhstan. Furthermore, we will now have much better conditions for developing cross-border cooperation.

Once migration, border control and other restrictions (such as the “labor quotas”) are removed, people will be completely free to choose where to live, study and work. Incidentally, even in the Soviet Union, people were not as free to move because of the residence permit system.

We will also significantly increase the amount of goods one can bring in for personal use without paying customs duties. Thus, people will not have to queue at customs; neither will they have to undergo humiliating inspections.
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The establishment of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space lays the foundation for the formation of a future Eurasian Economic Union. At the same time, the membership of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space will grow gradually with the full-scale accession of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Not wanting to stop there, we are setting ourselves the ambitious task of going to the next level of integration: the Eurasian Union.

What prospects and perspectives do we see for this project?

First of all, it is not about recreating the USSR in any form. It would be naïve to try to restore or copy what is already a thing of the past. However, close integration on a platform of new values, politics, and economics is what is currently called for.

We are suggesting a model of a powerful supranational union that can become one of the poles of today’s world while being an efficient connecting link between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region. This also means that, on the base of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, we need to achieve closer coordination of currency and economic policies and establish a full-fledged economic union.

The combination of natural resources, capital, and strong human potential will make the Eurasian Union competitive in the industrial and technological race and the race for investor money, new jobs, and advanced production facilities. Along with other key players and regional institutions such as the EU, the USA, China, and APEC, it will ensure the sustainability of global development.
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DaveFagan said:

It is that old bugaboo from Vietnam political gimmickry, the "domino effect." The dominos have been falling neatly from Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and OOPS, two of the pieces have fallen off of Ukraine and the NATO did not get it's complete domino. The backstabbing and chicanery involved have revealed the true nature of players using a more subliminal technique to this point. NATO's banks are aligned and all others likely become NATO's adversaries. A banking cartel "War of Choice" brought to the World by the Peace Prize President. The President has 60% of the World's money and 16% of the World's population and 16% of the World's resources in his corner, but the Central Bankers truly believe the Central Banker can control the World. Yes indeedy! Somebody got it goin' on, don't ya' know? Not to worry, those Saudi Arabian scumbags is on the Banker's side. Scumbag Wahabis , beheadin' dictatin' low lifes, but they our very own low lifes. Perhaps likes attract, or not?

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