Will sanctions against Russia help to
change Putin’s course of action in Ukraine?
Do sanctions tend to hurt innocent people such as small business owners
and farmers more than the politicians that they target? Is Russia’s ban on Western agricultural
goods an understandable response to the sanctions he is facing? What do you think about the EU’s reaction to
this situation?
Why is this happening to innocent farmers, which are just trying to survive? Putin did this to show his power or is he just angry at European Union and wanted some kind of revenge? My opinion is, that he wasn’t thinking clearly about the step he made. People living far away from Russia and Ukraine, which are unfortunately depending on Russia’s market, are in a horrible situation just because Putin’s ego is too big to have some kind of cooperation with European Union. He is even hurting his own people. This step is not going to change situation in Ukraine, it just affected everyone else. His anger about Ukraine got way too far…
ReplyDeleteRussians are lacking agricultural goods, just because “someone” thought that it’s a good way to express his power. I guess his ulterior motive was to show his guts to European Union, but the only thing he has done, is hurting innocent. The main problem is that both sides, EU and Russia, are not trying to solve this situation. They are just arguing about who is loosing more, who has more power, and spending tons of money for support to their smashing farmers. Which is again a huge loss for European economy. I’m pretty sure that farmers and small business owners are having much bigger loss than any politician, which Putin was trying to target.
Even though I understand, that the European Union's embargo on Russian goods negatively affects European farmers I still believe it was the right thing to do. What Putin is trying to accomplish by invading Ukraine is unheard-of in the democratic Western world and it can't be tolerated. The measures taken by the European Union were the only proper solution for making Russia aware of the misdemeanor that it commits. Even though the probability of these measures changing the course of Putin's actions is low, they send a clear message of support and solidarity with Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteDespite the complaints of various European politicians that the “foreign policy can't gamble with the interests of European farmers, who deserve a peaceful and responsible relationship with Russia”, the European Parliament should certainly withstand the pressure and stand by their decision. The comfort and peace of people, even though innocent, should not stand above the pursue of democracy and the security of all European countries against threats such as Russia's expansion. It is true, that the farmers are affected by Putin's ban of European agricultural products incited by the EU's embargo and that the boycott might have long-term impact on the trade, but there are things in this world worth fighting for, as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote. Thus, I am convinced that the safety of Ukrainians and the support shown to them is worth the financial loss of the European farmers.
continuation for comment of Martina Sabová:
ReplyDeleteSecondly and just partly, I would like to take a look at the Russian part of the problem, specifically on their defensive strategy which was the groceries embargo. From Russian perspective this is also an economical harm. Not only the sanctions pose that way but also the embargo. More than one third of their import was from EU. Even though some countries such as Turkey or Morocco offered to supply Russia with their food export as a healing plaster, the situation is not bright for them either. But does this stop Putin from taking such measures? From my point of view, definitely not. As long as Russia's political position is strong and stable and they pose a threat for the countries of the West, no actions toward enhancing living standards will be taken.
In the summary, in my opinion, it was not the EU or Russia which suffered more,it was both their economies equally. These sanctions hurt the farmers far more than the politicians because they are not living off of the daily income depending on selling and exporting their crops. To conclude, these acts of showing political predominance went more pear-shaped than helped the whole case.
Martina Sabová
Russia has always tried be closer to Europe, ever since Peter the Great. Sometimes by improving the life-standard of its citizens or by political and economical decisions, other times by literally coming closer to Europe itself. And that is what many Russians want. A reestablished Russian union, with all the surrounding states under Moscow's order. And Putin as a great leader gives his people exactly what they want.
ReplyDeleteIt is not possible to understand the "apple war" without a more complex look on Putin's politics and his moves. It is a move any country would decide to make after having sanctions put on them and if the government did not want do look weak. It is almost the same as the move of the EU, sanctioning Russia. I do realize that Russia has provoked all these problems, and I do not sympathize with Russia's actions in Ukraine, but still, the EU just wanted to show off. Tell Putin, that he is not the mightiest power on Earth and that the EU has ways how to halt the Russian economy. And Putin's move was predictable, understandable and in some things, similar to the EU's sanctions.
