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‘Suicidal Venture’: What Are Consequences of US Economic, Military Attacks on Russia?

© Sputnik / Alexey SuhorukovOne ruble coin with the symbols of the Russian ruble. In the background is a Russian five-ruble coin
One ruble coin with the symbols of the Russian ruble. In the background is a Russian five-ruble coin - Sputnik International, 1920, 02.10.2024
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Russia has proven highly resilient, maintaining stronger GDP growth than any country backing the Kiev regime in the wake of Western coercive economic sanctions.
The United States and its Western allies have backed military and economic aggression against Russia for a number of years, attempting to impose a “strategic defeat” on the country in its conflict with Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama, along with allies in Canada and the European Union, imposed significant economic sanctions on Moscow shortly after a popular referendum in the territory of Crimea voiced overwhelming support for rejoining the Russian Federation. Russia moved to liberate Crimea – which maintains significant historic and military ties to Russia – after Western support for Ukraine’s Euromaidan coup led an anti-Russian government to take power in Kiev.
War commenced in Ukraine’s Eastern territories in the following years and intensified after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation in February 2022 to defend residents of the Donbass from Kiev’s aggression. The US and its allies responded with a tightening of their coercive economic measures, but Russia has proven highly resilient, maintaining stronger GDP growth than any country backing the Kiev regime.
Amid ongoing support for Ukraine, Russia has now announced it could ban certain vital exports to Western countries, threatening serious economic consequences for the US and other NATO members. Author and independent journalist Caleb Maupin joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program to discuss the development, noting that – despite the United States’ bluster – the West would likely prove to be far more vulnerable to sanctions than Moscow.
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“Nowadays Russia and China are very well integrated into the Western economic system,” Maupin noted. “You can see there are many, many areas in which the two economies – the Western economy and the rising new economy of the East and the BRICS – are very intertwined, and that gives us a layer of security. We should be thankful for that.”

“How many sanctions have they put on Russia? How much has Russia had to respond?” the analyst asked. “There's still areas where Western European countries are reliant on Russia for certain metals and other things. And there are certainly still cards to be played [by Russia] because that's how intertwined our economies are, and that is a motivation to not have an all out war, right?”

“When you're trading with somebody you really don't want to go to war with them. And the fact that there is economic interplay, give-and-take action between the two countries, that gives us hope that perhaps things could start moving in another direction at some point.”
Maupin noted that other countries, such as Venezuela and Iran, have adapted to Western sanctions, increasingly strengthening the construction of a counterhegemonic bloc against US economic and military might. US sanctions – which are now imposed against people, properties and organizations in one-third of the world’s countries – have driven the development of alternative financial and diplomatic infrastructure, including BRICS, new financial messaging systems, and bilateral currency deals that bypass the use of the dollar.
Meanwhile Western economies have become highly dependent on imports in the age of neoliberalism, perhaps best demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic when US guidance on masks was initially driven by the country’s inability to produce them in sufficient quantities for healthcare workers and the general public. The imposition of sanctions on Russia since 2022 has exacerbated economic problems in the United States and especially in Germany and other Western European countries, whose economies have faltered in the absence of cheap Russian natural gas.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak during a bilateral meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Friday July 19, 2024.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 22.09.2024
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned this week the West would continue to face significant consequences if it intensified its attacks on Russia, saying attempts to impose a “strategic defeat” on Moscow would represent a “suicidal venture.”
“The idea that you're going to somehow kick Russia out of Crimea, you're going to somehow get all the people in the Donbass who've been fighting for all this time [against] the government imposed on them by the United States… that's not going to happen,” said Maupin, noting that people in the Donbass have been fined simply for speaking the Russian language in public. “This is not a realistic scenario for victory. And how many lives are going to be thrown away?”

“This Ukrainian scenario for what they call victory is not a realistic situation,” he reiterated. “And that is the most important thing to look at this and say a victory – a victory for Ukraine and a strategic defeat for Russia – this isn't a realistic outcome.”

“How is this a fight for democracy? The people of these regions have voted. They voted back in 2014 to break away. They recently voted to join with the Russian Federation… There is vast overwhelming sentiment in these areas that they don't want to be part of this viciously anti-Russian government that's been imposed on them.”
Police officers and opposition supporters are seen on Maidan Nezalezhnosti square in Kiev, where clashes began between protesters and the police. - Sputnik International, 1920, 19.02.2024
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