Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the US and its allies have discussed trying to cap the price of Russian oil around $40-$60 per barrel as the West wants to limit Russia’s profits without sending the price of oil even higher. Oil is currently hovering around $100 per barrel on the global market.
But the US-proposed plan is doomed to fail as it requires Moscow’s cooperation, and experts are warning if Russia retaliates by cutting production, prices could skyrocket. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase said in the worst-case scenario, oil prices could soar to $380 per barrel.
Last week, President Biden attended a G7 summit in Germany, and the G7 leaders released a joint statement that said they were exploring the idea of a price cap on Russian oil. Japan, a G7 nation, has reportedly put forward a proposal to implement the price cap, prompting warnings from Russia.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned Japan that implementing the price cap could bring prices above $300-$400 per barrel, signaling Moscow would retaliate.
“There will be significantly less oil on the market, and its price will be much higher. Moreover, higher than the predicted astronomical price of $300-400 per barrel,” Medvedev said.
Japanese experts told the Russian news agency Tass that they don’t think the price cap is practical since it requires cooperation from China and India, which have significantly increased their purchase of Russian oil and are already buying it at a discount.
Demonstrating India and China’s increased imports, Bloomberg reported Russia has pocketed $24 billion in energy sales to the two nations in just two months. With the increase in exports to Asia, Russia has surpassed Saudi Arabia as China’s top oil supplier.
All these insane sanctions have brought us record inflation for the American people and subsidized oil for the rest of the world still buying Russian oil, now at a discount, courtesy of the western world.
Burt this time Russia will cooperate with the West. Be optimistic. At least in dreams
Inflation was in place prior to the invasion by Russia and sanctions. It was reported that inflation in 2021 was 7%.
More than 7% a month lately.. 7% inflation is almost nothing if the economy is booming…
It is amazing how slick Western narratives are. For narratives they are, not news. Example. Russia is selling oil at a discount. Often described as heavily discounted. As if Russia needs the fire sale to selll oil. In fact, Russia is selling oil that was once sold to Europe at a discount based on long term contract. All Russia is doing is NOT increasing the price to “friendly countries” but passing along the same discount Europeans had. Many other countries are buying, not just India and China. For Africa, Christmas came early.
Biden -economics is laughable and bad Irish joke.
Price cap Russian oil?
Please God,take this man with you,we are sick of his antics continue,
Send him with a sticker: DO NOT RETURN!
I’m joking. So please don’t repeat this to Joe. He might think it’s a great idea.
All we have to do to hurt Russia is to start a Great Global Depression. If nobody can afford to buy anything, they won’t be buying oil from Russia. Right?
Completely unenforceable. Just more PR for the plebes. This is what Andrei Martyanov constantly rails about: Western leaders are ignorant, uneducated, unaware of the real world of economic and military power, and living in a delusional world of greed and ego. They’ll get us all killed unless they’re taken down.
“But the US-proposed plan is doomed to fail as it requires Moscow’s cooperation..”
Dear Russia, please sanction yourself.
Thank you
-Joey B
Thank you for the chuckle!
And for putting it in the parlance of our times… (Rather like saying go eff yourself.)
So we burn down the forest because of one tree?
Almost sounds like a Chinese proverb…
canadian proverb-lol
Fuck Joe Biden
Thank you for using proper English!
As I thought, the move to take oil from the strategic reserve and sell is to India and China is meant to undercut Russia. I love certain pundits going ape sh*t, saying we were just shipping the stuff, with no strings attached. The price of gas will come down when the Seven Sisters is good and ready to bring the price down. I remember the “gas shortage” of the ’70s, perpetrated by oil and gas giants in the U.S. Putin has slapped a windfall tax on Gasprom. Biden is too much of a coward to do the same here.
Damn skippy!
US and allies become complete idiots when their previous idiotic acts don’t work…!
Western countries are run by morons.
I’m not well versed in this stuff but if gas is hovering around $5 a gallon and barrels are at around $100. Wouldn’t tripling the price of barrel subsequently triple the price of a gallon of gas?
“Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned Japan that implementing the price cap could bring prices above $300-$400 per barrel, signaling Moscow would retaliate.”
“There will be significantly less oil on the market, and its price will be much higher. Moreover, higher than the predicted astronomical price of $300-400 per barrel,” Medvedev said.
