International Observer | "U.S. Abuse of Sanctions Is Not a Panacea for World Problems"

The United States instigated the protracted conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and coaxed allies to continue to strengthen sanctions against Russia, causing a huge impact on global energy, finance, food, and industrial chains. The United States has often used unilateral sanctions to arbitrarily suppress other countries, causing dissatisfaction and criticism from many parties, and the entire international community has to pay for the bullying practices of the United States.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on July 8 local time that the United States will provide additional security assistance worth $400 million to Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in February, the total value of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine has reached about $7.3 billion. Seth Jones, director of the European Security Program at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that "there is a great risk of a continued expansion and spillover of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to the cycle of death, destruction, chaos and destruction for the sake of the people of Ukraine, Russia and the entire world. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development expects that world economic growth will fall by 1 percentage point this year due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and sanctions against Russia, and inflation will rise by 2.5 percentage points.

"The European economy is being sacrificed for the benefit of the United States"

As the driving force behind the Ukraine crisis, the United States continues to add fuel to the fire. The New York Times reported that senior officials in the United States and Europe are increasingly concerned that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict could last for years and spread to other parts of Europe. At present, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is continuing to have serious spillover effects, resulting in a large influx of Ukrainian refugees into european neighbors. The BBC reports that more than 12 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine since the conflict. More than 5.6 million people have fled to Ukraine's neighboring countries, and another 6.5 million have been internally displaced in Ukraine.

According to United Nations statistics, Poland has received more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees, and Romania, Russia and Hungary have received more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees. The Polish government, which hosts the most Ukrainian refugees, said it needed more funding from the European Union. Moldova, the country with the largest number of refugees per capita, has repeatedly appealed to the international community for assistance.

The Vienna Institute for International Economic Research in Austria commented that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict would lead to a serious humanitarian crisis that "unfortunately will almost certainly continue to intensify". All aspects of Europe's economy and society face enormous risks and challenges. Conflict will lead to fundamental changes in European integration, security and energy politics. Parts of Central and South-Eastern Europe, including EU member states, could be affected by the financial crisis.

For some time, energy prices in EU countries have risen sharply, driving prices in various sectors to rise, and inflation rates in some countries have reached new highs in decades, all of which are borne by ordinary Europeans. To prevent inflation from deteriorating further, the ECB had to prepare for its first rate hike in more than 10 years, planning a 25 basis point hike in July. Markets are concerned that as the ECB ends its bond purchases, the cost of financing for debt-burdened eurozone countries will climb sharply, posing the risk of a debt crisis and recession. The European Commission's recent economic outlook report predicts that the EU economy will grow by 2.7% and 2.3% respectively this year and next, down from the 4% and 2.8% forecast in the February outlook.

Cubans marched in Havana on May 1 for the International Workers' Day rally. On May 1, millions of people took to the streets to oppose the U.S. blockade against Cuba, express patriotic feelings, and pay tribute to Cuban medical workers and researchers. Xinhua News Agency

Bassem Tajerding, a former Venezuelan diplomat, said the proxy war instigated by the United States had devastated the European economy, and the whole of Europe was paying for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. "The European economy is being sacrificed for the benefit of the United States."

"The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has a domino effect and will have a profound impact on the whole world"

Under the impact of the chain reaction of conflicts and sanctions, the world stock market, currency market, crude oil, natural gas, grain and non-ferrous metal futures markets continue to fluctuate repeatedly. National Public Radio commented that the chain reaction of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and sanctions against Russia has brought a series of collateral damage to the world. Even more seriously affected are those developing countries whose economic foundations are already weak, and their food security, economic development and social stability will be threatened.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, conflicts have led to rising prices for food, fuel and fertilizers, and the rapid deterioration of the world economic outlook, with the situation in Africa and the least developed countries being the most worrying.

According to the Analysis of new York-based Endicott Group, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and sanctions against Russia have seriously impacted many industries such as energy, commodities, telecommunications, and semiconductors. Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of several key materials for the semiconductor industry. The inability of many countries to obtain relevant materials from the two countries will bring new upward pressure on the prices of mobile phones, data center components, vehicles and other products.

CNN commented that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continues to cost the world, and "as always, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has a domino effect and will have a profound impact on the world." The impact is expanding, and from small towns in the United States to Africa, no one on the planet is immune.

The Swiss Institute of Global Affairs recently published an analysis that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and sanctions against Russia will cause supply chain ruptures and have a huge impact on the Middle East, Africa and other regions. Shortages of food and wheat supplies can put heavy pressure on the mediterranean region. Countries such as Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, which are dependent on Russian and Ukrainian food exports, will test the security architecture in some regions, and in some areas may even have new forms of proxy war.

At present, more than one-third of the wheat imports from 45 African countries and LDCs comes from Russia and Ukraine. A recent article on the German foreign policy website said that the Arab world is facing a possible food crisis, and rising food prices are likely to have a knock-on effect.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Fransa criticized the way the United States and other Western countries handled the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine, believing that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia would seriously damage the interests of developing countries and economic development. Guterres also said another crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is destroying global energy markets, disrupting the financial system and exacerbating the vulnerability of developing countries. The spillover effects of conflict are causing a "silent attack" on developing countries, and the potential global harm is limitless.

"Washington creates crises around the world and reaps the benefits of them"

A study published by the ATLANTIC COUNCIL of the United States recently held that the United States has co-opted Western allies to impose the most severe package of sanctions against Russia so far, with the clear goal of weakening the Russian economic and financial system, the most influential of which is the sanctions imposed on the Russian central bank. It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will affect the situation in Ukraine in a substantial manner

It is no secret that the US "Newsweek" website published an article by columnist Daniel De Petris criticizing that it is no secret that the US government often imposes economic sanctions on foreign countries. In response to a reporter's question in late March, President Biden said that sanctions against Russia have cost many countries, and a large number of countries have food shortages.

For a long time, in order to maintain hegemony, the United States has used its dominant position in the global economic and financial system to arbitrarily impose sanctions on countries that it regards as its enemies or rivals, and has also imposed "secondary sanctions" on third parties with which it has dealings with them, which has seriously violated international law and the basic norms governing international relations. The Abuse of Unilateral Sanctions by the United States continues to intensify contradictions, causing serious disruption to the operation of the global economy and harming the people of relevant countries.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the number of sanctions imposed by the United States has increased 10-fold over the past 20 years. The current U.S. administration has not fundamentally changed any of the sanctions plans of its predecessor. As of October 1, 2021, the cumulative number of sanctions in force in the United States has reached 9,421.

Daniel Drezner, a professor at Tufts University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, once wrote in The Diplomacy magazine that the sanctions did not meet the goals of U.S. foreign policy. A 2019 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said even the federal government doesn't necessarily know when sanctions will go into effect, and officials at the U.S. State, Treasury and Commerce departments say they "did not assess the effectiveness of the sanctions."

The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a U.S. think tank that evaluated about 200 cases of economic sanctions in the 20th century, concluded that U.S. policymakers often use simple equations to equate "greater pressure on economic sanctions" with "greater likelihood of capitulation by sanctions," an idea that has often been proven wrong. Sanctions often fail to produce the desired policy outcomes, and "the abuse of sanctions by the United States is not a panacea for the world's problems."

In a televised speech, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei pointed out that a major source of the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine is the policy of the United States to create a crisis. "Washington creates crises around the world and profits from them."

Source: The New York Times