Russia Sanctions Strengthen Putin Says Former State Official

[Purveyor]

By Kevin G. Hall

McClatchy Washington BureauSeptember 25, 2014
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WASHINGTON The Obama administration’s successive round of sanctions against Russia are hurting U.S. companies while doing only limited damage to the Russian economy, the head of the US-Russia Business Council said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the headquarters of the National Foreign Trade Council, Daniel Russell suggested the White House is exaggerating the impact of sanctions imposed on some Russian state banks and portions of the energy sector.

“They’ve got a policy in place and they way to (portray) it as a success,” said Russell, who recently returned from a trip to Moscow and meetings with business leaders.

The White House has pointed to a sagging Russian economy and troubling inflation as a sign that U.S. and European sanctions are extracting a price on Russia for that nation’s border fight with neighboring Ukraine. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew earlier this month touted the fact that Russian growth “has fallen to near zero … and Russian financial markets continue to deteriorate.”

But Russell said Russia’s economy is suffering from challenges that preceded the sanctions and that the tactics taken by Washington have simply served to rally the Russian people around Vladimir Putin and fomented nationalism, hardly the intended effect of sanctions.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/09/25/241079_russia-sanctions-strengthen-putin.html?sp=/99/200/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

[OilemFirchen]

1. Funny!

World Bank Slashes Russian Growth Forecasts

The World Bank on Wednesday slashed its forecast for Russia's economy over the next two years, saying growth would stagnate amid a lack of structural reforms and Western sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict.

In its biannual report, the World Bank cut its forecast for Russian economic growth to 0.3% in 2015 and 0.4% in 2016 under its baseline scenario from 1.5% and 2.2%, respectively—well below the government's estimates.

...

"The economy is at the threshold of recession and will remain there for a while," said Birgit Hansl, the bank's lead economist on Russia and the main author of the report.

Russia's economic growth slowed to near zero in the first half of the year amid declining consumer activity, waning investment and the several rounds of the Western sanctions in response to Russia's policy toward Ukraine. Russia's government has lowered its forecasts, but still sees 1.2% growth in 2015 and 2.3% in 2016.

Buoyant Dollar Underlines Resurgence in U.S. Economy

The United States dollar, after one of its most prolonged weak spells ever, has re-emerged as the preferred currency for global investors. Across trading desks in New York, London and elsewhere, analysts are rushing to raise their dollar forecasts based on the resurgence in the American economy.

In part, this bullish mood is tied to signals from the Federal Reserve that it will soon stop its bond-buying program — a change that would lift interest rates and buoy the dollar.

Yet the recent rally in the dollar — it has gained about 3.2 percent against the euro since late August and about 8 percent against the yen since July 1 — underscores expectations that the United States economy will continue to grow at a faster clip than that of Europe, Japan and even large emerging markets, all of which are seeing their economies stagnate.

...

According to estimates from Nomura, the investment bank, the United States’ estimated growth of 3.1 percent next year outpaces that of Latin America, emerging and developed Europe, and Japan, with only the Asian bloc of nations, at 6.2 percent, performing better.

[Purveyor]

2. Equally as 'entertaining'... Deeper Sanctions Against Russia Could Result In Flat German Economic Gr

Deeper Sanctions Against Russia Could Result In Flat German Economic Growth: UBS Chairman

WASHINGTON, October 8 (RIA Novosti) -The impact on Germany of deeper sanctions against Russia could result in flat economic growth over the next 18 months, the chairman of the Swiss bank UBS, Axel Weber said on Wednesday.

"I think going forward if there is a full-fledged...Cuban, Iran type of embargo, expect German growth to be flat both in '14 and '15 ," warned Weber during his speech on the global economic outlook at the Peterson Institute. "So for the next one and a half years, with growth being penciled in at 1.4 percent, if the entire Russian exports disappear, that will be a challenging environment in Germany," he added.

Weber told RIA Novosti that following the unrest in Ukraine and Crimea's rejoining the Russian Federation, Germany "put itself at the core of the sanction regime against Russia." German exports to Russia account for approximately 1.4 percent of the country's GDP, according to Weber. In the second quarter, the impact of the sanctions, Russian embargo, and military conflict in Ukraine knocked one third of those exports off the state's balance sheets.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has argued that she is not considering lifting the sanctions regime, a number of German businesses have called for relief.

According to recent statements from Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, it will be up to the nations in the West who imposed the sanctions to decide whether or not to lift them. In the meantime, Russia will continue to work towards the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine as prescribed by the Minsk agreements.

more...

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20141009/193829752/Deeper-Sanctions-Against-Russia-Could-Result-In-Flat-German.html

[geek tragedy]

3. now there's an unbiased source for you. nt

[Blue_Tires]

4. I agree Putin has definitely used the excuse of sanctions to consolidate his power...

no big surprise