Russia-EU relationship

Kiko wrote:EU challenges Russia at WTO over import substitution policy, by Daria Petlaeva for France Sputniknews. 27.07.2021.
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A significant loss of earnings

Thus, for European companies, the loss of earnings in Russian public tenders is significant: in 2019, the value of those published by Russian state-owned enterprises amounted to about 290 billion euros, equivalent to 21% of Russia's GDP, the EU document states.
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Yes, you retards, that was the whole idea behind it, geeez....

Note the anti-Russian propaganda tone in the supposedly Russian information outfit called Sputnik. "Moscow claims". There
is no claim there is the objective fact of EU sanctions against Russia. Sanctions take the trade outside the WTO and thus
no Moscow and no claim is involved.

The WTO is just like WADA, the IOC and the rest of NATzO dominated clown outfits. If the EU gets the WTO to engage in Orwellian
newthink about Russian "wrong doing", then Russia needs to give the WTO the middle finger. Free trade is an imperialist concept.
It only works for countries that can squeeze out competition from local companies in countries around the world and are themselves
not subject to substantial foreign corporate penetration. This works for the USA and the EU. Russia has no such transnational goon
squad and thus only opens itself up to imperial gang rape as it did under comprador Yeltsin during the 1990s.

The WTO is a joke anyway, because in every case where NATzO feels Russia is giving it "existential threat" competition, such as
with the MS-21, it engages in brazen economic sabotage. How was the severing of the material used to construct the MS-21
wings from composites justifiable under the WTO? This is just one example of forced import substitution. But the perps doing
the sabotage are crying to their front organization the WTO about "rules".

The EU parliament has declared that the upcoming Duma elections are illegitimate and will not recognize their results.

This is basically a species of an act of war. Proof by assertion, a priori.

Gazprom should make sure that no extra gas is supplied to these scumbags. Let them pay $1000 for LNG at the going
far east price.

kvs wrote:...
The EU parliament has declared that the upcoming Duma elections are illegitimate and will not recognize their results....

And not a single f*ck will be given by anyone with any fucks to give

Why are you even wasting time on this?

Actually their language has been very extreme in that resolution

It's not about just the fact of them not recognizing the Duma results

They are de-facto calling for a full revolution in Russia or the sponsorship of a Syria-style rebellion

Russia has no choice but to react to such belligerent threats, and with more than just some strongly-worded statements.

flamming_python wrote:Actually their language has been very extreme in that resolution
It's not about just the fact of them not recognizing the Duma results
They are de-facto calling for a full revolution in Russia or the sponsorship of a Syria-style rebellion
Russia has no choice but to react to such belligerent threats, and with more than just some strongly-worded statements.

I guess so, then response is in order

They have bee whining so hard for so long that it's all a white noise for me

Can't really tell the shades

Russians bought Van Gogh and Gauguin from France on the cheap, by Elena Karaeva for RIA NOVOSTI. 22/09/2021.

Yesterday evening in Paris, Emmanuel Macron opened perhaps the most significant exposition of the year: the patron Bernard Arnault is repaying, albeit 100 years later, France's debt to Russia.

Two hundred masterpieces collected by the Morozov brothers, exhibited in the Louis Vuitton Foundation founded by the richest Frenchman, make it possible to appreciate the feat of the descendants of Russian serfs, who, thanks to their intelligence, talent and, what to hide, enormous generosity, created a market for European art in the form that we know today. ...

The empire of the Morozov family began with five rubles in gold, which the founder of the dynasty, Savva Vasilyevich, a groom, and then a handicraft weaver, turned with work and faith into a fortune, having redeemed both himself and his family from serfs.

The history of the formation of the Morozov family is the history of Russia, in which a bright, strong and free third estate gave rise to the prosperity of the Russian state and created the conditions for the ascent of Russian art.

"And the silver month froze brightly over the Silver Age ..."

Having received an excellent education and honed their taste, as well as the ability to understand art, the brothers, who have already compiled a collection of paintings by Russian masters for themselves, decide to go to Paris.

