Firn---you will enjoy this article--in addition to this MC with it's cutting off card operations to two Russian banks is costing themselves 3-4B USD in lost Russian business per month but that translates into even more in lost internal Russian business sales. It is interesting that the Russians are arguing the card business is over 780B USD per year.
Russians are arguing that they need now their own rating agency but that is 10 years away and with Russian criminal activity no one would trust the agency so they are tied to the three US rating agencies forever so to speak.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/busine...es/499195.html
If one looks at this Interfax press release that just came out one wonders where Putin's mind is as it is the Russian oil industry that is dependent on critical specialized US oil industrial products, equipment and critical engineers---they cannot be in certain oil production areas substituted by other oil producing countries---so I am not sure just where the threat is to the US oil industry. One hears for the last three days out of Moscow the drumbeat that the sanctions are actually beneficial for us as we will and or must develop our own industries---but they forget to say at the same time just how long it will take they to build substitutions. IE for the military industrial base in the Ukraine will require up to 10 years to replicate in Russia.
04/29 23:25 PUTIN: IF EU'S, U.S.' SANCTIONS CONTINUE, WE WILL HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THEIR PRESENCE IN STRATEGIC SECTORS OF RUSSIA'S ECONOMY, PARTICULARLY IN ENERGY SECTOR
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