Those two paragraphs should end the discussions. They fucked up and gave Russia a warning and they got their answer.
Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters were spotted firing jamming cartridges on the fields in the southern Kherson region. Unable to perform any military operations on the front lines, the Ukrainian Air Forces are busy setting wheat fields on fire.
I’m not sure I understand.
The best I can make of it is that the US and its vassals — under US direction — will say to Russia, “We will only pay you $40-$60 a barrel for your oil. Suck on that!”
To which the Russians will likely reply, “Well that’s unacceptable, and we won’t sell our oil to you at that price.”
Then the US & vassals — in particular Europe — now cut off from Russian oil completely, have to go elsewhere for their oil. But since the world supply of non-Russian oil will not have increased, the increased demand by the US & vassals will drive up the price to — ??? — $200-$300 a barrel? (Which by the way, if I were predicting, would ***force*** even more of the world into buying Russian oil at its “deep discount”.)
Who in the West is ready for $15-$20 a gallon gasoline and diesel?
Help me out here, what am I missing?
And let me add one additional bit to the craziness of it all. Is it reasonable to say that the sanctions on Russia, the choking down of US oil production, and the blocking of Nordstream 2 have caused the current reduction in global energy supply and the consequent rise in prices? If so …
While the intent of the sanctions was to damage Russia, it is now apparent that it has had the opposite effect: the rise of oil and gas prices has been a $$$ windfall for Russia, and an economic catastrophe for the West.
Paradoxically, and in contrast, Russia might actually be damaged if the ***opposite*** approach were taken: open the spigots. Close down the sanctions. Open Nordstream 2. Lift the sanctions — temporarily, wink, wink — on Iran and Venezuela. Flood the world with oil and gas. Drive the world price for energy down to …??? … $40 a barrel maybe for oil?
Now yes, Russia would sell a lot of gas … but at a lower price. Supply and demand, after all. And Europe — and the US!!! –wouldn’t be suffering an economic meltdown. Maybe then the Ukraine war wouldn’t be such a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot economic catastrophe for the US/West and a windfall for Russia.
It’ll never happen of course … because the Neocons are incapable of admitting to, much less stepping back from their insanity.
Interesting times.
We have to suffer because Biden is repaying Ukraine’s coup regime for the bribes. Do not forget:
Ukraine has been attacking Russian Donbass for seven years, shelling it 20 times a day. This was never part of Ukraine other than on administrative Soviet paper – Ukraine is farther to the west. The people of Donbass rebelled when the elected president was overthrown in 2014 by a “spontaneous” coup where organizations financed by Biden bussed in operatives to Kiev. The orgs were financed by $5 billion, which his henchwoman Victoria Nuland bragged about.
(Obama called Biden “that old White man” and gave him peripheral duties like Ukraine policy. Biden exploited this. After the coup he got $50,000 per month by Ukraine-owned Burisma, via his then deeply drug-addicted son Hunter, who Burisma made a board member. Hunter’s laptop contained emails showing he gives half of all bribes to “the big guy”, Joe Biden, and this has been going on for many years.)
After the coup Nuland dictated the positions in the new coup government. The new minister of finance was a U.S. woman, Natalie Jaresko, quickly given Ukrainian citizenship.
The coup regime in Kiev destroyed the democratic president’s party. They banned newspapers and arrested politicians, and amassed 60,000 soldiers in the east to invade Donbass in the fall 2021. The shelling of Donbass’ cities increased to more than 100 a day. Much of this by the Azov Battalion, which also arrested random men, beat them and forced them to admit to being “traitors”.
The first coup president, Poroshenko, has admitted he only signed the Minsk Agreement, a peace agreement written in 2015 by France and Germany, to buy time. Russia and Donbass waited in vain, as France, Germany and Washington didn’t pressure him to keep his promise.
The presidents Poroshenko (blatantly corrupt even by Ukraine’s standards) and then Zelensky very likely took bribes to hand over 10% of farmland to China. Zelensky’s deeply unpopular “land reform” law sold out Ukraine’s land to oligarchs and foreigners and showed he was no better than Poroshenko. Zelensky dropped from 70% of votes to 30% approval in the summer of 2021, so he prepared an invasion of Donbass, hoping to turn the tables through a successful war. The top opposition party surged past him in the polls, so now he has banned that party and arrested its leader. With Biden saying nothing.
