Why America and Europe want to stop Russia's oil exports.
- Gurvinder Singh
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Almost all my young life, I grew up hating Russia. But where did this hate come from?
Russia and Russians have always been depicted as inherently evil by American and European movies, television programs, books, articles, etc.
Why do they do this?
The groundwork for the takedown of Russia by American business interests has been planned and put into action for nearly a century.
Politicians know that it is easy to make people go to war, just paint the target as a demon that threatens our very existence. Unfortunately, most of the world that follows the Western media blindly believes that Russia and China are evil and dangerous.
Fortunately, I woke up to reality after my several visits to Russia and Ukraine starting in 1985 and studying the country and interacting with Russians, that they were just as wonderful and screwed up, just like everybody else.
These experiences and study permits me to provide an unbiased view of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia, the largest country in the world, spans 11 time zones. It has vast resources of every kind. Fertile agricultural lands, minerals and massive reserves of fossil fuels. No wonder the Mongols, Turks, Japanese, Europeans and Chinese have coveted Russia for centuries.
The Cold War ended in 1991, when America and Europe defeated the Soviet Union politically and economically without firing a shot. The once mighty Soviet Union imploded and disintegrated into 15 independent Republics.
After that, America and Europe colonised Russia economically under the guise of helping her. Using the chaos arising out of the collapse, America placed their puppets in critical positions to lead the country. Capitalists and financiers in the West co-opted and financed a generation of criminals cum Oligarchs in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Russia became very feeble and fell prey to American and European Capitalism, reducing Russia to beggary. Russia became a third-world basket case.
Beginning in 2000, under Putin's able leadership, Russia has been able to crawl back to become an economic, political and military force to be reckoned with. One of the key drivers of Russian economic resurgence has been the Oil and Gas sector.
Oil and gas production and exports are vital to Russia's economic well-being, contributing 25% of its GDP, 50% of the federal budget and 70% of its export revenues.
For the countries in the Western part of the world, steeped in their Colonial mindset, Russia makes an extremely good target to be subordinated into a vassal state ripe for plunder. However, Russia has been able to defend its interests thanks to revenues from its Oil and Gas sector.
If the West could paralyse the Oil and Gas sector, then the takedown of Russia would be like a walk in the park.
How to paralyse the Oil and Gas sector?
Oil is found underground and has to be pumped out. Since oil is lighter than water, engineers often pump water into the oil well to force the oil out.
Russia is a country where everything freezes up in winter. Once an oilfield and an oil well start production, they are virtually never turned off.
The main reason is, if the oil flow is interrupted even for a short time, water in the pipelines and processing equipment would freeze and cause great damage to the oil reservoir and equipment. Restarting commercial production from an oil field and oil wells that have been shut down due to such damage could take at least 15 to 20 years to revive. Usually, new wells have to be drilled.
Oil fields typically plan for a few days to a couple of weeks of operational storage, rather than long-term reserves. Oil once pumped out must be promptly shipped somewhere. The alternative is to turn off the wells. And that would be economically disastrous. (The wells that shut down in 1991 & 1992 after the collapse of the USSR took 20 to 25 years to come back online.)
Until the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, Europe was the major destination of Russian oil, gas, coal and electricity.
America and Europe believed that if they sanctioned Russia and refused to take up Russian coal, oil and gas, the Russian economy would go into a tailspin and crash. The Rouble would become rubble, chaos would erupt, possibly even a civil war, and a hard-pressed Russian population would rise and overthrow the Putin-led government. The plan has always been to usher in a more pliable government favourable to the West.
Sure, the G7 countries would have to brave some hardship in the short run, but the conquest of Russia makes that price to pay relatively very attractive.
The fight is not between Ukraine and Russia, but the West and Russia, with Ukraine just being the battleground and the pawn.
Russia has now diverted most of its energy production towards Turkey, China and India, offering deep price discounts and attractive payment terms. The result is Russian oil and gas sector remains secure and profitable.
The West has imposed more than 21,000 sanctions against Russia without success. In fact, the sanctions have hurt Europe itself more than Russia. Europe is now suffering mainly due to uncompetitive energy costs. The UK and France are staring at a recession and IMF bailout packages. Their once high prestige and power continue to decline.
India and China have benefited from significant price discounts and payment terms given by Russia, helping to maintain high growth and lower inflation. It also provides sourcing diversification, a key requirement for energy security.
Europeans and Americans, using their media and multinational forums, constantly seek to portray India as a villain for looking after its own national interest. They seek to shame and now openly threaten and tariff India. They have so far been unsuccessful, but they will keep on trying.
Europe continues to buy huge Russian energy, but indirectly at much higher costs. They have also replaced cheap pipeline gas with expensive LNG from America at more than double the price.
The West's hypocrisy and hypocritical moral grandstanding have caused Europe a great loss, and it has become Asia's gain.
Interesting Links:
How to make men go to war? ~ Guru Wonder
India buys less oil from Russia in a month than Europe does in an afternoon ~ S. Jaishankar - India's Minister of External Affairs
'No Legal Basis': for EU's demand for Sanctions On Imported Russian Crude Oil ~ S. Jaishankar - India's Minister of External Affairs
"India Will Not Choose Sides" ~ S. Jaishankar - India's Minister of External Affairs
India will have its own side ~ S. Jaishankar - India's Minister of External Affairs
Britain's Leaders worried, UK may need an IMF bailout ~ The BBC
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