Another important factor of Putin's decisions is propaganda. The life-standard of Russians is not very high. And when people are not satisfied, they call for a change. Not a nice imagination for him. And so, maybe inspired by historical figures like Napoleon, he tries to hide internal state problems behind foreign successes. And of course carefully censored media. This however fails if there are not any foreign victories. And sanctions halting Russia's economy is most definitely not a victory. Putin could not just stop, he had to act. And act sturdily.
And what about the EU? What was their response? In my opinion, tragicomic. But fist things first. I personally do not even agree with the sanctions, because they do not really fulfill the expectations. Well, any other than the already mentioned one: Russia, we can harm you if we want. The sanctions do harm Russia a bit, but the multimillion industries are actually left intact. Neither the most essential products to Europe's economy fill the sanction list. Some people even say that Europe is the one suffering from the sanctions, not Russia.
The most ridiculous thing is, that the European Union prepared a $161 million fund to help the farmers. It is difficult the argue over the outcome of this fund, but this idea is by all the means wrong. Sanctioning Russia without realizing how much it would affect Europeans is reckless. And now, after the EU stopped businesses for millions of people, it is spending our money to help the people which could have been filling the treasury with taxes from sanctioned products. Lithuania could loose $1.3 billion per year, Poland $1.1 billion. And now, the EU intends to spend another 2 or 3 billion euros securing the farmers they unsecured.
The EU will not bankrupt from this anti-EU law, however, small farmers are the real victims and it can ruin their lives. Even companies not supplying Russia have existential problems, as the market is overfilled with products of other ones. The price went down to a half of last years ones, and even then the farmers are not able to sell their apples and peaches.
But there is one country, the most happy one of all. Turkey. Not only it is able to supply Russia with all the previously European products, it can also double it's last years $1.68 billion in food sales. Brazil, Morocco and Pakistan are also doing their best to substitute Europe. This could mean that Putin will not cancel the anti-EU laws so soon. And many Europeans will lose their jobs, as it is not possible to have so many products in Europe without Russia buying them. And the EU sanctions? Well, actually just ruining lives of Europeans. Not Russians.
At least Putin is happy, as he sees his "apple law" move made a nice impact.
Comment from Mata Sabova:
ReplyDeleteEvery argument that has ever occurred had two opponents. Even if you think there could be more participants present at the quarell and that automatically makes them standing against each other, in fact there are always just two opponents, th leading sides of the argument, and so called “followers”. These followers tend to ally with the side they sympathize with and make a coalition against their common enemy, their opposition. In this instance, the leading sides are, obviously, the European Union (EU) and the Russian Federation. As far as the “following” part goes, these are the farmers, local store owners and common people. They have their own opinions and valid reasoning for them, but I bet it will not and ,in our present world, is not ever fully heard out. They just have to be obedient to the side they elected their representative from, their country. And why is it so? Because there are always only two big players in the game and as it appears to be in this case, EU and Russia are giong all-in or nothing. Additionally, their purposes do not have to act in service of common weal. They are the ones with the right to decide, with the right to conduct, after all.
Firstly, I would like to take a look on the EU and its part of this problem. A brief summarry of the deplorable situation in Europe earlier this year leads to deeper apprehension of the whole case.
Subsequently to the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula after in illegitimate referendum in March and pro-russian rebels down-shooting the Ukrainian aircraft, Eu was forced to take serious measures. The western countries decided to apply political and economic santions on Russia and freeze the assets of Vladimir Putin and his companions. This step was inevitable for EU but was it really vital for the common good?
Admittedly, they must have expected a retaliation to come, but obviously, they did not assess its possible impact on European exporting economy. I think in this case both sides did what was needed to be done to show their political pwer and to pose a possible threat to each other so that the balance of might is preserved in Europe. If EU stayed silent, Russia would embrace their benevolence and may claim their right to annew whole Ukraine next time. Who knows what all Russia is capable of doing? Europe did its best to stop Russia from plausible overruling of the East.
