THE Russia-Ukraine conflict has begun inflicting much hardship to worldwide consumers and industries as the US-European Union (EU) sanctions begin to have intended and unintended socio economic ramifications.
I do not see why sanctions should hurt the people in faraway Africa, Asia or Latin America who have nothing to do with the conflict.
As today’s world is very much inter-connected, sanctions will have a devastating effect on economies due to disruption of supply chains, shortages of raw materials and price hikes.
It must be noted that the world economy is now gradually recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic of the past two years. As such, the sanctions are having a crippling effect on many nations especially the poorer ones given prospect of them lasting for a long time.
The prices of oil and gas (O&G) have surged and millions of consumers are facing hardship caused by problems that has no relevance to them. Financial transactions have also been hampered due to the sanctions imposed on banks and trade.
As many nations are already looking at alternatives to the US dollar in world trade, sanctions like this will hasten the decline of the world’s largest economy when nations begin to use other currencies such as the yuan, yen, euro and dinar, to name a few.
It is also time for a global consumer bodies comprising all national consumer associations to initiate efforts against the sanctions as they hurt the common consumer.
It is time that the sanctions are opposed worldwide by the people through demonstrations and protests which will send a strong message to those countries who impose sanctions without realising the hardship that they cause to the man-in-the street.
As the pandemic has caused massive socio-economic disruptions and turmoil, the sanctions will hurt through price hikes, shortages of necessities as well as harm recovery and employment in a wide range of industries due to supply chain disruption, and imports and exports restrictions.
Sanctions kill!
It is well-known that sanctions have killed tens of thousands of children in the Middle Eastern countries due to shortages of medicine and foodstuff. Most countries in the world do not produce all that they want but are very much dependent on other nations by way of trade. If sanctions on trade are imposed, how are these nations going to cope with the situation?
In many cases, sanctions do not hurt the targeted nations but the unintended ones more as the international commercial and economic networks are very much linked and the world economy is too huge and complex to know of the intended consequences of the sanctions.
At the end of the day, it is the poor consumer who is at the receiving end when nations confront one another. Sanctions may not have the crippling effect that the West hopes on the Russian economy as the country is large and resourceful.
Russia has enough currency reserves to tide it over in the short term not to mention booming energy prices that will replenish its coffers. Furthermore, the Russians are accustomed to various forms of deprivation as happened during the two previous World Wars and the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia, too, has asserted that it will impose its own set of sanctions on the EU and the US. As people from these two entities are already choking under skyrocketing fuel prices and inflation, the Russian sanctions could turn out to be a vengeful tit-for-tat by hurting them even more.
Trying to suffocate Russia through sanctions is another form of war and this sets a dangerous situation as Russia is a powerful military power that has even more nuclear missiles than the US.
Instead of sanctions which are always the first resort of the US, it will be better to break off diplomatic ties by recalling ambassadors, ban the sale of military weapons, isolate a nation through lack of international cooperation, freezing bank accounts of some VIPs, cut off aid provided by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) or impose travel restrictions on the top echelons of the political and military leadership.
Nobody wins
The US needs to understand that its sanctions are being opposed by the international community more than before and that its hegemony and domination is declining and there will come a day soon when its sanctions will lose all their sting and effect and become worthless.
The Russia-Ukraine War has prolonged for more than a month now when many had hoped that it will be all over for Ukraine within a week. Possibly President Vladimir Putin was not going for a blitz, fearing massive Ukrainian civilian casualties in this fratricidal war.
The Ukrainians are also putting up a tough resistance, and one should remember that Ukrainians were once part of the feared Soviet war machine and had received excellent military training and competent use of weapons.
This war would have been a totally unnecessary one if some compromises had been made. Now, many world leaders are talking about compromises and peace talks, something that should have been done before.
It reflects very badly on the present leadership and statesmanship of the European countries and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states. Europe will become a more dangerous place than before as NATO will be re-energised and the Russians will do likewise. The spectre of Fukushima – a nuclear holocaust – will loom large on the continent.
The war has exposed once again the ineffectiveness of the United Nations (UN) and its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who perhaps was more focused on not antagonising the Western leaders in his hopes of a re-election for the top UN post. – April 11, 2022
V. Thomas is an avid reader of FocusM.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
