Russia sanctions? What sanctions?
RUSSIAN RUBLE SOARS ON HIGHER OIL PRICES
The Ruble Now the World’s Strongest Currency?
Nearly three years ago, the Truth in Media published an editorial “OILD WAR OF 2014” (Dec 7, 2014 – see an excerpt below). Assisted by Wall Street, George Soros and Saudi Arabia among others, the US government tried to bring Russia down to its knees by forcing the world oil prices to tumble.
Why? Because Russia is the world’s largest energy exporter, and the third largest oil producer (left). The country relies on oil and gas exports for 50 percent of its federal budget, and 70 percent of the country’s total exports.
UTTER FAILURE
Three years later, it is clear Washington-Wall Street collusion did not work. Greed and the self-interests of the energy producers and European and other consumers prevailed over Washington’s foreign policy dictates. The oil prices are surging again, and so is the Russian ruble.
Brent crude prices hit a 26-month high on the news Turkey has threatened to cut oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan. This gave a boost to the Russian ruble, which remains the world’s strongest currency against the US dollar in the last 12 months.
So the Oil War of 2014 ended up as an utter failure of Washington and Wall Street.
For more, see… Surging oil prices keep Russian ruble world’s strongest currency – https://on.rt.com/8o7j
A Truth in Media editorial
OIL WAR 2014: PRELUDE TO SHOOTING WAR?
December 7, 2014
In the old days of gallantry between the foes, a country would declare war by delivering a diplomatic note to the enemy’s head of state. Nowadays, the New World Order hooligans do it by shooting down an unarmed civilian aircraft.
The world did not realize it at the time, but the shoot-down of Malaysian flight MH-17 on July 17 was the starting gun of a new war between the West and the East (see HOW & WHY BOEING MH-17 WAS SHOT DOWN). So far, the shooting war has been confined only to the southeastern portion of Ukraine. But the economic war has already engulfed the entire planet.
A TWO-PRONGED ATTACK: OIL & RUBLE
What followed the downing of the MH-17 by Washington’s Ukrainian puppets was an oil price war. Crude oil prices tumbled 35% in the last five months. And Russia was the main target of this attack. Which is far more painful than any sanctions the US or the EU applied against Moscow.
Why? Because Russia is the world’s largest energy exporter, and the third largest oil producer (left). The country relies on oil and gas exports for 50 percent of its federal budget, and 70 percent of the country’s total exports.
A 35% drop in oil prices has deprived Russia of hundreds of billions of dollars in export revenues. Which means the country’s economy has been set back on its heels.
For more, see… http://wp.me/p3QU1S-F0
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OIL WAR 2014: PRELUDE TO SHOOTING WAR?
In the old days of gallantry between the foes, a country would declare war by delivering a diplomatic note to the enemy’s head of state. Nowadays, the New World Order hooligans do it by shooting down an unarmed civilian aircraft.
The world did not realize it at the time, but the shoot-down of Malaysian flight MH-17 on July 17 was the starting gun of a new war between the West and the East (see HOW & WHY BOEING MH-17 WAS SHOT DOWN). So far, the shooting war has been confined only to the southeastern portion of Ukraine. But the economic war has already engulfed the entire planet.
A TWO-PRONGED ATTACK: OIL & RUBLE
What followed the downing of the MH-17 by Washington’s Ukrainian puppe
ts was an oil price war. Crude oil prices tumbled 35% in the last five months. And Russia was the main target of this attack. Which is far more painful than any sanctions the US or the EU applied against Moscow.
Why? Because Russia is the world’s largest energy exporter, and the third largest oil producer (left). The country relies on oil and gas exports for 50 percent of its federal budget, and 70 percent of the country’s total exports.
(updated 12-12-14)
A 35% drop in oil prices has deprived Russia of hundreds of billions of dollars in export revenues. Which means the country’s economy has been set back on its heels.
The oil punch has evidently caught Russia’s leaders flatfooted. Maksim Oreshkin, head of Russia’s Finance Ministry’s strategic planning department, was quoted as saying that, “it is unlikely that we will see a sharp drop in prices, but we are unlikely to see a sharp rise. Most likely, we will see stabilization in the area of $90 per barrel,” Oreshkin said in late September.
Well, so much for Russia’s understanding of its strategic geopolitical position. Check out what actually happened with the oil prices since then.