Friends of the Morozovs, artists Serov and Korovin, support them in this endeavor.

Once in the capital of France, the Russian merchants went, contrary to the then widespread idea, not to the theater or to the restaurant, but straight to the gallery owners.
They were shown art that, as local art dealers thought, corresponded to the Russian spirit.

However, the Morozovs, both Mikhail (senior) and Ivan (junior), gave the sellers completely different names. Those whose canvases then no one thought to buy.

The first was Van Gogh. The second is Gauguin.

The French themselves easily rejected both: the cruel world of rage and injustice, practically oozing blood in the same "Red Vineyards in Arles", life without sky and almost without air in the "Walk of Prisoners" predicted a completely different future reality.

But no one wanted to hear about this new reality in France. And therefore, the revolution that took place in art, for the French themselves, accustomed to gallant and smooth painting, passed absolutely unnoticed at that moment.

But this pain, this suffering, this endless desire to break free was felt by the descendants of the Russian serf.

The Morozovs were able to sense this because they were brought up in Russian culture, which, in contrast to French and, more broadly, European culture, presupposes sacrifice and suffering: without them, the meaning of life is impossible to comprehend.

As from the bloody hell of resistance to the Horde invasion, Rublev's Trinity was born, so, albeit with fewer sacrifices, the coming breakdown of the previous order and Van Gogh, and Gauguin, and Cezanne, and Matisse, and Picasso felt and showed earlier than others.

The meeting was compiled in a merchant manner, when the required canvas was selected for hours, and paid in a merchant manner generously.

"Russian who is not bargaining" - this is how Ivan Morozov was nicknamed in Paris.

It was he, Ivan Abramovich, who picked up the baton from the suddenly deceased brother Mikhail, created a market where the price of Van Gogh's canvases soared from several tens of francs to many tens of thousands of francs, where Cezanne became a famous (and bought) artist due to the fact that Morozov did not stingy, acquired his landscapes and still lifes.

Seventeen thousand rubles is a waste of just one day, which Morozov once spent in a Paris gallery.

Not a single rich European was capable of such a scale, and it was not so much about the size of the fortune, but about the ability to discern the future of art and, more importantly, to appreciate generously - both in Russian and in a merchant way - the power of talent.

The reaction to the exhibition opening today in France was truly French. Describing the scale of the Morozovs' asceticism, the press relishes in detail the details of the expropriation of the collection after the revolution, the expulsion and emigration of the collector. With visible pleasure he talks about "the division of the collection that was kept for decades under the cover of censorship and dictatorship" and, naturally, that "Bernard Arnault was able to organize the exhibition solely thanks to his acquaintance and personal meeting with Vladimir Putin ."

Any other intentions in the previously memorized list of narrow-minded valets from journalism are simply absent, as they were absent from those who believed the painting of Matisse, Gauguin or Van Gogh to be "bright and spotty daubs."

Mediocrity sees mediocrity from afar - three kilometers from the halls where the canvases of the geniuses of French art collected by Russian merchants were hung - workers wrapped the Arc de Triomphe in rags of faded gray color.

And exactly the same press called this event "the expression of freedom in the postmodern era."

They were rolled up not for restoration, but for performance, as it is customary among lured art critics to call this trend: the deceased not so long ago, the author became famous for spending a lot of other people's money, and even more - polyester fabrics to drape famous buildings or monuments.

Not to create your own, but to cover up something created by someone else, while saying loudly: "I see it that way!"

A brighter antithesis to the irrepressible Russian collector, who turned out to be able to present the talents of French artists to the city and the world, than the shamefacedly wrapped up symbol of France's glory, is impossible to imagine.

In Paris, Russia reaffirmed the greatness of the true and indisputable heights of European painting, but the Arc de Triomphe and the inhabitants of the French capital walking by, surrendered, as usual, to the mercy of noisy businessmen from pseudo-art.

https://ria.ru/20210922/ekspozitsiya-1751197529.html

Russian coal will save Europe, 01/10/2021.

