Statista: Russian Trade Surplus Surges Amid Rising Tensions
Amid rising tensions between Russia, Ukraine and the West, Russia’s oil and gas exports rebounded sharply in 2021. According to the Bank of Russia, crude oil exports climbed to $32 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, the highest level since 2014.
As a result of surging energy prices, the country’s total oil and gas exports, including oil products and liquified natural gas, exceeded $240 billion last year, up 60 percent from $150 billion in 2020, when energy prices had slumped at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to figures from the Russian Finance Ministry cited by Reuters, the oil price averaged $69 per barrel in 2021, up from around $40 in 2020. The average price of natural gas exported by Russia reached $277 per 1,000 cubic meters in Q3 2021, up from less than $100 in Q2 2020, amid the Covid crash.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: If it was not for sanctions I can only imagine where the Russian economy will be.
8 comments:
Like I said Russia should have joined the EU. But the the oligarchs would be cut down to size, but still rich, and politics would be messier and harder. Russia would replace Germany as the leading country.
Would Russia need security guarantees then, when it would be the leader?
It would be messy and fraught with danger. It would be full of mediocraties and worse.
Did the Russians target the wrong person when they went after Viktor Yanukovych?
the EU would never let Russia in
This article may be the answer to an earlier question of how Putin can afford to forward deploy an army for such a prolonged period. Biden could make things much more difficult for Putin by turning fracking, oil fields, and pipelines back on. Increase supply and drive oil prices down. Inflationary pressures in the USA would ease sparking real economic growth .
In the period from 1995 to 2005, why would not the EU let Russia in?
All sorts of American politicians were visiting Russia including the Green Party candidate. So why are Europeans so snooty?
I can think of 3 reasons
1) What happened to Dmitry Medvedev. So Europe would not trust the Russians
2) Chechnya
3) Basic superiority complex.
About #2 The Russians were right about Chechnya. Two of the most famous leaders from that time were not in favor of independence, so much as Jihad from Grozny to as far north as they could get.
About #1 Are the European leaders any better? More of their steps have been baby steps, but some of their steps to totalitarian government have been quite large and quite unmistakable. The French and Canadian government show as much. Canada is not in Europe, but it might as well be. It is much more European than American (North, South or West) in any sense.
Russia puts its opponents in psychiatric hospitals. France has been trying to do the same? Is there any difference in spirit? Because elections are hard, and it would be so much easier of the designated socialist leaders could run against no opposition.
Canada is special. The leader can call an opposition party member a NAZI, when her grandparent was NAZI death camp survivor, while having a the granddaughter of an actual NAZI in his cabinet.
Peter the Great went about Europeanizing the Russians. Russia had been under the European yoke for 2 centuries. The only reason the rest of Europe was not under the Mongol yoke was due to distance and chance. Russia is not under the Asiatic yoke now, but they are in different orbits and it will get worse without engagement.
Obviously both Germany and France didn't want Russia in because they'd lose their domination game. EU is ruled economically by Germany, and militarily by France, which is a nuclear power after all.
And then there's the corruption game. Only our corruption is allowed, not Russian.
Our corruption forces you to take life altering drugs, or else. Russia's corruption forces you to give and take bribes, or else.
I am the one proposing to let Russia in over several different blogposts.
I also greatly fear Russia. All my life.
I also believe "Only our corruption is allowed, not Russian."
Either way you are faced with corruption. I would rather face down the Mafia than a nuclear war and Russia has a huge Mafia. The Russian Mafia is even connected to the government. Well, it is the US also.
Reopening the Keystone Pipeline and kickstarting domestic energy production in the US would do more to hurt Russia than sanctions.
"Reopening the Keystone Pipeline and kickstarting domestic energy production"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sanctions appeared to have hurt. GDP of Russia went down 25% to 30% after 2014. The problem is that there are many confounding variables so it is hard to ascertain how much of it if any is attributable to sanctions. Don't ask a poet, because while they would have an opinion they would not know.
Post a Comment