By flooding the market with their soaring shale oil production (below right), the US oil producers have put most of their global competitors under water. There is not a single competitor
left that’s making any money at the current prices, according to the above Deutsche Bank chart, which the Truth in Media has modified to highlight the current situation. 
U.S. oil production has increased by about 80% over the past six years, from 5 million barrels per day in 2008, to 9 million per day this year, according to this Dec 2 FORTUNE article. As a result of all this fracking and cracking, the US has now become the world’s No. 1 oil producer, surpassing both Saudi Arabia and Russia (left).
So score one knockdown for the Washington-Wall Street team. But at what a price! Not only is the W-W team fracking Russia and the Saudi sheiks, but they are doing it to the planet that nurtures us all – Mother Earth.
Which puts a new spin on an old saying, “he would sell his own mother”… for a barrel of oil.
SECOND PRONG: ATTACK ON RUBLE
The oil war escalated in recent days to a massive investor attack on the Russian ruble, which lost 40% against the dollar this year. And George Soros’ fingerprints seem to be 
all over it. This Hungarian-born Wall Street shark is credited with bringing down the British pound and the Bank of England 22 years ago while making over a billion pounds for himself by short-selling.
(To learn more about Soros, check out this May 2004 Newsmax article by Richard Poe – “George Soros’s Coup” – SorosCover and SorosStory – PDFs, as well as the “Rape of Russia Explained by Anne Williamson” – including her 1999 testimony before Congressional Committee on Banking and Financial Services).
Why do we think Wall Street engineered this attack on the ruble in collusion with Washington?
Because if the drop in the oil prices were the only reason behind it, the Saudi dinar would have tumbled down proportionately as well. Yet if you look at the above chart, you will see that the dinar has been rising at the same time as the ruble was being gutted. Which suggests that the Saudis are also playing on the W-W team.
All of the which seems to carry Soros’ fingerprints. It is a well known fact that this Wall Street tycoon has been practically running the State Department during the Clinton administration. After all, at his own website, Soros is practically calling for Europe to wage war on Russia, and for the IMF to finance it:
“Europe is facing a challenge from Russia to its very existence… All available resources ought to be put to work in the war effort even if that involves running up budget deficits (see “Wake Up, Europe” by George Soros, October 22, 2014).
And when Soros speaks, White House listens. Especially when a Democrat is in residence.
Whether or not Soros was involved, score the second knockdown for the Wall Street-Washington team. Which is too bad for them. Because that one seems to have finally rung some alarm bells in Moscow.
Let Sleeping Bear Lie: from rigs to rockets
Worse for the W-W team, they have not learned from Napoleon or Hitler to let the sleeping bear lie. Their belligerent actions have served as a wake-up call to to the Russian bear.
In his annual address to Duma on Dec 4, the Russian parliament, president Putin 
issued a stern warning to Washington and its EU vassals (click here for highlights of his speech):
“We should not forget the lessons of the past,” Putin said, “Just like Hitler failed with his misantrophic ideas, he failed to destroy Russia — everyone should remember how this ends… no one will be able to get a military edge over Russia.”
So there you go… the war canvas has just widened from oil rigs to nuclear launchpads.
“The U.S. and its allies are seeking to change the regime in Moscow through sanctions and attacks on the ruble and the oil price,” Russia’s spy chief Mikhail Fradkov, said this week (see Russian Spy Chief Blames U.S., EU for Ruble, Oil Price Collapse, Bloomberg, Dec 4).
And that will never happen (see PUTIN: U.S. WILL NEVER SUBDUE RUSSIA, NOV 19, 2014).
MOTHER EARTH BIGGEST LOSER
Meanwhile, the business media, like the FORTUNE magazine (Dec 2), are starting to tally the winners and losers in the current oil war. And they figure that the American consumer is among the winners.
Indeed, the gas prices at the pump have finally started to drop. But not before the oil companies gouged every last penny from the American consumer during the high travel season.
The average price for regular gas at pumps across America over Thanksgiving 
weekend was about $2.80 — the lowest in four years and 50 cents below last year’s average, according to AAA. Some states are even likely to see prices below $2 per gallon.
Indeed, there is already at least one station in Oklahoma City that was selling its gas for $1.99 per gallon this week (right). Compare that to over $9 per gallon in Norway, also an oil producing nation.
