sanctions

Created
Tue, 24/01/2023 - 06:00

Immediately after Russian troops attacked Ukraine in February 2022, a group of Western countries – including the U.S., EU states, Australia, Great Britain and Japan – imposed tough sanctions against Russia. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced on March 1, 2022, that the West would wage “an all-out economic and financial war against Russia.” However, even after more than nine months, the sanctioned state, Russia, shows only moderate signs of economic weakening. On the contrary, revenues from oil exports have amounted to about $20 billion per month until mid-2022, a significant increase of about one-third from $14.5 billion per month in 2021. Not only can the Russian government continue the war of aggression, but it is also liquid enough to manage without exporting gas to Western Europe.

Created
Mon, 28/11/2022 - 18:02

Blaming migration on “repressive dictatorships” allows Washington to pretend that its policies are helping Nicaraguans, when in fact they are impoverishing them. This article was originally published on November 23, 2022 by COHA. Why are more Nicaraguans heading north to the United States looking for jobs? Until July 2020, numbers were tiny. But in the last 1½ years numbers have increased sharply. Suddenly this has become a story, and government detractors argue, with little evidence, that people are fleeing political […]

The post US sanctions and economic conditions drive Nicaraguan migration, while Washington blames repression appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Tue, 13/12/2022 - 14:42

Reporting from inside the federal courtroom where the US is prosecuting Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, The Grayzone learns of disturbing acts of diplomatic espionage. Saab’s advocates insist he is imprisoned for violating Washington’s economic blockade. Authorities in Cape Verde, opened official government communications which Venezuela intended for Iran, including a sealed letter sent by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following the arrest of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab in June of 2020. The revelations came […]

The post US trial of Venezuela’s Alex Saab exposes diplomatic espionage appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Wed, 14/12/2022 - 01:58

Reportando desde la corte federal donde Estados Unidos está procesando al diplomático venezolano Alex Saab, The Grayzone descubre actos perturbadores de espionaje diplomático. La defensa de Saab insiste que está encarclado por violar el bloqueo económico de Washington. Luego del arresto del diplomático venezolano Alex Saab en junio de 2020, las autoridades de Cabo Verde abrieron comunicaciones oficiales del gobierno de Venezuela destinadas a Irán, incluyendo una carta sellada que el presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro le envió al Líder Supremo […]

The post Juicio en Estados Unidos al diplomático venezolano Alex Saab revela espionaje diplomático appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Sat, 24/12/2022 - 06:30

While US attorneys twisted the Vienna Conventions to fit their case against Alex Saab, a bizarre exchange highlighted the judge’s apparent bias and confusion about U.S. Venezuela policy. MIAMI, FLORIDA – The trial of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab continued on December 20, when U.S. District Judge Robert Scola heard closing arguments in an evidentiary hearing concerned with whether or not the concept of diplomatic immunity applied to his case. The diplomat was arrested on June 12, 2020, while en route […]

The post Prosecution in Saab case threatens to undermine the principle of diplomatic immunity appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Sat, 07/01/2023 - 05:00

“I obeyed my conscience rather than the law,” ex-Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belén Montes declared on her way into a federal prison. Accused of spying for Cuba, she is a hero on the besieged island, where she foiled countless US destabilization operations. On January 8, 2023 the US has to release a federal prisoner who is known as one its most notable opponents of treatment of Cuba since its revolution. She is Ana Belén Montes, and she will be […]

The post Honored in Cuba and condemned by Washington, Ana Belén Montes walks free from federal prison appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Wed, 09/03/2022 - 18:11

The West is arraying financial weapons never deployed before against a country of Russia’s size, forsaking some of the principles that have defined it.

Part of what has defined the West – and most of what has been the world’s engine of prosperity for the past century and a half – has been the free flow of goods across borders, a working banking system, and property rights.

There’s been an implicit understanding that no sizeable nation (Russia’s economy is about the size of Australia’s) would be denied access to these things. Otherwise the financial system wouldn’t be the financial system.

That seems to have been the understanding of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But ten days ago, the West did the unthinkable, and the global financial system may never be the same again.