An American economist says the US sanctions against Russia are just “gratuitous propaganda” and will only encourage Moscow to withdraw from “Washington’s exploitative system.” On Monday, the White House announced new sanctions against seven Russian officials and 17 companies linked to Russian President Vladimir Putins “inner circle.” The United States has already imposed sanctions on a number of other Russian officials and a Russian bank, Bank Rossiya, but all of these sanctions have targeted specific individuals and businesses and have not been aimed at Russia’s economy. However, US President Barack Obama has threatened Moscow that the US could impose sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy – such as the financial services, energy, metals and mining, engineering and defense sectors. “The [US] sanctions are nothing but gratuitous propaganda. The main effect will be to encourage the Russian government to withdraw from the dollar- based payments system that makes sanctions possible,” Paul Craig Roberts told Press TV in an email on Monday. “It is a mystery to me why countries such as Russia and China participate in the dollar payments system, as the system is a means of US financial and political imperialism. No country that operates within Washington’s payments system can have an independent policy,” added Roberts, who was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Describing the Obama administration’s sanctions as “silly,” Roberts said, “Russia will benefit from the sanctions, because the sanctions will encourage and hasten Russia’s withdrawal from Washington’s exploitative system, and the BRICS countries are likely to follow. Once important countries cease to use the US dollar as reserve currency and the means of settling international payments, Washington’s imperial power will decline.” The BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – are all fast-growing economies with significant influence on regional and global affairs. Russia has vowed to deliver a “painful” response to US sanctions, saying Washington “has completely lost touch with reality and is leading things toward an escalation of” the recent crisis in Ukraine. On March 17, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier, in which nearly 97 percent of the participants voted in favor of the move. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have ordered a military offensive against pro-Russian protesters who have seized government buildings in several cities and towns in the east of the country. The United States has not accepted the results of the referendum in Crimea and has accused Russia of “illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraines democracy.” “The Obama regime continues to pretend that a few Russian individuals and companies are responsible for Crimea’s return to Russia. However, the evidence is completely clear that the return of Crimea to Russia was the result of the Crimean people, who voted 97% in an amazingly large voter turnout to return to Russia, from which Khrushchev detached Crimea in the 1950s,” Roberts said.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 20:10:13 +0000