An energy crisis is rapidly unfolding in several corners of the planet. Green energy has not justified itself, and the only salvation in Europe, for example, is Russian coal. But until recently, coal-fired power plants were mothballed, and mines were closed. What happened and how should our country act in this situation?

European electricity producers were forced to ask Russian coal suppliers to increase supplies in order to alleviate the growing energy crisis in the European Union. It was reported by Bloomberg, citing two unnamed industry representatives. The Europeans needed additional coal due to the constant growth of exchange prices for gas, which in September surpassed the "psychological" mark of $ 1,000 per thousand cubic meters and, it seems, are not going to stop.

Difficulties in energy transition

The rise in gas prices immediately entails a rise in electricity prices, accelerating inflation - its indicators in some European countries are now at their maximum levels in the current century. For example, in Germany, September inflation was at a record level since 1997.

The high cost of gas is largely due to the insufficient filling of European storage facilities after last winter, which turned out to be quite cold. In addition, wind power turned out to be a weak link: due to the calm weather that has settled over Europe in recent months, its capacity cannot generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Therefore, on the eve of the new heating season, the Europeans already have to compromise with their own "green" course. For example, in the UK, the mothballed coal-fired power plant West Burton A was re-launched in early September. Then, the Drax group, one of the largest energy operators in the country, announced its readiness to increase the volume of coal generation.

But until recently, Great Britain, the birthplace of coal energy, announced that by 2024 it plans to completely abandon this not the most environmentally friendly method of generating electricity. Last year the share of coal in Britain's energy mix fell to a paltry 1.6%, and the country seemed to be successfully replacing industrial-era power plants with renewable power, most notably wind. But now it turns out that it was too early to bury the coal power industry.

The problems of alternative energy in the European Union were revealed last winter. After the share of solar-wind generation in Germany reached 33% by 2021, its massive refusal in January and February due to calm weather created significant energy risks for the whole of Europe, notes Alexander Osin, analyst at the Russian Stock Exchange Trading Operations Department. the market of the company "Freedom Finance". Gazprom helped to prevent the crisis, he said, by extending the terms of gas supplies to Europe to the physical limit of the throughput of European gas pipelines. However, six months later, the situation repeated itself.

Similar problems with energy supply have now arisen on the other side of Eurasia - in China, where coal-fired power plants have been actively decommissioned in recent years due to the need to improve the environment. The outgoing generation was replaced not only by gas, but also by renewable sources, and the result turned out to be about the same: in recent days, more and more news has been coming from the PRC about the growing shortage of electricity. Back in July, the authorities were forced to start blackouts in a number of major cities, including Beijing, and recently the problems have sunk to industry. In particular, they were forced to suspend the work of factories producing components for Tesla and Apple for several days.

Coal at any cost

The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation did not receive any requests from China and European states on the issues of increasing coal exports from Russia, the press service of the department reported on the eve. At the same time, it is known that the Chinese side has already submitted a request to Inter RAO, a Russian electricity export operator, with a request to increase the supply of electricity, and the Chinese are now looking for coal literally all over the world. A few days ago, the China Electricity Board announced that coal supplies would increase at any cost.

Such statements only exacerbate the situation on the market: in Europe, the price of coal has already reached its highest levels since 2008. Russian suppliers are quite capable of taking advantage of this situation, analysts say. “Russian coal miners will be able to increase shipments in the western direction without any problems, there is a safety margin, another 10-15 million tons can be added to the current plan by the end of the cold season,” says the General Director of Infra. Projects ”Alexey Bezborodov. However, he adds, there is no such reserve to the east. It will be possible to significantly increase exports only if China opens land border crossings - in this case, it will be possible to additionally ship about 10 million tons.

The upcoming winter, the expert adds, is likely to be very cold, based on the fact that the northern hemisphere has formed the thickest ice cover in the last nine years.

Therefore, until the end of the cold season, the price of thermal coal should remain above $ 100 per ton, and for coking coal - under $ 200, Aleksey Bezborodov predicts. “Further, - he believes, - there is no need to count on a strong decline, since prices are under strong pressure from accelerating inflation throughout the world - this is a new reality that will have to get used to”.

