Russia Is Preparing For Severe Economic And Political Sanctions From The West

)

Russia Said To Be Preparing For Iran-Style Sanctions -- SFGate/Bloomberg

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Russian government officials and businessmen are readying for sanctions resembling those applied to Iran after what they see as the inevitable annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region, according to four people with knowledge of the preparations.

Iran-style retaliation from the West, which would include freezing Russia’s foreign reserves, banking assets and halting lending to companies, is being treated as an unlikely worst-case scenario, according to the people who asked not to be identified as the talks are under way. Officials are calculating the cost to the economy, the people said.

Some political leaders are hoping that President Vladimir Putin will moderate his response to the crisis, the people said. A sanctions war, with Russia retaliating against the West, could wipe out 10 years of achievements in financial and monetary policy, one of them said. Such escalation could erase as much as a third of the ruble’s value, another said.

Read more ....

My Comment: Trade between Russia and Europe is almost $1 billion a day. Any sanctions would have a detrimental impact on the economies of both West and East. But what concerns me is that while the West is being cautious .... Russia is preparing for the worst case scenario. In short .... they are preparing for the worst case scenario because they will be provoking it in the next week or two .... by consolidating their control of Crimea, and (and I am speculating here) by seizing other regions of eastern Ukraine. For once US Secretary of State Kerry may be right .... sanctions against Russia could 'get ugly fast'.