However, even though it was essential and sensible to take this step back then, I do not think in general, that more sanctions will change Putin's course of actions in Ukraine. See, even though the Russian importing economy depends on European trade (more than 40% of overall Russian import comes from EU), they did put an embargo on the edibles. In my opinion Russia is not afraid of sanctions from EU, because they have enough resources and instruments to make us act in their service.
The sector which suffered the most in EU after this was agriculture. Looking at the problem at a small scale, we see where was EU hit the hardest. European farmers, not even that badly from Portugal, as they were discussed in the article, but especially from Lithuania and Poland who are experiencing the groceries trade depression the most. They suffer from falling prices resulting from the food embargo Russia put on Europe. They cannot sell their produce even for half the price they had been selling the previous year. Russia was for some of them their biggest income as it was the second biggest export trade for European agricultural produce. Beside the prices fallen down by more than a half, the farmers are unable to buy their fertilizers and pay off their loans. The fruit and vegetable crisis is strong indeed, in fact the Dutch had an unusual tomato fight and ordered the participants to pay 15 euros for taking part in this to support local farmers. Moreover, the prognoses for economic regeneration in Europe after such harsh hit are not positive and economists predict it can take longer time for EU's trade to heal completely, if so.
This is a comment from Sona Langova:
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the sanctions against Russia were absolutely necessary as there was no other way EU could have moved forward in the Russian problem than the sanctions. As expected, Putin must have imposed anti-sanctions against the European Union to take an advantageous position in this ‘fight’, and naturally the sanctions result in disadvantages for EU. The worst problems affected neither politicians nor countries in general, but the individuals. It is necessary to help the exportersto balance their economic situation, as EU headquarters have done by setting up a $161 million fund for the worst affected farmers. However, it cannot be enough for the larger companies, not even for smallholders whose livelihood depend on earnings they get from selling their homegrown fruit on the local market, now full of fruit that should have been exported.On the other hand, the situation in Portugal is not the worst one, as Lithuania and Poland are losing billions of dollars on the ban from Russia and the EU markets are flooded with the products from those countries.
Even though EU countries are reluctant to pay for the farmers, as EU members that have a complicated system of mutual relations and cooperate together each member country should contribute to helping the affected farmers by importing their products and also by putting money in the fund for farmers. Moreover, I like the idea of export to the USA which is a possible solution that could work if EU invests money into it and it would help to equalize the current situation in European Union. It is possible that the Ukrainian crisis would also have long term effects on EU’s market; therefore we should be seeking for an enduring solution to their problem– a permanent market. As the future cooperation with Russia may not necessarily work, USA would possibly be better partners for EU agriculture then Russia, even though the expenses would be higher.
From Putin’s perspective banning products from EU was a perfectly reasonable decision. His whole political career stands on the impression that he is a strong invincible leader. He cannot show defeat because by doing that he would ruin his whole image that he had been working on for the past decade. Even though he has his revenge now, he also handicaps his people. Because of the sanctions he put on EU the price of the groceries has gone up by 10%. Putin’s only luck is that Russian people have something that we do not. They can endure a lot just because of their national pride and belief in their leader.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that EU could not predict what goods was Russia going to ban, or if it was going to ban anything at all, the farmers who were damaged by the sanctions want the money they lost from their governments. They think that they should not suffer because of the games of their political leaders. It’s just that they are not just games. A lot of them think that that we should not have put sanctions on Russia in the first place. But they do not realize that we had to show to Putin that he cannot do whatever he wants in the foreign territory. Yesterday it was Ukraine, tomorrow it could be us. We had to stop it before anything like that could happen. Security is more important that economy. I understand that the farmers would like to get their money from somewhere but I don’t think that we should give them the money. Firstly we must remember that Russia was the first aggressor when she send her troops to Ukraine, not EU when she put sanctions on Russia. Secondly EU loses a lot of money because of the Russian sanction and many member states will have huge problems to handle it. They cannot afford to lose even more money by giving them to the farmers. It sucks for them that is true. But they have to deal with on their own. It is not our responsibility to repay them because of something that came from the outside.