Putin formally signed a decree that, starting on April 1, all non-friendly countries that buy Russian gas must open a ruble account at a Russian bank, through which they will pay for the purchased Russian gas.
Seeing this news, everyone was nervous, and many people said that Putin was really tough. But then Germany and Italy both said that they had communicated with Russia, and the G7 could continue to use euros to buy Russian gas.
What's going on here? It turned out that Putin asked Germany and other countries to first inject euros into the Russian Gas Industry Bank, and then this bank would exchange it for rubles, and finally use rubles to settle Russian gas.
Many people are even a little disappointed in this, and many people really want to see if Russia really loses its breath in the EU, and then lets the EU go to the United States to move the gas. As a result, how Did Putin come up with such a trick.
So is Putin soft? Countries such as Germany still pay the euro, and for them, it seems that there is no impact. Has Putin been fighting for too long, that Russia has run out of money and has to bow to the EU?
Real experts can understand that Putin's operation, Russia is still a big winner. Why? Putin has previously announced that the ruble is pegged to gold, and has stipulated that 5,000 rubles will be exchanged for 1 gram of gold. The ruble has been appreciating in the past two weeks, which shows that the capital market is optimistic about Putin's series of operations, and all parties are increasing their holdings of rubles.
EU countries such as Germany have a tough mouth but a very honest body. The United States fooled them clearly. Biden made the European brothers stand up again, but he continued to increase the purchase of Russian oil after announcing sanctions against Russia.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report saying that from March 19 to 25, the amount of oil imported by the United States from Russia increased by 43% compared with the previous week. At the end of February, the United States had stopped shipping Russian oil for a week, but the United States quickly recovered and continued to increase imports.
The United States itself is like this, then the so-called sanctions are naturally paper tigers, the European Union countries also have to eat, cars also need to be refueled, factories also need to start, Russia's natural gas and oil can not be separated. They have been adamant, although they are hard-spoken, they have been insisting that they cannot settle in rubles, and they are also initiating various contingency plans.
Italy is ready to start up coal-fired power plants that have been abandoned for many years. The European Union and the United States also signed an order of 15 billion cubic meters. The United States also announced that it will increase its natural gas supply to the EU to 50 billion cubic meters in the next few years.
In fact, the United States and the European Union are fooling each other. The United States fooled the European Union into increasing production for them. The European Union has fooled the United States into abandoning Russian gas. Previously, the EU also gave a timeline, that is, by 2027, the EU will completely abandon Russian gas.
Let's put it this way, unless the EU itself spews out a lot of natural gas and oil underground again, they simply can't find a replacement in this world, let alone the price is not so cheap, even if the output can't keep up.
The United States understands these situations, the European Union understands them, and Russia understands them even better. But Putin had to take care of the EU's face, so he came up with a way to get an intermediary to help the EU and other countries exchange rubles. In this way the EU paid the euro, Russia received the ruble, and everyone achieved what they wanted.
So is Putin superfluous? Obviously not, in the past the EU paid euros, which were accounts set up by Russian banks in EU countries. This means that if something drastic changes occur, the EU can freeze Russia's euro at any time. Now it is different, the initiative is in the hands of the Russians.
In addition, although the EU paid the euro, it was the ruble that finally bought natural gas, which means that the ruble is officially linked to natural gas. This means that in the global dollar unipolar payment system, Putin is tearing open a hole. In the past, several oil countries also wanted to tear this hole, and as a result, they were taken care of by the United States. Russia is the only one to tear open its mouth, but it can survive.
Because Russia has nuclear weapons in its hands, the Americans dare not act rashly. In fact, with Russia's strong mobilization capabilities, even without nuclear weapons, whether the United States can fight for one is also a question.
In fact, the EU only maintained its face, and Russia really won the lizi. In addition, Russia also got the EURO in the process of trading, which can be used to repay debts and can also be used to do business with third countries, after all, the euro is also the world's two mainstream currencies.
Many countries need euros. In this way, the euro and the ruble can be converted into currency, and the share of the euro and the ruble will increase in the national trading system. The ruble has now anchored the gas and will certainly continue to appreciate in the future.
After the dollar is decoupled from gold, the anchor is actually oil. Virtually any commodity in the world can be exchanged for oil at the same price. Why the United States launched the two Gulf Wars, to put it bluntly, is that some people want to use their own currency instead of the US dollar, which has moved the fundamental interests of the United States, so the Americans will not hesitate to launch a war to maintain their own interests.
But now that Putin has come out like this, the US strategy has failed. The idea of the United States was very good, instigating the EU and Russia to sanction each other and make the EU give up Russian gas. In this way, Russia will lose its financial resources, then Russia will not be able to continue to maintain strong military power.
In addition, the EU has no gas source, they have to rely on the United States, the United States seized the lifeblood of the European Union, and at the same time can earn a lot of money from the Eu every year. This US strategy has to be said to be very clever. But there is still a mountain high, and Biden is really completely subdued when he meets Putin.
Biden's political struggles may seem clever, but they are naïve enough to think that the EU is really so stupid that it can be at the mercy of the Americans. Macron made a point while in Brussels, asking the EU to increase its military budget and buy advanced weapons to shed its dependence on certain allies.
Some allies, Macron named. France does not have American troops, so their waists are the hardest, and the idea of France mentioning European coalition forces is not a day or two. This shows that the French have long been dissatisfied with the United States' finger pointing in the European Union.
This time Russia hit Ukraine, but also let NATO see clearly the leading big brother of the United States, the United States can not contribute, nor can it pay money, but to let the little brothers rush in front of the block.
This suddenly reminded me of Ding Chunqiu in "Tianlong Eight Parts". During the Battle of Shaomu Mountain, Ding Chunqiu directly used his own apprentice as a dark weapon and sacrificed many of his own disciples. The United States is the realistic version of Ding Chunqiu. Russia is Qiao Feng, not only brave and strategic, but also more courageous in the Vietnam War, with one enemy and three enemies, but it stimulates his heroism.
This time Putin specially picked Europe and tore a hole in the dollar payment system, which is also an unparalleled courage in the world. In this Russian-European gas war, in the end, the United States won a lonely.
Now that Germany and Russia have reached a new payment plan, the two sides have shook hands and made peace, the US supply plan has naturally failed, and the US plan to use energy to further tie the European Union has also failed. America wins a lonely one. In fact, the United States still thinks about how to solve the problem of its own domestic inflation, everyone sweeps the snow in front of the door, don't care so much about the east and the west.