JRL NEWSWATCH: “How to wage the financial war against Russia’s economy” – Washington Post
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“The war in Ukraine is being waged on the battlefield but also globally … [T]he latter theater might be the more decisive … the financial and commercial terrain where the West’s sanctions have been deployed … [T]he effort to subvert Russia’s economy might eventually do more to end the war than any new weapons system or fresh breakthrough along the … 600-mile front line. As with hopes that Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive would quickly smash … Russian defenses, predictions that the Kremlin would soon be brought to its knees by … sweeping sanctions have proved overly optimistic. So far, Russian troops dug in behind some of the world’s densest minefields have been resilient. For the most part, so has Russia’s economy, buffered by deep stores of natural resources. …”
Among other subjects, several points are raised about the oil trade. Efforts to force a lower Russian oil price cap would have to be taken to the extreme before they actually obliterated Russian profits, given that Russian oil production costs might be as low as $15 per barrel. Meanwhile, if the Kremlin were to retaliate by slashing oil production, the production cuts and their repercussions could end up alienating the global south that Russia has been courting politically and economically.