U.S. & EU Impose More Futile Sanctions on Russia, and Some Chinese Companies

Two years after the EU and U.S. rejected Russia's peace proposal to resolve the ongoing hostilities from Ukraine and Russia started its military campaign as a last resort to counter what it perceived as a NATO menace, the war grinds on. NATO still shows no interest in peace and most NATO members are doubling down on a war that Ukraine can never win and which has taken a severe economic and political toll on Europe.

The only westerners to benefit from the war are the usual war profiteers and oil & gas companies. The major oil & gas companies have reaped $281 billion in profits since Russia was provoked into invading Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian Jewish mafia has been siphoning off tens of billions in aid and selling some of the weapons on the black market. Those weapons have been showing up in the hands of drug cartels along the U.S. border with Mexico. 

The U.S. claims that it is sanctioning 500 new targets that support Russia's war effort. 

The proposed draft of the sanctions this time was triggered in part by the European Union’s anger over the death of Alexei Navalny, one of Russia’s most outspoken critics and a long-standing political opponent of President Vladimir Putin, and part because Russia’s war with Ukraine continues unabated after two years of fighting.

Alex Navalny began what was first a 30-month prison sentence in 2021, after being arrested the moment he returned from Germany after having been poisoned then by what were believed to be KGB operatives. That sentence eventually expanded to a total of 30 ½ years and resulted in him being transferred for the last part of it in a distant village north of the Arctic Circle. The time there was understood to have been cold and brutal, yet despite that Navalny continued to find ways to get his message to challenge Putin’s rule up through the last several years. Many suspected that Navalny was an agent of western military intelligence agencies. 

Navalny died in a Russian prison last weekend at age 47. The news of his death was communicated by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service in a dry and terse formal statement released on its website.

“On February 16, 2024, in penal colony No. 3, convict A.A. Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness,” the statement read.

“The facility’s medical workers immediately arrived at the scene and an emergency medical team was called in,” the statement continued. “All necessary resuscitation measures have been carried out, but they did not yield positive results. Emergency medics confirmed the death of the convict.”

The Russian region of Yamalo-Nenets where Navalny died said it is conducting a “procedural investigation” of the matter but refused to issue any details.

Yulia Navalny, Alexei’s wife, declared at a meeting of the Munich Security Conference which she was invited to on February 16 that after hearing the news of her husband’s passing, she questioned everything about what was being said to the public on the matter.

“I don’t know whether I should believe the news,” she said.

But assuming the death was not made up, she told the audience in Munich that Putin and those who support him must “know that they will be punished for what they have done with our country, with my family and with my husband,” she continued. “They will be brought to justice, and this day will come soon.”

Many in Europe and in the United States believe the death was in fact an assassination, and access to Navalny’s remains to determine precisely what might have caused the death has been restricted by the Kremlin.

This week the European Union responded to Navalny’s death and the upcoming anniversary of the Ukraine war with the 13^th round of sanctions against Russia and those who support it, including several Chinese entities which are believed to be supporting Putin’s war.

“EU Ambassadors just agreed in principle on a 13th package of sanctions in the framework of Russia's aggression against Ukraine," the country of Belgium announced yesterday via the social media platform X, in its role as holding the rotating presidency of the EU.

According to sources who have seen the draft proposal, the new sanctions will put restrictions on an additional 193 entities and individuals who do business in the European Union or wish to travel there.

The focus on the sanctions this time will be on those either part of or linked to Russia’s military operations, including elements not directly tied to the Ukraine War, and on individuals and organizations supposedly linked to the transfer of orphaned and at-risk children to Russia. 

On the military side, the businesses and individuals added to the roster of sanctioned groups are predominantly Russian. But for the first time these lists also included multiple firms from mainland China, one from the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region, another from Belarus, and at least one North Korean firm.

Those targeted for the military sanctions focused this time on the network of materiel suppliers which support the Kremlin’s armed forces. A special focus this time was on companies which provide Russia with drones.

At least one drone which Russia had fired against Ukraine recently was determined to have been sourced from North Korea while also including parts made in China and the United States. Investigations are ongoing as to how North Korea secured access both to the parts made in the People’s Republic of China and from American sources.

The new sanctions have added at least 27 new companies to the EU’s “Annex IV” list of businesses. That list covers what are known as “dual use” components or subsystems which can be deployed both for civilian applications as well as military ones. Putting those companies on the Annex IV list means not only are those companies subject to trade sanctions, but EU-based firms cannot sell to them either, even for items which could be used outside the military.

The vote yesterday also authorized another six-month extension of existing sanctions by the EU against Russia.

In addition to the military providers now on the list, the new sanctions for the first time address officials and other entities tied to Russia’s activities involving the transfer of Ukrainian children out of war zones and into Russia. The list of individuals and Russian government groups now included in the EU sanctions list were based in part on findings made in March 2023 by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, as part of an ongoing investigation.

Those investigations were looking into allegations from Ukraine that Russian had taken over 4,000 children from their country illegally during the war. During the public hearings on the matter a year ago, the ICC chief prosecutor found evidence of probable cause that Ukraine’s allegations were valid. It determined that “at least hundreds” of children had been taken from the country, and that “many” had been put up for adoption within Russia.

Based on the findings and hearings held at the ICC regarding them last year, the ICC found those involved as guilty of war crimes for those actions. It indicted President Vladimir Putin and others over the actions.

Russia has denied it committed any war crimes associated with its invasion of Ukraine, and in fact it has generally been very disciplined and restrained. In regards to the children, Russia claims that it transferred the children to safety so that they wouldn't be trafficked by criminals, as so many others already have. 

The ICC, on the other hand has entirely discredited itself by refusing to issue arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals engaged in the blatant and irrefutable genocide of Palestinians. It has disgustingly looked the other way while Zionists have murdered some 15,000 children. 

The Belgian government called the latest round of sanctions “one of the broadest approved by the EU”.

In a parallel statement issued on X, current European Commission President von der Leyen, who herself is running for a new term as President of the EC, praised the latest sanctions as another round of necessary steps against Russia.

“We must keep degrading Putin’s war machine,” she said. “We are also cutting Russia’s access to drones.”

The latest rounds of sanctions will only strengthen Russia and steel the determination of the rest of the world to isolate and contain NATO and its supporters.