By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.
India is discussing how to set up a rupee-ruble payment mechanism to enable it to trade with Russia, to circumvent the U.S. sanctions regime.
India abstained from voting on the March United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution demanding an end to Russian offensive in Ukraine (General Assembly resolution demands end to Russian offensive in Ukraine).
Since its Independence, India has tried to steer a neutral course between the U.S. and Russia (and previously, the USSR). During the 1950s, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a prime architect behind the Non-Aligned Movement, under which developing countries tried to pursue their national interests without binding themselves to either the U.S. or Soviet bloc. India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia were mainstays of that movement, which today includes 120 member states, 18 observer states, and 10 international organisations.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, India developed closer relations with the United States. Most recently, under prime minister Narendra Modi, India’s policy tilted even more decisively in a pro-U.S. direction. Modi and Trump shared a strong affinity, and Modi even travelled to the U.S, to host massive rallies intended to galvanize Indian Americans in support of Trump. See this BBC account for further details, What did the Trump-Modi ‘bromance’ achieve?
During the last several months, several considerations have prompted the Modi government to rethink the wisdom of putting all its eggs in the U.S. basket. Instead, India is returning to a more balanced approach, assessing its national interests vis-a-vis those of other countries and acting accordingly.
Two developments this summer caused India to question the reliability and integrity of the U.S. as an ally. The first was the manner of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, which had External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar wondering about the value of U.S. security guarantees. Washington’s Ukraine policy is only increasing those misgivings. The United States was willing to push Ukraine to take actions that many – including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Noam Chomsky – warned Russia couldn’t abide. But then when the shooting started, the United States wasn’t willing to get in the line of fire.
And in the second, in September, the U.S. stunned many when it announced a new Australia/United Kingdom/United States security grouping (AUKUS), as part of which Australia would receive American nuclear submarines. Prior to the new arrangement, the Quad –comprised of the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan – was the principal counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific (see this Council on Foreign Relations summary, The Quad in the Indo-Pacific: What to Know).
This AUKUS announcement caused consternation both in France and India. Australia cancelled a $37 billion deal with a French company to supply diesel -powered submarines, prompting French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, according to the BBC, Aukus: French minister condemns US and Australia ‘lies’ over security pact to accuse the three countries of “duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt”..” The United States has consistently told India that it couldn’t share sensitive nuclear submarine technology, according to the South China Morning Post, Aukus fallout: for years, US told India it couldn’t share nuclear submarine technology. ‘And now this …’). In the wake of the AUKUS development, France and India have strengthened their bilateral ties, with more of the same expected.
Another reason India must tread carefully arises from its past military procurement policy. Since the early 1970s, India has purchased much of its armaments from Russia. Although as part of its tilt towards Washington, India has in recent yearsdecreased its reliance on Russian arms, “Today, 60% of India’s military hardware inventory is from Russia or the former Soviet Union and the bulk of India’s license-based defense manufacturing comes from Russia,” according to Defense News, India braces for sanctions on Russia to delay weapons programs, deliveries. This makes India dependent on Russia for the supply of spare parts. Shunning Russia would mean India must find new sources of armaments.
The realization of the shakiness of U.S security guarantees means that India is rethinking the state of its relations with China. Although the two countries have gone to war since Independence, their bilateral relationship has not always been hostile. Now that the value of U.S. security guarantees is being more openly questioned, one option for India is to try and ensure that its bilateral relations with China don’t deteriorate to the point of outright hostility again. That the two countries are becoming more closely bound is true, at least on the economic level, with the latest bilateral trade figures showing imports from China increasing by 30% over 2019 (to $97.5 billion) and exports climbing by 30% over 2019 (to 28.1billion). according to The Hindu, India-China trade crossed $125 bn in 2021.
China (1.4 billion) and India (1.38 billion) together account for more than a quarter of the world’s 7.9 billion people, so anything that dials down bilateral tensions is to be encouraged.
To Be Non-Aligned on Russia Policy Implies India Finding Trade Workaround
The U.S. led economic sanctions regime against Russia is inevitably porous to some degree. Not all Russian banks have been excluded from SWIFT. Crimping Russia’s ability to spend dollars doesn’t shut off its ability to trade with willing partners. India appears to be one such partner. Despite loud squawking in the U.S. Congress about its failure to support the UN Russia resolution, India appears to be banking that the Biden administration won’t impose sanctions on India (for more on that sound and fury, see this Times of India account, Biden officials bat for India amid criticism of New Delhi’s stand on Russia-Ukraine spat).
