Ukraine is reporting they have broken through the first line of Russian defences in Kherson.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/29/7365196/
Aren't you from Greece or Greek or something?
Some people should really look in the mirror first and realize how dependent they are themselves. Just because a country relies on it more than the other doesn't really change that.
Isn't for example Greece washing russian oil for europe and earning lots of money from it?
Last edited by KrayZ33; 2022-08-29 at 12:36 PM.
Would the US lose more than half its energy production if they halted purchase of Russian uranium? Cause several european countries would if they stopped buying Russian oil and gas?
- - - Updated - - -
Wait what, we are? First time I'm hearing this.
As I said it is too much of a problem they won't sanction its import. There float several numbers around of at least half their nuclear powerplants being dependent on it.
So it is a big issue.
https://www.dailysabah.com/business/...r-rages-report
https://shippingwatch.com/carriers/T...le14047513.ece
https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...ws-2022-05-19/
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oi...gh-Greece.html
India is pretty much doing the same
Last edited by Combatbutler; 2022-08-29 at 01:46 PM.
It's true, though.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirts...sland-100.html [German source, translation with DeepL]
ZDFheute
How Russia circumvents the EU's oil embargo ZDFheute Logo
Sanctions come to nothing : How Russia circumvents the EU's oil embargo
by Arndt Ginzel and Christian Rohde
Date:
17.08.2022 16:45 Uhr
The EU wants to prevent Putin from continuing to sell oil to fill his war chest. But Russian tankers are simply pumping their cargo around - a search for clues in Greece.
A view through a telescope of two tankers at sea
The ZDF editorial frontal shows how Russian oil deals continue despite sanctions.
Feature length:
9 min
Date:
16.08.2022
We are in Greece because something strange is happening at the southernmost tip of the European continent. Since spring, coastal residents have been spotting Russian oil tankers in the Laconian Gulf. Fishermen tell us that there has never been anything like this before.
What the tankers want in their fishing area, the fishermen can only guess.
There were three tankers 17, 18 miles out, exchanging petrol, oil or whatever. One was giving or taking.
Costas Roubakos, Greek fisherman
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU wants to prevent Putin from continuing to sell oil to fill his war chest. Brussels has therefore decided on sanctions.
From December onwards, no more oil from Russia may be imported into the EU by sea. The aim is to weaken Putin, but will it work? We want to find out on the spot.
Ship to Ship - Pumping Oil on the Open Sea
For weeks we followed the routes of Russian oil tankers via internet trackers. The data research brought a surprising result.
Especially in the Laconian Gulf outside Greek territorial waters, there has been a conspicuous number of oil tankers moored for weeks. According to the route tracker, many of the ships come from Russian Black Sea ports.
They first sail through the Bosporus and then along the Greek coast. What the trackers also reveal: Two tankers regularly lie next to each other for hours. That is more than unusual.
Analysts at Lloyd, the largest ship insurer, assume that the Russians are carrying out so-called STS operations off the Greek coast to conceal the origin of the sanctioned oil.
STS stands for ship-to-ship transfer - oil is transferred from one tanker to another on the high seas. A way to circumvent sanctions.
Greek companies provide the logistics
What we have only been able to see on screens so far, we want to check out at sea and hire a skipper. When he finds out what we are up to, he shows us tug boats from a Greek company in the harbour.
They drive equipment like big black fenders to the tankers. They look like big black balloons and protect the sides of the tankers when they lie next to each other. Our skipper claims he has been on such STS operations himself. "Russian tankers, all Russians," he says in response to our question about STS transfers.
He shows us photos of Russian tankers, supposedly transferring oil. But on our first trip out into the Laconian Gulf, we cannot film the pumping of oil.
The Greek government is allegedly helpless
The fact that off the Greek coast Russian tankers are transferring oil to other ships in order to sell it - past sanctions around the world - also concerns Greek members of parliament.
We have an appointment with Stavros Arachovitis, the former Minister of Agriculture. Immediately after the start of the Ukraine war, he says, large tankers entered the Laconian Gulf for the first time.
The problem is that no country can check what is happening outside the six miles: Where the oil comes from and where it goes.
Stavros Arachovitis, former Greek Minister of Agriculture
Greece has deliberately softened EU sanctions plans
The Greek government recently said it could do nothing about the pumping of oil on the high seas. The truth is that the Greek government softened EU sanctions against Russia during negotiations.
Originally, Brussels wanted to block the oil trade with Russia completely. Ships owned by Europeans would no longer be allowed to transport Russian oil. But the shipping nation prevailed that it did not come to that. And so, according to the NGO "Global Wittnes", tankers owned by Greek shipowners continue to transport Russian oil around the globe.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaks to journalists at a meeting of EU heads of state and government in Brussels.
At their special summit, the EU states put together the sixth sanctions package against Russia. For the time being, only Russian oil deliveries via sea routes are to be stopped.
Confrontation with the megaphone
A few days later, we go out again in the hope of documenting with our camera how Russian tankers are pumping oil in order to circumvent sanctions. We have chartered a faster boat and thus have the chance to
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Oh nevermind then, I thought I saw his avatar a few years back arguing for grexit, but not as an "outsider"...more like a Greek living in "exile".
You know, like the German-Turks voting in Turkey.
The guy I'm talking about had a real rage boner for Merkel.
Well, what can I say, a lot of shit is happening. Doesn't change the fact that the correct way to do this shit is to just "honestly" (and that's the important part) change it whenever and whereever it's possible. I wouldn't expect the shipping companies, who have a large lobby in Greece and used it to lobby to delay EU sanctions as well to stop like a week after the invasion.
It's the same thing with gas in Germany... can't expect a country in which most households run with it to just stop importing gas, especially when Gazprom emptied the storages (the largest in EU) it had responsibility over to historical low levels right before shit hit the fan.
Last edited by KrayZ33; 2022-08-29 at 02:00 PM.
Putin sidelines his own Defense Minister.
I trust James Bond to have up-to-date accurate intel.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu may have been “side-lined within the Russian leadership” more than six months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
“Russian officers and soldiers with first-hand experience of the war probably routinely ridicule Shoigu for his ineffectual and out-of-touch leadership as Russian progress has stalled,” the ministry said in an update.
The move is likely “due to the problems Russia is facing” in the war with Ukraine, British officials noted.
Shoigu, who has a background in construction and at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, “has likely long struggled to overcome his reputation as lacking substantive military experience.”
He went missing from public eye for nearly two weeks at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and some speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had punished him for his start-of-war strategy.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence cited “recent independent Russian media reports” as its source for the new intelligence.
Be careful on the sidelines, Sergei. I hear there's a lot of open windows there.
That is the problem if you deal with people, who can become problematic very fast, which unfortunately is quite a big chunk of the world, who either want to beat down a minority in their nation, are pretty much practicing colonialism etc.
Russia unfortunately is just the obvious tip of the iceberg.
Eh... you are part of EU and you are voting for and against sanctions like everyone else. And when your "country" does shit like the one next to you or the other side of the pond, it really doesn't matter if your economic/political power is shit or not. How do you blame someone for something when you do the same things.