History shows that Western sanctions have never put a dent in Russian resolve

Daniel Fine
Columnist

There is an absence of history in Washington. Russia “encircled” with “sanctions” to deter war. The Republicans want to escalate into an air war with various ideas for intervention by air to offset Russian air superiority.

The Democrats oppose this as a risk of World War Three.

The lost history in the media and in Washington is in underestimating Russian resistance and self-sufficient go-it-alone nationalism.  

Only Moscow is shutting down over sanctions. Outside in the countryside nothing is softening via disruptions to trade and international banking or Moscow in the world.

Russia lost 23 million in the Second War and still celebrates its victory over Nazism every year.

That was the Soviet Union until 1990.  Yet,  Russia can restore its economic tools and return to a non-market to survive while at war with Ukraine as if it is pre-NATO.

The boycott of Russian oil in American and international markets simply shifts Russian oil into Russian market isolation, where it was in 1989. 

What is Russian oil? It is many grades, such as, Arabian Light, which is a Permian Basin characteristic. Is the State Department capable of enforcing or blocking specialized Russian oil from exporting? Or is it just “oil” from Russia while China can import  it as Arabian Light and then sell it as Chinese.

This is a regional and local war between European peoples and not a racial or cultural war. It is a war similar to the First World

War over boundaries and language with the difference that NATO speaks for Europe and did not exist in 1914.

Russia has delivered a counter-sanctions victory against the White House by destroying the Iranian Nuclear Treaty revival for now and after one year of negotiations.

Russia does not need chemical and biological warfare in Ukraine just as Washington does not need U.S.-NATO intervention in the skies over Ukraine.

What does Washington want in Ukraine as it prepares for primaries and the election in November? Will Russia with China prepare their own international financial rival globalized economy? 

Will Germany depend on New Mexican-Texas natural gas?

Who will become the “third” Rome?

Dr. Daniel Fine is an independent analyst and columnist who often contributes to the Farmington Daily Times.