The bilateral relationship between the United States and India the two countries has changed significantly since the 1960s, when then-prime minister Indira Gandhi was forced to muzzle her criticisms of U.S. bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in order to secure necessary U.S. food grains after a savage drought. Per the Indian Express, Swallowing the humiliation:
Many of us still have hurtful memories of the mid-’60s when, after two successive years of savage drought, India desperately needed American wheat under the US Public Law 480 on rupee payment — and at relatively low prices because the country had no foreign exchange to buy food in the world market. Indira Gandhi had just become prime minister and chose to go to Washington on an official visit. Lyndon Johnson gave her a gushing welcome and responded to the food problem confronting her effusively, promising as many as 10 million tons of PL480 wheat. However, at an early stage the transaction turned sour.
Infuriated by India’s criticism of American bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong in the course of the Vietnam War, the irascible Texan put food shipments on such a tight leash that India literally lived from ship to mouth. With every morsel we swallowed a little humiliation. When told that the Indians were saying exactly the same thing as the UN Secretary-General and the Pope were, Johnson had retorted: “The Pope and the Secretary-General do not need our wheat.” Many in India started demanding that we should say no to American wheat. Sensibly, Indira Gandhi said nothing. Privately, she told some confidants: “If food imports stop, these ladies and gentlemen won’t suffer. Only the poor would starve.”
Back to the present. Permit me to quote extensively from this Hindustan Times account, Panel to scrutinise impact of Russia sanctions on India’s economy:
A top interministerial panel has been formed to scrutinise a barrage of economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine and their likely impacts on India’s economy, an official familiar with the development said.
As the Ukraine conflict deepens, India has stepped up efforts to secure critical imports from Russia, particularly potassium chloride (popularly known as muriate of potash), a key fertiliser, and sunflower (edible) oil.
Led by economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth, the high-level panel also includes top bureaucrats of the ministries of food and consumer affairs, fertilisers, commerce, external affairs, agriculture and petroleum.
The panel is scouring for avenues to set up a rupee-ruble bilateral payment system to escape a wave of unprecedented sanctions on Russia, which have crippled the former Soviet state’s financial system.
“Official talks with Russians will be needed to set up an alternative payment mechanism but the government will be given various options after a comprehensive review of the sanctions,” the official cited above said, requesting anonymity.
India fears disruption to supplies of murate of potash ahead of its main summer-sown kharif season could hobble its farm sector, which is a major source of income for half of the country’s population.
The war has caused oil prices to skyrocket and the rupee has hit a record low. Note that India still has a number of state-owned backs that could be used to implement any arrangements that might be devised. A private bank might be vulnerable to sanctions. Per the Hindustan Times:
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has already begun hurting Asia’s third-largest economy, which had only started to revive after a pandemic-induced recession in 2020-21. On Monday, the rupee sunk to a record low to 76.9, falling 1% against the dollar as oil prices soared.
At least $400 million of payments and receivables by Indian exporters to Russia are now stranded because the sanctions have cut off Russia’s ability to transact in dollars, the currency for international payments. Russian banks have been severed from a global payments highway known as SWIFT.
The panel has representatives from the Reserve Bank of India, which is looking to designate a smaller Indian bank with minimal exposure to dollar or euro transactions, where a Russian bank could open an account because the sanctions don’t prohibit a rupee-ruble exchange system, the official said.
India had successfully used a similar payment system to pay for oil imports from Iran when that country faced sanctions from the West. At that time, the UCO Bank was set up as the main payment gateway.
An alternate mechanism for payments, however, is not easy to set up. While the idea is that a Russian bank will set up a so-called “vostro account” in an Indian bank and both countries will deposit a certain amount to guarantee for payments to importers and exporters, determining the rupee-ruble exchange rate will be a key challenge.
“One reason is that even if a rupee-ruble exchange rate is pegged to the dollar for determining a notional exchange rate, we must keep in mind that the value of ruble is continuously sliding vis-a-vis the dollar,” said Amarendra Patil, a trade economist who formerly taught at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
“This could make the payment system ineffective because of continuous erosion of one of the two currencies (ruble),” he added.
