U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning that there could be some “global fallout” from the harsh sanctions the U.S. is preparing to impose on Russia should it invade Ukraine. In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), she said that, of course, should sanctions be imposed, “we want the largest cost to fall on Russia. But we recognize that there will be some global fallout from sanctions.” When Biden spoke on Feb. 15, he warned that the effect of sanctions on Russia would not be “painless” for the American people, as “there could be impacts on our energy markets.” But, he said, “We are taking active steps to alleviate the pressure on our own energy markets and offset rising prices.” Among other things, as Bloomberg reported last year, Russia supplies more oil to the United States than any other supplier including Canada. Oil imports from Russia have continued, despite escalating tensions.
Yellen pointed to concerns about the “potential impacts on energy markets, given the importance of Russia’s role as a supplier of oil to the world market and of natural gas to Europe.” Washington “is working with our European allies to try to, as best as possible, shield them from undue impact,” to try to make sure that oil and natural gas that come from other parts of the world continue to flow to Europe. This of course doesn’t mean that there’s any intention of backtracking on imposing sanctions on Russia, should it come to that, but to make Americans and Europeans pay the price for Western insanity. As German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock put it today at the Munich Security Conference, “we are willing to pay the price"—the German people, that is—for imposing sanctions on Russia. Has anyone asked the suffering German people about this?