So it’s all goodness, right? Wrong. Because there is no free lunch. Cheaper gas will bring greater subsidies for fossil fuel companies, lower demand for renewable energy provides, like solar or wind, and more pollution all around.
So we may be spending less at the gas pump, but will be choking on cheaper gas as well.
Finally, the greatest travesty. This oil production boom in our country was made possible by fracking, a new method of extraction that ravages Mother Earth, poisons our water supply, and increases risk of earthquakes. And that’s even before considering the risk of nuclear holocaust when the oil war morphs into a shooting one.
Is that the kind of “winners” we want to be?
Not this writer. So here’s a big thumb-down for this Wall Street-Washington war on Russia. Because its endgame is a war against Mother Earth.
* * *
UPDATE DEC 8, 2014
Ron Paul: ‘US provoking war with Russia, could result in total destruction’
Former congressman Ron Paul has lashed out at the resolution the House passed 
against Russia, branding it “one of the worst pieces of legislation ever.” It could even pave the way for a potential war with Russia, as it was with Iraq, he warns.
Resolution 758 strongly condemns the actions of Russia under Vladimir Putin, for what it describes as a policy of “aggression against neighboring countries,” in a motion that describes Moscow’s political and economic domination in the region.
However, Ron Paul says the bill was nothing but “16 pages of war propaganda that should have made even neocons blush.”
Also…
“THE RAPE OF RUSSIA” – UNDER BORIS YELTSIN – ONE OF THE GREATEST HEISTS IN HISTORY
To understand why Wall Street and Washington hate Putin, see the following 4-part series of articles by Anne Williamson, former Moscow Wall Street Journal correspondent, and author of the book “THE RAPE OF RUSSIA“.
It was Putin who put a stop to the looting of his country when he took over as Russia’s president in 2000. During Yeltsin’s 9 years in power (1991-2000), greedy western “investors,” i.e., Wall Street sharks, and their boots on the ground, the Russian oligarchs, had absconded with over $100 billion of Russia’s assets. It was one of the greatest heists in history.
Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, who headed the House Banking Committee, announced on Sept. 1, 1999 that the Russia scandal could prove to be “one of the greatest social robberies in human history.”
Based on preliminary inquiries, Leach declared that he was “very confident” that at least $100 billion had been laundered out of Russia, an unknown portion of which may have been divert- ed from the International Monetary Fund and other foreign aid loans (see SorosStory – PDF).
And Anne Williamson here explains how it was done…
THE GOLDILOCKS ECONOMY UNMASKED
Tuesday, October 6th, 1998by Anne Williamson — This is the first of a four-part series on the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the international financial system. The world’s financial elite, now milling about at more…
AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENT’S MONEYBAGS
Wednesday, October 7th, 1998by Anne Williamson — This is the second of a four-part series on the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the international financial system. Now that the Clinton administration’s foreign policy of more…
RUSSIAN FUNDAMENTALS
Thursday, October 8th, 1998by Anne Williamson — This is the third of a four-part series on the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the international financial system. The failure to understand where Communism ended and more…
RISKY BUSINESS
Friday, October 9th, 1998by Anne Williamson — This is the last of a four-part series on the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the international financial system. In the absence of the gold standard, there more…
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/author/awilliamson/#q1AhdGb95yOvy2rf.99
* * *
UPDATE DEC 16, 2014
“CATASTROPHIC” DROP OF RUBLE RINGS ALARM BELLS ACROSS RUSSIA
Nine days ago, the Truth in Media published an essay on oil and ruble war Wall Street is carrying out against Russia (see OIL WAR 2014: PRELUDE TO SHOOTING WAR?, Dec 7). Since that time, the oil prices have dropped further, while the ruble seems to be in a free fall.
Timothy Ash at London-based Standard Bank described the ruble’s fall as “the most incredible currency collapse I think I have ever seen in the 17 years in the market, and 26 years covering Russia” (Huffington Post, Dec 16).
The ruble came under intense selling pressure Tuesday, falling at one point by a catastrophic 20 percent to a new historic low, despite a massive pre-dawn interest rate hike from Russia’s Central Bank, the Huffington Post reported today. Russian officials were clearly rattled even though state television urged citizens not to panic.
“The situation is critical,” Deputy Central Bank chairman Sergei Shvetsov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying. “We could not have imagined what is happening in our worst dreams.”