There is urgency to agree viable arrangements, as planting season is – or will soon be – underway, and farmers need fertiliser. Per The Hindustan Times:
The government, which last week reviewed stocks of fertilisers, is scouting for alternative suppliers to fill the fertiliser gap at prices similar to those charged by Russians.
According to official data, 11-11.5% of total imports of edible oils and fertilisers are sourced from Russia-Ukraine region. The two countries also account for over 90% of sunflower oil imports. Within a basket of fertilisers India imports, Russia accounts for over 17% of MOP (muriate of potash) and 60% of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium).
“In response, the government is identifying alternate supply sources for both edible oils and fertiliser, although these will be expensive,” said Sonal Varma, an analyst with Nomura Holdings, a global financial advisory and securities firm, in a research note.
There are of course precedents for similar arrangements. In fact, India and the USSR set up one such arrangement during the 1950s, according to S. Murlidharan writing in Northlines, Crisis as an opportunity: Rupee-Rouble trade should become template to break US hegemony:
The rupee-rouble exchange is not new. In 1953 Indo-Soviet trade agreement contemplated all payments in settlement of imports and exports between the two nations being made in INR. But this arrangement was dropped in 2005 when it resulted in Russia being saddled with enormous quantity of INR what with India being the net importer. However, the two nations once again embraced rupee payment for Russian export of S-400 Triumf air defence system in 2019 with the deal being for US 5.2 to 5,6 billion to escape sanctions by the US under its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). INR-Rial agreement with Iran similarly was to escape the American ire but had to be abandoned when the Trump administration extended the bar on its currency being used to a complete bar on import of oil itself from the Gulf nation.
The two governments are keen on INR-Rouble trade and the nuts and bolts of the arrangement would be announced soon hopefully. Indian exporters are in a quandary with Rouble testing new low every day. How to fix the price is the issue. Trade cannot come to a screeching halt. Russia’s deputy chief of mission Roman Babushkin was quoted in news report three years ago saying that there had been a five-fold increase in payments in national currencies from about 6 percent to over 30 percent now. There should be no let up in this healthy trend except that war has queered the pitch with steep devaluation of the Rouble; thus calling for negotiations in a spirit of give and take to neutralise partially Russian currency’s devaluation on the back of war and the Western boycott.
By institutionalizing INR-Rouble trade we would be sending a strong signal that the US dollar need not be invincible and unavoidable in international trade and payments. If more and more such agreements are signed between nation states, the world could well one day break free at least partially from the vice-like grip of the greenback on fortunes of other nations.
The Indo-Russian initiative should by no means be construed as acquiescence by India in the Russian expansionism and condonation of its warmongering. Rather it should be seen as pursuit of enlightened self-interest, both short-term and long-term.
Within India, there’s broad political support for pulling away from Modi’s previous policy of tightening ties with the U.S. The strongest criticisms – actually, denunciations – of U.S. policy I’ve seen in any mainstream English language television broadcasts are coming from India’s Republic TV. I’ve found myself tuning in each evening to the nightly debates refereed by BJP mouthpiece Arnab Goswami. Refereed is the right word, as these debates generate lots of shouting. An appearance on Arnab Live is not for the faint-hearted – nor, for that matter, is watching these slugfests. Goswami intervenes actively in the debate; he minces no words. And rest assured, he wouldn’t say anything that’s not consistent with the general contours of current Modi policy. If you’d told me a year ago that I would find myself tuning into a nightly Goswami broadcast, I would have told you you were mad.
But, here we are.
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Bear in mind what goldbugs Indians tend to be (I would confidently state there are 1,000 investors in Au for every American investor, maybe more) and although they seemingly are never sellers, it brings another money resource to the table, and the Russians are quite savvy when it comes to Au-britage.
The Russians don’t seem to have the scorched earth policy of the USA and they have more patience. Most responses have been ‘equal’ and asymmetric retaliations.
I expect the patience to wear out eventually
Unlike US investors who buy gold coins or gold bars, Indians buy gold jewellery mainly as savings for future expenses such as wedding for their children and the like.
