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Monday, western oil companies announced their plan to abandon Russia. The UN, the EU and other countries have applied their sanctions hoping it’s enough to get Putin to cut it out. Here’s hoping.
In a moment of compassion, gazillion dollar oil companies have made the decision to lose money bigly and abandon high-dollar profits in Russian oil.
“Oil and gas giants BP and Shell announced they are leaving Russia after spending decades making investments worth billions of dollars in the country, while several U.S. companies are halting all shipments to Russia.”
BP and Shell Are Leaving Russia. These Other Oil Companies Could Face Pressure Next. https://t.co/NQiUxZ0zqm
— Businesshala (@businesshalaa) March 1, 2022
Since when do crony crapitalistic oil companies have a heart? Don’t get your hopes up, it’s about cancel culture and optics. No one wants to be anywhere near Putin right now.
‘The exodus is expected to continue as more businesses weigh the reputational and financial risks of doing business with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
So far, Shell and British-based BP are packing their bags.
Twitter is waiting for Exxon to do the same.
#Exxon (XOM) Faces Stark Choice After Rivals #BP, #Shell Abandon #Russia – Bloomberg #ukraine #oott #Putin https://t.co/sp9CaIcPra
— Umud Shokri Ph.D.🛢 (@ushukrik) March 1, 2022
The exodus goes beyond uber-rich oil execs too.
“…global bank HSBC and the world’s biggest aircraft leasing firm AerCap joined a growing list of companies looking to exit Russia on Monday, as Western sanctions tightened the screws on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The West has moved to punish Russia with a raft of measures, including closing airspace to Russian aircraft…”
Cheer all you want, but what do these actions actually accomplish? Nothing. Ask the Ukrainians–the Russians are on their streets. These corporate moves simply mean crony capitalist oil companies don’t want to be associated with Putin.
Speaking of feeling the hurt, earlier Monday, the Russian ruble tanked in value.
“The ruble fell about 30% against the dollar Monday — making it worth less than 1 U.S. cent…A weaker ruble could cause inflation to surge, potentially angering Russians whose budgets will be stretched by soaring prices. It will also add to strains across Russia’s financial system…A sharp devaluation of the ruble would mean a drop in the standard of living for the average Russian, economists and analysts said. Russians are still reliant on a multitude of imported goods and the prices for those items are likely to skyrocket.”
Yes, Biden has managed to spike inflation to record numbers in two countries. He hasn’t stopped Putin’s military march, however.
Who is going to feel the hurt from these chivalrous moves? Not Putin. None of these efforts are stopping the Russian caravans making haste to the capital of Ukraine. It is putting the financial hurt on the Russian people
The hurt is only beginning. The bloodbath about to happen in Kyiv compared to the potential embarrassment a corporate oil CEO might have fearing a picture of sharing a Bloody Mary with Vladimir might show up on Instagram seems trivial. If that what it takes to get western business interests out of Putin’s wallet, I’ll take it.
CEO’s should be embarrassed at their shallowness. At of the writing of this article, there is a Russian military caravan forty miles long and four vehicles wide making haste to Kyiv, Ukraine. While the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people is heartwarming, it is about to be snuffed out by Vladimir.
#Satellite images of the private #American company Maxar show many kilometers long columns of #Russians military equipment approaching #Kyiv from the northwest. It is located a few dozen kilometers from the city#Ukraine #UkraineRussia #Ukrainian #UkraineInvasion pic.twitter.com/bjM4l6Gaka
— Ukraine Russia War Update #Украина Россия (@ImSandeepbhati) March 1, 2022
Thank you to corporate CEO’s for growing a conscience and making the costly decision to abandon Russia. Thank you to the other corporations making the same move. No thanks to Biden for reversing America’s energy independence. What happened to “no blood for oil” mantra lefties were known for during the Iraq war?
The big players in this mess are making moves to feel better about themselves. Those who will feel the true hurt are the Ukrainians, the Russian people and Americans.
No thanks to Biden for creating insane inflation in the U.S. with insane gas prices around the corner. By the way, Joe, how is Hunter these days? Is Hunter planning to cut his ties to corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs energy deals too?
If crony capitalists are willing to break key ties with corrupt oil, it begs the question why our President isn’t considering the same.
Feature Photo Credit: Resurrection Gate, Moscow, Russia by Bart Slingerland, via Wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license, cropped.
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American Human says: Just FYI, I’ve been to the place shown in your photo many many times. Right in the center is a big circular brass token imbedded in the ground showing that it is the geographic center of the city. If one tosses a coin into the air and closes their eyes, they will get their wish. Also, to the right is the area where men dressed up as Stalin, Lenin, and Nicolas II will let you get a picture of them for a dozen or so rubles. When I was there, the ruble was R30/$. Now it is up to about R120/$.
BTW, while your eyes are closed, some little old ladies will take the coin as soon as it hits the ground.
Now to the subject:
While this big convoy is big and filled with motorized tanks and vehicles, they are mostly manned by barely trained conscripts making $4/day and scared out of their boots. They’re traveling along a nice paved road in the broad daylight and are a nice big target. Putin does not care a whit about his troops being killed, the Russians never have really. They may or may not be able to pull this off, but it is more of a media construct than a fully-armed and trained lethal army attacking a pathetic group of civilians.
We’ll see. I do believe Putin is not acting rationally.
Frankie Five Angels says: This is not about ‘compassion.’ They’re afraid they’ll be charged ex post facto with crimes for trading with the Russian economy. Aiding and abetting and all that. They did it to innocent Canadians, they’re just itchin’ to hit the big petrocorps with it.
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