The United States and Europe "beat up" Russia, but exposed a fatal weakness, putin counterattack is about to begin. Russia's all-out war against Ukraine is tantamount to hitting all Western countries with a stick, so that those Western countries that once arrogantly threatened Putin with "no war on Ukraine" are almost unable to lift their heads. As a result, the sanctions imposed by the United States and European countries on Russia have been round after round. The attempt to adopt a "group fight" approach makes Russia pay the price.
However, behind the ferocious sanctions of Western countries, Russia has left a fatal weakness that can be counterattacked. After the end of the meeting, the European Union imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia, including making it impossible for Russia to buy technology and equipment to upgrade its refineries, nor to purchase aircraft parts from the West.
This follows the Eu,D.C., along with the United States, and Russia in launching tough sanctions, including prohibiting Russia from financing, securities trading, and settling in dollars, euros, and yen in the West. However, according to the BBC, the EU's sanctions package does not include Russia's export of natural gas to the EU. The reason is that the EU has not been able to shed its dependence on Russian gas supplies.
Coincidentally, US President Biden also announced the imposition of "devastating sanctions" on Russia a few days ago, but there are also "forbidden areas" of the United States itself, that is, the sanctions program does not include Russia's oil and gas exports. As we all know, energy exports are the main pillar industries of the Russian economy, and the United States and European countries dare not impose sanctions on Russian energy exports, which is equivalent to making their own sanctions means, and the harm caused by Russia's economic interests is "scratching the itch in the shoe".
On the one hand, the West clamors to let the Russian economy suffer "devastating damage", and on the other hand, it does not dare to involve the "forbidden area" of Russian energy exports. This does not mean that the West "found that its conscience" could not bear to let the Russian people suffer from hunger and poverty. On the contrary, the West's heavy dependence on Russia's energy supply, as well as the serious impact of the obstruction of Russian energy exports on the stability of international oil prices, have become unbearable pain for the West.
After the start of Western sanctions against Russia because of the Russo-Ukrainian War, international commodity prices such as energy, food and metal materials immediately soared. The result is a rapid spike in oil prices and prices in the United States and Europe, further pushing up inflation in Western countries. In this regard, experts from professional brokerage institutions in the United States predict that if Russia completely stops energy exports, it will lead to a surge in international energy prices of more than 40%, while the inflation rate in the United States and European countries will also soar to about 10%.
Today, the European energy crisis continues, and inflation in the United States remains high. The soaring prices of commodities such as energy caused by the sanctions against Russia will have a disastrous impact on the economic recovery and people's livelihood environment in the West. Therefore, when the West imposes comprehensive sanctions on Russia, Russia's energy exports can survive.
Obviously, the West's jealousy of Russia's energy exports undoubtedly provides Putin with another important trump card for countering Western sanctions, further strengthening the Kremlin's determination to counter Western sanctions. According to the Global Network, Russian Federation Commission Chairman Matviyenko said on the 25th that Moscow is ready to impose retaliatory sanctions on Western countries.
Prior to this, the Russian Foreign Ministry had issued a warning in response to the us sanctions against Russia, saying that "Russia's countermeasures will make the West feel painful." Obviously, if Russia is pushed to rush and risk losing both, it will interrupt oil and gas exports to the West as a means of countering the United States and Europe, and the result will be that the Western economy and people's livelihood will be trapped in the predicament of soaring prices of other commodities due to the energy crisis.
Russia itself is one of Europe's major energy and food exporters, which has become one of Russia's killer tools to counter Western sanctions in addition to military means. Therefore, the weakness exposed by the Western sanctions against Russia is very likely to become the target of Russia's precision strikes. Once Russia does impose an energy or food embargo on the West, the result will be that Western sanctions against Russia will become a double-edged sword that hurts others and harms itself, and the days of the two sides will be equally difficult.