One thing that has struck me about Russia recently is how slow they are. I think in similar near-apocalyptic economic circumstances, the American government or the French government would come up with workable emergency measures within a day or two. Here we are nearing 2 weeks since the big central bank and other sanctions dropped, and there is hardly anything from the Russian side. Even with India-Russia trade, it’s India that is taking the initiative. Similarly, still no significant counter sanctions from Russia. Still no announcements on reverse engineering parts of their Boeing and airbus fleets. They also took forever to make up their minds and invade. Huge forces just sitting there for quite a long time. I wonder why that is? Why the slowness? Infighting within the government, deer-in-the-headlights syndrome, general disfunction, or something else?
I guess it must be because Putin is a XIX century man.
And how well has that worked for America?
Sean, look up “rope a dope.”
That was a put foot in mouth and chew. The fact that you don’t know about them does not mean there aren’t Russian responses. This was on March 10:
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67958
And Russia is more of an autarky than any other country. It has enough food and energy to make sure people get by. The West is going to suffer more from loss of Russia’s commodities than Russia will from loss of trade. Yet do you see Biden engaging in the sort of emergency responses you demand of Russia? His brightest idea was to ask Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, and MbS wouldn’t even take the call!
Interest rates going to 20% is probably the worst immediate tangible impact within Russia, since most mortgages are floating rate. But I am told the middle class is <20% of the population, so the political fallout isn't as dire as it would be here.
And please tell me your basis for the crazy claim about taking forever to decide to invade? Did you miss that Russia was negotiating, and those negotiations failed on February 15, when Zelensky repudiated reviving the Minsk Protocol? Even so, the final trigger might have been Zelensky saying that Ukraine wanted nukes on February 17, at the Munich Security Conference.
Lavrov nevertheless said Russia would give the US 2-3 days to get Zelensky to reverse himself: https://twitter.com/Cara_TXZEAL/status/1495786336145584132
As Scott Ritter pointed out, Russia is a democracy and it take a vote of the Security Council and then the Duma to approve military action. That usually takes four days.
Putin’s speech stating that Russia was going to recognize the breakaway republics was February 21. The invasion was Feb 24. How was this slow, in light of events?
Thank you for the reply! I am aware of the measures the Russian government took the Monday after the big sanctions dropped, and also the domestic measures that were signed by Putin earlier this week. The Monday measures prevented a total collapse, and this week’s measures are all fine and good, but there is a lot more that could and should have been done. (Maybe I’m just used to “shock and awe” everything from the West). The Russian government could have done a lot more to facilitate trade with countries like India, Brazil, China, that actively want to trade with Russia but are facing what are essentially technical difficulties because of Western sanctions. Emergency workarounds could have been created within days, but were not. Instead for example it is India, not the country under sanctions, that is taking the initiative on bilateral trade.
As for America’s misadventures I’m Venezuela and Iran, the stakes are much lower. It’s high but tolerable gasoline prices vs the world’s companies pulling out in a matter of days (and the greater West is the world when it comes to many industries and brands), and the currency losing almost half its value in less than 2 weeks.
Russia is an autarky compared to Spain but most consumer products in Russia are imported, almost all technology products are imported, Russia cannot actually function without huge imports from the outside world except in some 1950s existence.
Also, I’m of the opinion that Russia could have used its own shock and awe sanctions earlier this week, which could have pushed Europe into a full-blown financial crisis and industrial collapse, and brought an end to this sanctions game.
You are again assuming Russia is having a lot of difficulties on the consumer level. Alexander Mercouris says his contacts say no, and since e-mail and the phone are open to the West, you’d expect the NYT and others to be running stories of empty grocery shelves etc., as they did of ATM lines (to withdraw dollars and euros) when Putin announced his recognition of the breakaway republics. Banks have not collapsed.
The Western press misrepresented what is happening with credit cards, for instance, and I got it wrong because I relied on their reporting. Visa and Mastercard still work within Russia. But nearly all Russian households already had at least one Mir card, and issuances of them have risen sharply. In the first few days after the initial sanctions, Mir did a deal with the big Chinese card network (Unionpay? need to check name) which is accepted by more merchants than Visa and Mastercard, although its footprint is mainly in Asia.
As for consumer goods…American clothes and footwear and even toilets come from China. Samsung is still selling in Russia.
The loss of McDonalds and Ikea is not a national crisis.
“The Russians are slow to saddle up, but ride fast.”