The OSCE observed increased shelling of Donbass from February 16th 2022, and Zelensky even signed a law about retaking Russian-inhabited Crimea by force. (A Crimea that has always been Russian, Ukraine didn’t extend to the peninsula. The Crimeans voted to belong to Russia in 1992 but Yeltsin refused. They voted again after the coup, and the UN confirmed the vote was correct. 97% wanted to belong to Russia. The coup regime then cut off their water and wheat imports from north of the peninsula, and their electricity from the nearby power plant. They also took the pensions from the old people in Crimea, same as they did with the old people in Donbass.)
The February 20222 shelling was a massive violation of the peace. This was a clear sign that the Ukrainian war plans had begun.
Tens of thousands of people fled to Russia after the 16th of February in 2022, a week before Russia crossed the border to stop the invasion of Donbass. These refugees are completely ignored by the media.
On February 15th the OSCE noted 41 explosions in the ceasefire areas.
This increased to 76 on the 16th,
316 on the 17th,
654 on the 18th,
1,413 on the 19th,
2,026 on the 20th and 21st,
1,484 on the 22nd.
Putin’s approval rating is 83 percent after stopping the invasion of Donbass. 14,000 ethnic Russians had already been killed since the coup in Kiev, and 1.5 millions were displaced.
Kiev has also waged war on the Russian language, closing thousands of Russian-speaking schools and setting up a phone number where people can report waiters and others for speaking Russian. “Nationalists” in the Azov Battalion’s orbit were known to methodically frequent restaurants and other places to check if there was someone to report. Today Russian literature and music is banned, along with movies – a movie Zelensky himself acted in is now forbidden, Love in the Big City 2, because the actors spoke Russian.
Using the war as a pretext the massively unpopular Zelensky has banned 11 opposition parties, banned newspapers and TV stations, centralized all TV news on a government platform.
Ukraine’s March 9 law Rada Bill 7116 imprisons people forever and steals all their money and belongings for “treason”. A woman was arrested for telling a friend that “I am waiting for Russia because I am for Russia”. Another man was arrested for having photos of Russian artillery fire and for owning Russian food rations. Vitaly Kim, governor of Nikolaev Oblast, said in an interview, “Today, a Russian blogger was shot dead in his car. This means there are still Russian traitors in Ukraine and all traitors will be executed.”
Aside from the arrests, many are beaten and forced to squat while taped to lampposts in Kiev and other cities as a form of torture. Filming this torture to show the world will also have you arrested.
Russia in the Donbass has intervened in the 3rd Donbass war. The first was in 2014 which lead to the Minsk agreements, which Ukraine broke. The second Donbass war was in 2015 which lead to the Minsk2 agreements, which Ukraine broke.
The latest Ukrainian assault began on February 16 when over several days Ukrainian artillery increased its bombardment of Donbas by a factor of 40. Ukraine had 100,000 NATO armed and trained troops on the border of Donbass. Russia went in to protect the Russian speaking people. For 8 years Ukraine has been indiscriminately shelling the people of the Donbass, tens of thousands have died.
Russia reacted to this shelling of civilian populations and on February 24 they preempted the planned NATO ground assault.
“Ukraine has been attacking Russian Donbass for seven years, shelling it 20 times a day. This was never part of Ukraine other than on administrative Soviet paper.”
Well, and on the paper used to print the treaty between the Russian Federation and Ukraine setting mutual borders.
But the Russian Federation’s relationship with treaties is similar to that of the US. It keeps them when convenient and uses them as toilet paper the instant it doesn’t like the outcome anymore.
..What happened to Don Bacon…..?????? The moron who was accusing Bianca of writing comments while intoxicated. If anyone appeared to be commenting while drunk, it had to be him. What kind of sophmoronic mindset would use such a smear on someone who posts in two languages here…??? I believe Bianca to be one of the top tier of knowledgeable and articulate commentators here. I wonder what good fortune removed Bacon’s twisted vitriol from this great forum…???
He decided to repeatedly violate the site’s guidelines after being warned about that, so he went away (and, for a few days, kept trying to come back under other accounts before giving up).