Salvini: Sanctions Against Russia Backfired, Citizens Are 'On Their Knees' With Soaring Energy Costs
President Joe Biden said sanctions against Russia were never meant to stop the invasion
Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s far-Right League party, said Sunday that the economic sanctions that have been leveled against Russia are taking their toll on the average Italian and are leaving citizens “on their knees.”
Daniele Franco, Italy’s economy minister, recently announced that the country’s net energy import costs will likely double this year and that Rome will not be able to “indefinitely to cushion the blow on the economy,” Reuters reported.
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“To keep offsetting, at least in part, rising energy prices through public finances is very costly and we could never do enough,” he said. “What matters is to bring the price of gas and energy back to sustainable levels.”
WHAT HE SAID: "Several months have passed and people are paying two, three, even four times more for their bills. And after seven months, the war continues and Russian Federation coffers are filling with money," he told RTL radio.
He tweeted earlier that “those who have been sanctioned are winners and those who put the sanctions in place are on their knees.”
He called on the EU to “protect businesses and families” like it did during the COVID-19 outbreak.
WHAT HAPPENED: Russia’s Gazprom announced that it will indefinitely suspend gas flow on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which sent the price of the benchmark Dutch TTF hub up to €281 per megawatt hour, up 31 percent. Russia blamed technical issues that cannot be resolved due to sanctions that have been imposed.
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PRICE CAP: EURACTIV said it obtained a leaked paper that outlines the European Commission plan to cap wholesale gas prices that would target Russia.
The process would cap the price of imported gas from Moscow and would set up pricing zones for countries that are particularly impacted by the prices. The paper admitted that the pricing zones will be more challenging to implement and “would require significant regulatory and technical complex preparations,” the report said.
WHAT THE TRENDS JOURNAL HAS BEEN SAYING: World War III has begun, and as the cover of the 22 February Trends Journal illustrates, it will escalate into a nuclear war. Today, the Russian embassy said what we have been saying “The United States continues to act with no regard to other countries’ security and interests, which contributes to an increase in nuclear risks.”
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“The [U.S.’s] steps to further engage in a hybrid confrontation with Russia in the context of the Ukrainian crisis are fraught with unpredictable escalation and a direct military clash of nuclear powers.”
Washington, the embassy noted, has exited from the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the 1992 Treaty Open Skies arms control agreements.
We have noted that the U.S. and NATO are not fighting a proxy war with Russia…they are at war with Russia. President Vladimir Putin made it clear when he told a conference in Moscow last month that “the situation in Ukraine shows that the U.S. is trying to prolong this conflict,” and Washington was doing all it can to expand its hegemonic military status.
After Russia invaded, Joe Biden said the sanctions he imposed on Moscow were “the broadest sanctions in history,” and that “Russia will pay a serious price.”
But the situation in Europe is about to get much worse, and cracks in the united front against Russia will begin to emerge as inflation has hit 8.9 percent for countries that use the euro. Energy costs have been seen as a main driver.