— Bismarck
India is taking the initiative because it needs oil, fertilizer etc. from Russia. Russia is not desperate and does not want the rupee because they don’t buy that much from India and there will be a glut of rupees on thier side if they accept rupee payment. The article points out that this was a problem before when they tried non dollar trade.
Russia does not want to use counter sanctions because ti will kill its chances of export in the future.
Reverse engineering is not that easy and it would be foolish on their part to announce it even if they want to do so. They’d rather let China do it.
It is not Russians who might get famished… Maybe its the tenderizing of the Indian mind with respect to the very unstable rubles?
They believe in “Market Based Solutions”. If there is no “Market”, that means that there can be no Solutions!
Covid-19 showed us that Entities like “folkhälsomyndigheten” and the CDC are kept around because a serious government needs many accessories and bling to strut at important conferences, but, the reality is that these organisations are mainly staffed with nincompoops, so they don’t deliberately get in the ways of “Markets”.
In times of peace and plenty, this kinda works. Then, when something even moderately serious happens, these bureaucrats will follow their base nature and seek cover behind bureaucracy and process, effectively compounding the crisis. Then the government has to step in and it’s all pot luck if one has a capable one!
I think in similar near-apocalyptic economic circumstances, the American government or the French government would come up with workable emergency measures within a day or two.
Its 2022. Biden couldn’t even get out K95 masks despite his own promises and a stockpile.
But he can toadie to his owners in a split-second. Biden just didn’t give a sh*t about responding to Covid-19 effectively.
Jerri-Lynn — I think (and hope) the Russia-India-China grouping will be seeing more activity since the 18th meeting of Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers last November during which the chairmanship passed to China.
The creation of the RIC is attributed to Primakov: The man who created multipolarity
In my assessment, the next phase of Putin’s and Xi’s confrontation with Biden is now moving to the Putin-Modi-Xi relationship.
Examining an Asia-Middle East map, you see that with geography, BRI and bi-lateral agreements, China along with Russia have placed India in an agricultural and industrial resources cauldron.
I believe Modi’s escape from this cauldron starts with repeating with China the border adjustment effort that China made with Russia two decades ago resulting in a mutually secure border.
I believe Xi is ready to accommodate Modi for their mutual interest in military and food security for their 1.4B people.
And this is the true seismic shift that I believe is Putin’s and Xi’s goal.
I’m posting this here as I don’t know where else to post it but can someone please explain how it is that the US can sanction other countries, take their money and basically destroy their economies? I really don’t understand – No one does it to us and I would assume they would if they could so how does this work? I really don’t get it… Honestly, we just seem to destroy one country after another at will and you would think there would be a system to stop us ….. No?
If it helps, what Yves and others here have posted is that option is going to be lost to the US soon if we keep abusing things like SWIFT and the petrodollar. Both of which facilitates our ability to abuse other countries in this way. But like so many other things the US government has done, it’s been overdone. Even after this conflict between Ukraine and Russia subsides, regardless of outcome, things won’t go back to the way they were before. This article is a good discussion that Russia, China, India, and others, are looking for a way out of US dominated financial exchanges. For a guy who never leaves his basement Biden has managed to do a tremendous amount of damage in a short time.
Biden is an “otaku” (shut in) who stays in his basement and plays neo-liberal video games all day and believes the outcomes.
Is it Russia (and China’s) intention to reprice the US dollar in favour of a commodity based international currency unit?
Given recent actions by the US would such a currency not be very attractive to the global south commodity producers, in fact to any country that might wish to maintain some independence from the US?
Hoisted from comments at Andrei Martyanov’s site
http://disq.us/p/2nqbp51
ted richard IshmaelDNS • 5 hours ago
you are looking at the trees and missing the forest. what is happening and going to accelerate is redollarization in terms of the raw materials civilization and life requires to sustain itself.
It started with hydrocarbons and has moved into selected grains and now in selected metals…….this is just for starters. what you are looking at one day at a time but in compressed time is the repricing of ………real……….. in terms of virtual (currency). this more than actually not using dollars or euros is what is going to smash these 2 currencies down the road. the world is coming to see what they are actually worth in terms of STUFF……….ergo MUCH less than the official narrative stated they were. this destroys TRUST in the paper and in paper issuers/managers and THAT is far more worrisome to the elites than nations doing bilateral trade in their currencies.
