Prices at the gas pump are soaring toward an all-time high, but drivers appear to be saying, oh well—for now anyway.
Russia's ruble has rebounded in recent weeks, as the Kremlin patched together an aggressive defense of its fiat currency.
The ruble was valued (vs. the U.S. dollar) at 80.41 on February 23, the day before Putin’s invasion. It skyrocketed to 131.50 on March 7. It plunged to 90.72 on the Ides of March (the 15th). And it opened today at 94.75.
Matt Phillips reports that Moscow’s latest attempt to shore up support came in the form of a direct demand from His Rogueness (Putin) that the EU pay for natural gas with rubles instead of dollars or euros.
It's a not-so-veiled effort by Russia to create demand for its struggling currency—with the ruble jumping 8% on the news.
Widespread sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February have hammered the ruble, wiping out 90% of its value against the dollar at times.
Moscow took measures—like doubling interest rates, halting currency trading, and demanding that Russian companies exchange their foreign earnings for rubles—that slowed the bungie jump and prevented a crash.
But Putin's latest scheme has already been called a breach of contract by Germany, the eurozone’s largest buyer of Russian natural gas.
If the breach prompts a full rupture with Europe, which buys 40% of its gas from Russia, the ruble will likely take another tumble.
Such a break, however, would also make Europe's energy crisis a lot worse. To wit, European natural gas prices jumped 30% after Putin made his latest demand.
China, Russia, India, Iran and other independent nations are rising in prominence on the world stage — while decadent US/Western ones are declining.
Their imperial arrogance has been hastening it for years, their unipolar moment fading in plain sight, multilateralism replacing it. See below.
What’s going on has been most apparent since the 9/11 mother of all state-sponsored false flags to that time.
On February 14, 1945 aboard the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal, Franklin Roosevelt met with Saudi king Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud — what began a near-78-year relationship between both countries.
In return for what the State Department cal access to a “stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history” — immense Saudi oil reserves — US ruling authorities guaranteed the Arab state’s security since that time.
Crude oil remains the main source of energy, including for fuel.
The US today is the world’s largest oil producer and consumer — while ranking 9th in known reserves.
Nations with the largest reserves include:
Venezuela with around 304 billion.
Saudi Arabia ranks a close second with 298 billion — followed by Canada at 168, Iran with 158, Iraq with 145, Russia with 108 and Kuwait with 102.
US reserves are around 68 billion — and because of strategic power afforded nations with large-scale amounts of oil — the empire of lies and forever wars seeks control over maximum amounts worldwide by whatever it takes to achieve its aim.