The Polls

Offbeat said:
I doubt they have any leverage over Putin.
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according to Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, Russia has raised the issue of reviving Nord Stream in talks with the Trump administration, the European Union sanctions would close off any such effort at restoring the flow of gas through it....that could be one of the leverage the European Union have over Russia, however, the European Union might be shooting its own foot again by preventing the pipeline’s revival, especially Germany, who has weaken its industrial potential after the santions on Russian energy source....the question is: which economy is doing better after the sanctions, the EU's or the Russian's, maybe that could give us the answer
 
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I read about the Nord Stream 2 carrot/stick by Europeans yesterday. However if the war ends, I doubt Europeans will want to be dependent on Russian gas and energy again. Nord Stream 2 was primarily to Germany. It is now established the Ukrainians sabotaged it in the early days of the conflict in 2022.
 
While EU officials say they will forge ahead with the energy ban regardless of a peace deal, there has been speculation in recent months that the bloc could ease the prohibition if Russia accepts a fair peace deal for Ukraine....Europe spent around 23 billion euros last year, equivalent to about $25.9 billion currently, importing energy from Russia
 
salsim said:
While EU officials say they will forge ahead with the energy ban regardless of a peace deal, there has been speculation in recent months that the bloc could ease the prohibition if Russia accepts a fair peace deal for Ukraine....Europe spent around 23 billion euros last year, equivalent to about $25.9 billion currently, importing energy from Russia
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There are some Putin friendly countries in Europe that import the gas. Like Hungary. Those pipelines pass through Ukraine. And I read Ukraine is unwilling to let the gas pass through.

What Europe thinks is a fair peace deal is not what Putin or Trump think it is. If in peace deal, if the Russia is able to keep Crimea and 20% of Ukraine, is that a fair peace deal? Before Trump too, it was known that in any peace deal Russia will get to keep Crimea and some part of Ukrainian territory. However Europeans and Americans were content to let the conflict prolong as long as Ukrainians were willing to fight. With a hope that may be Ukraine could push back Russians to hold lesser territory.
 
Offbeat said:
I doubt they have any leverage over Putin.
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maybe you are correct, the EU is not the largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels anymore, the Europeans sanctions could not do much damage to the Russian economy at this point in time....today the Russian economy is more connected with China, India, Turkey, and Brazil economies

Offbeat said:
There are some Putin friendly countries in Europe that import the gas. Like Hungary. Those pipelines pass through Ukraine. And I read Ukraine is unwilling to let the gas pass through.
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in the EU who bought Russia's fossil fuels in March 2025?

France was the second-largest importer of Russian fossil fuels within the EU. Its imports, which included Russian LNG....However, the fact that this gas is imported via France does not necessarily mean it is consumed there. A recent study indicates that some Russian LNG entering France through the Dunkerque terminal is delivered to Germany....Spain was the fourth-highest LNG importer within the EU, Belgium also imported LNG

G7 countries imported EUR 18 bn worth of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey of which an estimated EUR 9 bn was refined from Russian crude, their imports of oil products made from Russian crude generated an estimated EUR 4 bn in tax revenues for Russia
 
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salsim said:
G7 countries imported EUR 18 bn worth of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey of which an estimated EUR 9 bn was refined from Russian crude, their imports of oil products made from Russian crude generated an estimated EUR 4 bn in tax revenues for Russia
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this refers to G7+ countries, take care all
 
salsim said:
G7 countries imported EUR 18 bn worth of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey of which an estimated EUR 9 bn was refined from Russian crude, their imports of oil products made from Russian crude generated an estimated EUR 4 bn in tax revenues for Russia
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Since start of the war, EU has been buying a lot of Russian oil, which has been refined outside Russia. India has one of the world’s latest refinery or perhaps it is the largest. Privately owned. They buy from Russia, refine it, and sell it to Europeans. EU was unwilling to plug the hole in its sanctions regulations which allows purchased of refine oil of Russian origin.

In the financial year 2022–2023, India exported nearly 17 million tons of refined oil products to Europe, rising to 24.73 million tons in 2023–2024, valued at $20.5 billion.

India’s exports of refined oil products to Europe have surged by 2,539 times since 2018, according to news website The Print, citing data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The dramatic increase is attributed to post-Covid-19 supply chain challenges in Europe and India’s heightened imports of discounted Russian crude oil following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict.
 
Some of the natural gas passing through Turkstream may be comingled. Azerbeidjan and Kasachstan also ship gas via Russia to their customers.

This reads a bit like the Suez Canal in a way. At the entry point to the canal the oil enters a pipeline. At the endpoint of the canal, the oil is pumped back onto the oil tankers. It is not necessarily the same oil. It is supposed to be the same grade oil though. Egypt got very good at siphoning off a little bit from each tanker w/o anyone noticing for awhile. They would dilute the higher grade with lesser grade material and in the overall equation they got to keep a bit for themselves. Ukraine did the same with Russian gas flowing through the pipeline there.
 
President Donald Trump is traveling overseas for his first major foreign trip since being back to the White House. He wants to build up relations with three key Middle Eastern allies, arriving in Saudi Arabia Tuesday with stops in Qatar and United Arab Emirates, but one arrangement is already raising concerns

 
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President Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa in the Oval Office, furthermore, he plays a video showing genocide claims

 
www.politico.eu

Europe must learn the art of ‘unpowering’ Russia

The EU is far from powerless — it is simply under-leveraged.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu

The major problem is that EU is a block made up of individual sovereign nations. Which severely limits how it can act compared to other big state actors like USA, China, and Russia.

With Russia and China on the same side, and USA being very antagonistic, EU needs to wake up fast. But the primary hurdle is the euroskeptics within the EU countries who would undermine EU collective and think sovereignty will win. Forgetting that individually most European countries are tiny compared to China, Russia, and the USA. They are easy to pick apart. Any single EU country doesn’t have same clout that EU has collectively. It is easy for an external power to cause division among the nations that make up EU.

EU has to think independently from the USA of its security structure and global alliances. What happens when the next USA president is EU friendly? Would the EU still have resolve to carry on as an independent power center. Today it is not and has not beer since it outsourced its security it the USA after World War II. Recently Indian foreign minister made a right comment that the EU was able to get away with investing in its prosperity without investing in its security.

EU should make a common cause with global south + Canada + Japan + Korea + Australia. If USA wants to be isolationist, let it be. China will not only eat EU economically but its support for Russia militarily is a big problem for EU. It appears to that Eau is turning blind eye to China with all the pressure coming from the USA.
 
salsim said:
President Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa in the Oval Office, furthermore, he plays a video showing genocide claims

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I read in this meeting he showed him a picture to prove his point, apparently it was not from South Africa but from the Congo? I don't know, I'm forcing myself to keep distance to the news these days. It has an amazing therapeutic effect!
 
Richie Blondet said:
"White Genocide" in South Africa, or anywhere on the planet earth, is about as real as "Clean Coal," or a contemporary "Salsa" dance instructor actually teaching anyone about "musicality."

It's ALL Trump University bull$#!+.
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i remember reading about the genocide that occurred in Armenia, also listening on the news about the genocide claims in Albania, an ethnic cleansing campaign that occurred against the ethnic Albanians...the situation in South Africa could be a totally different plight
 
Latinjazz said:
I read in this meeting he showed him a picture to prove his point, apparently it was not from South Africa but from the Congo? I don't know, I'm forcing myself to keep distance to the news these days. It has an amazing therapeutic effect!
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i also will limit my comments....i saw those videos about the subject and wanted to read your outlooks about the matter, i agree, keeping distance to the news can have a remedial effect, take care
 
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