The US think-tank the Atlantic Council writes about the use of sanctions against Russia. In recent times calls for the lifting of the sanctions against Russia after their term expires in July 2016 is gaining momentum all over Western Europe. On April 28th the French parliament adopted a non-binding resolution recommending that the EU trade and other restrictions on Russia be removed. Numerous similar statements have been made in other EU countries in recent months.
For example, in Berlin the German business community continues to stubbornly protest against the extension of the anti-Russian sanctions, since they are mostly ineffective, but on the contrary, are extremely dangerous for the economy of the European Community. In most cases, the sanctions had little effect on the state of the Russian economy. In fact, they had only a minor impact and relatively minor consequences for Moscow over the past two years. Of course, the share of European investment in Russia decreased significantly, but the main factor of the Russian economic recession began due the oil market price volatility.
However, thanks to the drop in the oil prices and the introduction of the European sanctions, Russia has begun to reduce its dependence on the price of commodity exports, as well as to establish relations with the countries of East Asia and Latin America. In turn, retaliatory sanctions from Moscow have had an extremely negative impact on the state of the European economy. The decline in trade relations between Europe and Russia has led to the fact that many Western European companies have suffered significant losses, the unemployment rate also increased against the background of the restrictions.
It is worth noting that even if the Western sanctions are lifted in the near future, it is unlikely to change the situation in Russia and in Europe significantly. Over the past two years, Moscow was partially able to compensate for the interrupted trade links with Europe due to the new partners from other regions of the world. The import substitution policy has improved the production of domestic production, agriculture and industry have received strong governmental support. It is unlikely that the Russian companies will terminate contracts with their new trading partners in favor of Europe, which once interrupted relations under US pressure. Thus, the anti-Russian sanctions have become a catalyst for the Russian economy, but, at the same time, they have a negative impact on the structure of the European economic system.
The independent analytical publication writes about the consequences of rejecting the dollar on the oil market. According to analysts, Russia is ready to take another step toward giving up petrodollars in the framework of the ruble pricing program based on Russian oil production.
Step by step, Russia, China and some other countries with emerging economies are taking steps to reduce their dependence on the US dollar. Such actions could have extremely negative consequences for the US economy, as well as the position of the petrodollar becoming shaky on the global market. If Russia fails to agree on the establishment of its own oil benchmark, the calculation for resource exports will be carried out in rubles, and oil is the world's largest commodity, the price equivalent of which is expressed in dollars, with a transition to rubles the US currency will cease to be one of the two pillars of Washington's hegemony in the world (the other is military superiority)
Moscow is not alone in its attempts to reject petrodollars. China, which competes with the US for the first place in the export of crude oil, is currently developing its own benchmark. Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and they also support a rejection of the US currency. It is possible that major changes in the global financial and trading structure are under way and they may greatly weaken the US position.