According to Mikhail Bespalov, an analyst with the investment company KSP Capital UA, in September, representatives of Russian Railways reported an increase in coal loading at the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin, which indirectly confirms a likely increase in exports to Europe. In addition, railroad workers also recorded an increase in the volume of coal transported to China. In theory, Russian coal companies can increase supplies to Europe - there is no shortage of port capacity in this area, unlike the Far East, confirms the managing partner of FOK (Financial and Organizational Consulting) Moisey Furshchik. But the problem, in his opinion, is that Europe has already closed a significant part of coal generation, and it will not be possible to resolve the current situation only at the expense of coal.

Unlike many other markets, the energy sector did not feel the impact of the pandemic too much, the expert adds: mining enterprises were almost never quarantined, and pipeline capacities were not reduced. “Rather,” says Moisey Furshchik, “it was the combination of geopolitical games and too sharp reduction of coal and nuclear power generation by Europe. In addition, aggressive plans to achieve "carbon neutrality" have sharply reduced the motivation to build new terminals for receiving liquefied gas. As a result, the European energy system has become much less sustainable."

Russian coal miners are certainly capable of meeting the growing demand in Europe - but provided that the European authorities and energy companies reduce the influence of anti-Russian political rhetoric, said Mikhail Khachaturyan, associate professor of the Department of Management and Innovation at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. But, in his opinion, one should not seriously count on this, because most of the EU countries, following the example of Germany, have abandoned the use of coal in their energy systems. And Germany, in connection with the upcoming launch of Nord Stream 2 in the future several months, feels relatively safe, feeling the ability to dictate conditions to the entire European Union, since it is turning into the largest gas hub in Europe.

There is still enough coal for our age

One of the main questions that the current energy crisis poses for many countries is how productive it is to further build up renewable generation capacities. On the one hand, global concern about climate change problems in the coming years will not go away, on the other hand, expectations related to alternative energy are becoming less and less rosy before our eyes. Therefore, it is too early to write off traditional energy sources, including "dirty" coal.

Both in Europe and in China, the potential of renewable energy sources was overestimated: their capacity began to be perceived as a kind of constant value, although they strongly depend on weather conditions, notes Aleksey Bezborodov. According to him, the calculations for "green" energy did not stand up to the elementary laws of physics, although this was understandable even when the prices for gas and coal were at a low level.

For several years, the weather allowed increasing the capacity of wind and solar energy to the detriment of coal and gas, but the first cold year showed that this was a very reckless approach. Therefore, Bezborodov believes that coal will feel good for at least another ten years. “So far, research and innovations in the field of renewable energy do not demonstrate a convincing possibility of replacing coal capacities - only nuclear generation can do this,” the expert is sure.

It is already possible to predict a slowdown in the development of a green economy, which has not yet proved its own effectiveness, believes an independent industrial expert, candidate of economic sciences Leonid Khazanov. In his opinion, Europe and America will remember for a long time how last winter, due to severe cold weather, wind turbines stopped and many houses simply froze, and the transfer of electricity did not help much, again due to the fall in wind generation. “The plans to create hydrogen production facilities of various shades are still on paper only and, it seems, will not come true soon,” the analyst adds. “It will not be surprising if in Europe they continue to reactivate the shutdown coal power plants to secure the capacities operating on the power of wind and sunlight”.

The current situation is likely to lead to a revision of risk factors in the energy sector, which could lead to a slowdown in the transition to energy sources with less emissions, says Mikhail Bespalov. Nevertheless, the expert adds, the prospects of the coal industry against the background of the continuing trend towards "greening" the economy still look contradictory. There is no talk of a new inflow of investments into the industry and an increase in coal production.

Meanwhile, according to Alexander Osin, Russia has the potential to significantly accelerate coal production: in eight months of this year it has already increased by 8.7%, to 282 million tons, although one should take into account the significant effect of the low base - last year production fell by 10 %. At the same time, the prospects are seen quite confidently. According to the analyst, the management of Mechel recently released a survey, which states that demand for coal in Asia - for example, in India and Vietnam, where construction of "traditional" thermal power plants continues, will remain high in the next decade.

