It has been over a year since the war began in Ukraine, but unbiased information in the media is hard to come by. While a few pieces of news surface here and there, it's unclear who's winning, if there's even a winner at all.
Although I would like to believe that there is a war between Ukraine and Russia, the reality is that it's a US proxy war, fueled in part by the EU and other allies.
Zelensky has already been on a "world tour" to gather funds for his country's defense. It appears that he has been successful in collecting a significant amount of money. However, there is already plenty of gossip circulating about the foreign aid ending up in the pockets of oligarchs, but that's a topic for another discussion.
The world hasn't simply provided assistance to Ukraine with funds, military equipment, and refugee support, as my own country has done. Instead, we have engaged in launching sanctions against Russia to drain Putin's power in the war.
The West has implemented banking sanctions against Putin and some of the Russian oligarchs, commodity trading embargoes, and restrictions on travel and participation in political events for Putin and other officials.
However, the effectiveness of the sanctions thrown at Putin by the West seems to be as negligible as the ban on Bitcoin. As you probably know by now, authorities haven't been successful in enforcing the Bitcoin ban. Let's take a closer look at who has actually been impacted by some of the sanctions against Russia, such as the oil trade embargo.
Last August, we were the first to show how Russia was bypassing Europe's so-called commodities embargo: it was selling LNG to China which was then re-selling it to Europe at a substantial mark up. And while we also frequently reported that Russia was using a similar sanctions bypass for oil, this time using India instead of China, few were willing to confirm as much: after all, it would seem very shortsighted if European consumers were paying an extra surcharge to India, while Russia was not suffering any adverse consequences from Europe's laughable "sanctions."
Last December the EU barred almost any seaborne crude oil imports from Russia. It extended the prohibition to refined fuels two months later. However, the rules didn’t stop countries like India from snapping up cheap Russian crude, turning it into fuels like diesel, and shipping it back to Europe at a big markup: as shown in the chart below, just the Brent to Urals price differential, a byproduct of the Russian sanctions, is about $25/bbl, almost a third of the price of a barrel of crude. The markups on Russian product are even greater when dealing with refined products such as gasoline or diesel.
source
It appears that Russian oil and its derivatives have somehow managed to reach Europe despite the sanctions, once again demonstrating that the sanctions are ineffective. As a result, Europeans are paying higher prices for gasoline and diesel since the war began, while "Russian commodities" are being channeled to Europe through India as Russia continues its war in Ukraine.
My conspiracy theorist mind tells me that this war is part of the great reset agenda, an American proxy war that not only weakens Russia but also destabilizes the sovereignty of Ukraine by forcing civilians to move to other countries while impoverishing members of other countries through higher commodity prices that are supposed to be the result of the sanctions.
In reality, the higher cost of diesel and gasoline in the EU for over a year is due to the buffoons in charge of the Union, who have reached higher powers than necessary over the sovereignty of member states. They are "playing the sanctions game" which is doing no harm to Russia, making India rich, and sending Europeans into poverty.
If this is all part of the great reset agenda, then it's working well. Ukrainians are now taking some of the best public-sector jobs in this country, while Romanians are migrating to other countries. Food prices have almost doubled in the past year, and we are seeing a global "mix of race" taking place.
I'm glad that India is making a lot of money with the EU. They probably need it. It's a shame that Europeans are so blind to what's really happening regarding the Russian oil embargo.
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian