Russia is on the verge of collapse. Europe cannot abandon targeted sanctions
There is an urgent imperative for European countries to make the sanctions regime against Russia more airtight. The IMF just raised its forecast for Russian GDP growth in 2024 from 3.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent. Yet the outlook for the Russian economy in 2025 looks much bleaker. The IMF just slashed its GDP growth projections from 1.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent next year. Even though Russia’s interest rates are at 19 per cent and soaring, inflation remains stubbornly high at 8.6 per cent.
As key sectors of its civilian economy stagnate, it is more reliant than ever on its bloated military budget to sustain growth. Even in the defence sector, Russia has 400,000 fewer workers than it needs and severely lags many industrial economies in automation. A combination of labour shortages, rising prices and foreign capital flight could lead to the bursting of Russia’s defense-industrial boom in the coming year.
Tighter sanctions would make Russia’s economic outlook even more pessimistic and raise the costs of its aggression against Ukraine. Europe needs to present a unified front against Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers and front companies that do Russia’s bidding.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10...sanctions/
There is an urgent imperative for European countries to make the sanctions regime against Russia more airtight. The IMF just raised its forecast for Russian GDP growth in 2024 from 3.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent. Yet the outlook for the Russian economy in 2025 looks much bleaker. The IMF just slashed its GDP growth projections from 1.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent next year. Even though Russia’s interest rates are at 19 per cent and soaring, inflation remains stubbornly high at 8.6 per cent.
As key sectors of its civilian economy stagnate, it is more reliant than ever on its bloated military budget to sustain growth. Even in the defence sector, Russia has 400,000 fewer workers than it needs and severely lags many industrial economies in automation. A combination of labour shortages, rising prices and foreign capital flight could lead to the bursting of Russia’s defense-industrial boom in the coming year.
Tighter sanctions would make Russia’s economic outlook even more pessimistic and raise the costs of its aggression against Ukraine. Europe needs to present a unified front against Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers and front companies that do Russia’s bidding.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10...sanctions/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