“The Russian coal industry has a strong sectoral lobby, which is currently relatively successful in opposing the influence of the 'green' initiatives of supranational regulators on the Russian market,” notes Alexander Osin. The risks associated with these initiatives and factors of non-market restrictions on investments in the coal industry, in his opinion, remain. At the same time, according to the analyst, in the medium term, one can expect a significant slowdown in the growth of investments in renewable energy - this relatively low-margin segment traditionally reacts negatively to the growth of inflationary fears, rates and required return on investments.

Text: Mikhail Kuvyrko

https://m.vz.ru/economy/2021/10/1/1121919.html

GarryB wrote:I think the turn east and south by Russia is the most sensible thing... sell gas and oil and things to EU but there is no interest in friendship or cooperation.

Ignore the lectures and respond to the tantrums in kind...

When HATO kicked out 8 of 20 Russians the Russians responded by closing the entire mission and the equivalent HATO mission in Russia.... sounds like equal measured responses are no longer on the agenda and that if you don't want to talk then we wont talk at all is acceptable to use these days...

The EU should consider that in their future dealings with Russia, clearly school is over and the student expects some respect from these people who think they are teachers and have some authority.

BTW this is going to kick the EU- Russian relationship in the balls...

https://www.rt.com/russia/538517-zelensky-dutch-court-gold-crimea/

Once again an EU kangaroo court shows its nature. I can engage in the same BS by choosing and picking the start day for anything. How was the
breakup of the USSR determined to be the legitimate claim of Kiev on this archeological treasure? This Dutch kangaroo court merely assumes that
Crimea was some intrinsic part of Ukraine even though it had restored its autonomy in August of 1990 and the Ukrainian Rada recognized the restoration
of autonomy. But some Dutch "court" can simply ignore this in its Mickey Mouse "due process".

EU-tardia is about to crap its pants.

On the pretext of "doing something" about the migrant problem on the border of Poland and Belorus, EU-tardia
is planning to impose sanctions on Aeroflot. That's right, somehow Russia is responsible for Turkish Airlines
shipping migrants to Belorus after Lukashenko made noises practically inviting them there.

Note how EU-tardia no longer cares about the same precious migrants it took in by the million only a few years
ago. Anything touching on Russia turns off all those "values" EU-tards and the rest of the NATzO west always
bleats about. Aeroflot does not even operate to countries from where the migrants are coming. They are
flying in from Turkey. If EU-tards are so worried, then they should call Erdogan instead of Putin.

EU-tards are forgetting that any sanctions on Aeroflot will cause the loss of access to Russian air space. American
airlines are already demanding the State Department stop similar sanctions retardation, but the EU-tards are
too full of shit to react early.

Flows of migrants using Russia for transit to EU on the rise - Russian Security Council, 21/11/2021.

Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Grebenkin noted that "the problem of illegal migration is still pressing" amid the pandemic.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Security Council warns that flows of migrants using Russia for transit to the European Union are increasing.

"There is a tendency toward increasing flows of migrants from the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, who use Russia as a transit country to reach European Union nations in search of a better life," Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Grebenkin said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily.

He noted that "the problem of illegal migration is still pressing" amid the pandemic. "Most of them are citizens of Central Asian republics, Ukraine and Moldova who come to Russia to work," he said.

"More than 20,000 attempts at illegal entry to Russia are stopped at the state border every year. More than 6,000 migrants are detained while crossing the border off checkpoints," he said. "The activities of 182 organizers of illegal migration channels were stopped in 2020-2021. Some 22,400 foreign nationals, who have been banned from entering Russia, were stopped at the border this year alone."

"The number of attempts at trafficking drugs, commodity, strategic raw materials, sanctioned and counterfeit products is not decreasing," he noted.

According to Grebenkin, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), interior and defense ministries, the Federal Customs Service, the National Guard and other agencies are implementing plans of combating terrorism and trans-border crime. "More than 20 special border operations have been conducted at various border sections since 2018," he added.

https://tass.com/politics/1364319