What you are seeing now is the beginning of the end of a monetary system by decree……what is coming is a monetary system underscored by manufacturing, mining, fishing, resources and all the 100 and 1 other things that make civilization possible. financialization of which the usa is the sterling example is all about taking from the many to give to the few (robinhood in reverse) which is why the west (the elites) is now becoming so apoplectic. they can see the writing on the wall and it does not look good for them down the road. as commodities become the new black (fashion talk) wall street games will be impossible to sell to the world and even more so since russia and china speak with a single voice and there is nothing the powerless west can do about it
The US places these sanctions on trade,banking, media, etc. because it can. Until of course it can’t. That is what the above Post is about. If Russia, China, and India create a trade/banking alliance the US sanctions won’t matter much. The US is not self-sufficient and trade with the EU will decline rapidly with high fuel costs; so get ready to see your standard of living drop like a rock.
I feel like “sanction” is a phony word because “trade war” has gone out of style or smacks of colonialism.
And well, the Chinese/Russian alliance isn’t an ideological arrangement. Its an anti-US alliance. The real issue is can Russia weather the storm, not a prediction, just an observation of the potential paths.
It’s called Naked Capitalism, Lupana! Big Capitalists eat little capitalists.
I think once Ukraine ceases its invasion of Russia, the US can lift its sanctions.
Brute force.
For details, see Michael Hudson’s book Superimerialism
Americans would certainly speed up a music festival and movie of the week, as well as moments of silence at sporting events, to give the illusion of a sense of urgency. But in reality they wouldn’t even move slow, and if the last decades are any indication, they would move backwards.
The effects of the Russian response will be felt by us at first slowly and then all at once. This is the big one, and our side is unprepared from the top down.
I think the Russian foreign ministry has been fast-ish with its responses and initiatives. The MOD is operating under political constraints which I don’t fully understand – some combination of expectation of a fast Ukrainian collapse, desire to keep the infrastructure and even Ukrainian military intact for the post-war, and a feeling of genuine brotherhood with Ukrainians as a people. Maybe even saving the advanced stuff for a near future confrontation with nato.
But the economy and finance people have been glaringly slow. It seems almost like a slowdown or something, “why do we have to take care of this mess, maybe if things get bad the invasion will be stop and all this will end”
India can never forget that the US – and the UK – sent fleets against India back in the 70s to threaten them and it was only the Russian fleet that stood in their way. But I can think of another fracture point today and that is the fact that India purchased the S-400 missile system to protect themselves against possible missiles from China. You’ll remember all the sanctions that the US dumped on Turkey for doing precisely the same but India was given a free pass. Because India is not lined up in lockstep with the US over the Ukraine, there is talk about sanctioning India with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for buying Russian weapons instead of US weapons. It does not matter that the US has nothing to offer India to replace the S-400 system. Of course this served to blow up the Quad unofficially but it would be interesting going forward if Russia got India reconciled with China and the three of them formed a massive block with other countries aligned with them. And if this happened, it would only be possible thanks to US diplomacy. /sarc
And if this happened, it would only be possible thanks to US diplomacy. /sarc
Why the /sarc? Us diplomacy installed the current regime in Tehran and many other places.
The indian market always has been ingenious in circumventing restrictions. I recall a series of successful threeway trades in the 60’s involving mineral ore, agro products and mining machinery between two eastern european countries and a very large indian mining corporation explained to me by a senior officer of the last. At the same time i was aware (one of my neighbours was involved) of deals for eastern european electrical equipment for diamonds through amsterdam.
That was a long time ago, and in a different world. But i doubt the traders on dalal street are stupider these days.
sidd
Thank you J-L for this well researched post.
Here from Republic TV is the second ARNAB debate or today, Saturday March 12th. It starts at 1 Hour 1.5 minutes in and it engages the question, “Is this the end of the West block of powers?”
https://youtu.be/WGtS7qquoHE
With a specific focus on the US. Amazing stuff!!
Thanks for posting this link.
I watched the entire debate. Riveting. And I’ll be tuning in for the latest later today.
Note that Republic TV has its own news crews on the ground, and features their footage and commentary.
Just a thought; If hi-tech goods are needed in the RuFed and there is a steadily increasing pile of rupees in Moscow, could India act as a middleman/front to evade export bans?
But how to get the goods into Russia….
Everybody is mulling something. Let me know when they have implemented this mechanism and the first transaction is completed. Then we have something to talk about.