The Central Bank’s surprise decision to raise the interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent in the middle of the night Tuesday appeared to be a desperate attempt to prop up the troubled currency. The ruble has fallen sharply in recent weeks and is down more than 60 percent since January, due to sinking oil prices as well as the impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s involvement in Ukraine’s crisis.
The ruble traded at 72 per dollar late Tuesday afternoon — a modest improvement from earlier, when it hit 78.5 to the dollar.
Wall Street Pyrrhic Victory: Ruble’s Freefall Actually Helps Russia’s Most Important Industry
So it looks like Wall Street is winning in its war on Russia?
Well, looks can be deceiving. Because so far, this has been a “Phyrrhic victory” for boys and girls in pin-striped suits. Wall Streeters are cutting off their own noses to spite themselves. And to please their Washington detachment. Alas, that’s “fool’s gold.”
The reason is that the ruble’s freefall is actually helping Russia most important industry – oil and gas (see Ruble Freefall Helps to Shield Russia’s Most Important Industry, Bloomberg, Dec 16). Because the oil prices in US dollars have been also dropping by about as much as the ruble.
Today, after dropping below $60, the Brent price then fell to $58.50 a barrel, before recovering slightly to $59.01 (see BBC News report, Dec 16). They are now down almost 50% since June.
Not so in rubles, as you can see from the above chart.
So while Russia’s plunging currency is becoming a growing concern for policy makers in Moscow, the benefits for the Treasury are swelling as it receives more and more rubles for each dollar of oil export revenue.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows that Brent crude sold for an average 3,759 rubles a barrel this year, the most on record, even after the mean dollar price of $101.74 dropped to the lowest since 2010.
Russia’s fiscal accounts are benefiting from this year’s more than 40 percent decline in the ruble as it kept pace with a similar slide in oil, which is priced in dollars. The government’s budget surplus is 1.27 trillion rubles ($23 billion) through November, compared with 600 billion rubles in the same period last year and 789 billion rubles in 2012, according to Finance Ministry data. It was 1.34 trillion in 2011.
Oops… maybe the Wall Street financial wizards should retake their Harvard or Wharton MBA classes.
As for the Washington “experts,” by now they are probably used to having the market plaster egg on their faces.
* * *
UPDATE, Dec 18, 2014
PUTIN CONFIRMS OUR THEORY OF US-SAUDI COLLUSION IN HIS ANNUAL PRESS CONFERENCE
In his 3-hour annual press conference in Moscow today, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Saudi Arabia and the US might have conspired to lower oil prices to harm Russia (and Iran – see Guardian, Dec 18).
And here’s what the Truth in Media said about that 11 days ago (an excerpt from the Truth in Media Dec 7-story “OIL WAR 2014: PRELUDE TO SHOOTING WAR?” (above http://wp.me/p3QU1S-F0):
“Why do we think Wall Street engineered this attack on the ruble in collusion with Washington?
Because if the drop in the oil prices were the only reason behind it, the Saudi dinar would have tumbled down proportionately as well. Yet if you look at the above chart, you will see that the dinar has been rising at the same time as the ruble was being gutted. Which suggests that the Saudis are also playing on the W-W team.”
* * *
UPDATE MAY 12, 2015
US TAXPAYERS SUBSIDIZING WORLD’S BIGGEST AND RICHEST OIL COMPANIES
Shell, ExxonMobil and Marathon Petroleum got subsidises granted by politicians who received significant campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, (London) Guardian investigation reveals
EXCERPT: “Subsidies to fossil fuel companies are completely inappropriate in this day and age,” said Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, an NGO that analyses the costs of fossil fuels. OCI found in 2014 that US taxpayers were subsidizing fossil fuel exploration and production alone by $21bn a year.
In 2009, President Barack Obama called on the G20 to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies but since then US federal subsidies have risen by 45%.”
TRUTH IN MEDIA: Par for the course for the man habitually talking out of both sides of his mouth.
* * *
UPDATED JUNE 15, 2015
LEAKED: GEORGE SOROS ‘PUPPET MASTER’ BEHIND UKRAINIAN REGIME, TRAILS OF CORRUPTION REVEALED
TRUTH IN MEDIA: TRUTH TRUMPS POWER EVERY TIME! 
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