Russia
Missed Opportunity to Remove Sanctions & Restore
US to Arms Control Agreements
By Paul
Craig Roberts
April
12, 2020 "Information
Clearing House"
- The Kremlin held a winning hand
in oil negotiations and did not play it.
Washington and Saudi Arabia desperately
needed Russian agreement to
their plan to raise the price of oil by
cutting production and reducing the supply of
oil.
Russia can tolerate $20 or $25 barrel of oil,
but the highy leveraged and bankrupt US fracking
industry cannot, and neither can Saudi Arabia’s
bloated state budget.
All the Kremlin had to say was:
“We
will save your bacon by giving you a higher oil
price, but we want something out of the deal for
ourselves.
Here is what we want.
All sanctions removed, not only from us
but from Cuba, Venezuela, China, and everywhere
else.
These sanctions are illegal under
international law and constitute acts of war.
We have run out of patience with them.
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“For
Russia to give you a higher oil price, we also
require that Washington reenter all the arms
control agreements from which you gratuitously
and unilaterally withdrew, that you remove all
missiles from our borders, and that you cease
your provocative war manuevers on our borders.”
Faced
with a highly leveraged bankrupt fracking
industry, Washington would have agreed.
It is a pity that the Kremlin gave up this
chance to restore the world to a peaceful path
instead of choosing yet again to earn brownie
points with Washington.
Washington has never appreciated and
never will appreciate the Kremlin’s good will
intentions.
The “oil chaos” that the Kremlin brags about
preventing was Russia’s best ally.
The Kremlin threw in its winning hand and
let Washington and the Saudis walk off with the
winnings.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was
columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News
Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many
university appointments. His internet columns
have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts'
latest books are
The Failure of Laissez Faire
Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West,
How America Was Lost,
and
The Neoconservative Threat to
World Order.
Donate
and support Dr, Roberts Work.
==See Also==
New OPEC+ compromise a
positive development that will prevent market
chaos – Kremlin
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views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
