When European countries decided to supplement the financial restrictions already imposed on Russia with trade measures, the decision to act on imports/exports could have been simplified (passing the ballot to Mr. Lerner) to acting on imports or exports (one of the two). However, given the choice between one or the other, I believe that cutting certain EU technological exports—critical to the war effort—(imports from Russia) would have been more effective and efficient than cutting EU imports of Russian oil (exports from Russia), since oil is a basic energy commodity in demand on the world market (Russia could find many other customers, even if it had to settle for a lower price than that charged to the EU), while strategic EU technological exports to Russia would be much more difficult for Russia to acquire in markets other than the EU in this time of war.
Thanks Antonio for your comment. A couple of remarks:
1) Yes, we did ostensibly cut our exports (their imports) of tech. The reality however (see the Robin Brooks link in the post) is that this has been circunvented by the exporting countries ourselves- by going through the ex-USSR Asian republics, mainly. Russia has not been hampered in accessing advanced technology.
2) As for their oil and gas exports, not so easy as it seems, particularly in that critical MArch- May window when they were in a financial crisis.. Gas, in particular, is hard to replace as it comes through pipelines. A lot of the oil comes as well through pipes. The oil fleet was European (mostly Greek) and the insurnaces as well.
When European countries decided to supplement the financial restrictions already imposed on Russia with trade measures, the decision to act on imports/exports could have been simplified (passing the ballot to Mr. Lerner) to acting on imports or exports (one of the two). However, given the choice between one or the other, I believe that cutting certain EU technological exports—critical to the war effort—(imports from Russia) would have been more effective and efficient than cutting EU imports of Russian oil (exports from Russia), since oil is a basic energy commodity in demand on the world market (Russia could find many other customers, even if it had to settle for a lower price than that charged to the EU), while strategic EU technological exports to Russia would be much more difficult for Russia to acquire in markets other than the EU in this time of war.
Thanks Antonio for your comment. A couple of remarks:
1) Yes, we did ostensibly cut our exports (their imports) of tech. The reality however (see the Robin Brooks link in the post) is that this has been circunvented by the exporting countries ourselves- by going through the ex-USSR Asian republics, mainly. Russia has not been hampered in accessing advanced technology.
2) As for their oil and gas exports, not so easy as it seems, particularly in that critical MArch- May window when they were in a financial crisis.. Gas, in particular, is hard to replace as it comes through pipelines. A lot of the oil comes as well through pipes. The oil fleet was European (mostly Greek) and the insurnaces as well.
No way China would have let Russia collapse.
For the 80 years of the War of Independence of Holland, the Spanish troops were regularly feed by grain exports from the Holland province…
Not a consolation, but this shows how difficult is economic warfare.
And now we have russian bots even here