Heading towards World War III?

The economic war unleashed by the West against Russia has backfired and may bring the country much good, former Wall Street financier Michael Hudson has told the German news outlet Junge Welt.

“The West's sanctions are great for Russia. Any country threatened by US sanctions is forced to become self-sufficient,” Hudson said in an interview published on Saturday.

He said that sanctions have effectively pushed Russia toward import-substitution, and the country is on track to becoming completely free of reliance on Western goods.

“Instead of importing German cars, Russia is turning to China to develop its own automotive industry. Russia is now moving very quickly to replace its dependence on the West for manufactured goods with its own domestic production. The only things they can't produce are Walt Disney movies and Italian handbags,” the economist said, adding that while Russia is unlikely to be able to mass produce some of the luxury items it used to import, its economy will become largely self-sufficient.

Hudson also noted that sanctions, while aimed at reducing Russia’s profits from energy exports, instead “brought additional revenue to the Russian state budget.”

“Russia is the big beneficiary of Germany’s energy embargo plans. The less gas Russia sells, the more money it makes,” he stated, referring to the skyrocketing energy prices that grow in correlation with the drop in Russia’s exports.

Sanctions targeting the Russian economy have also failed to destabilize the national currency, the ruble, and have sped up the de-dollarization process, the analyst said.

“Even before the war in Ukraine there were efforts to de-dollarize [yet] no one expected the process to start so quickly… But […] Washington has frozen all accounts in dollars and euros, so Russia had to get out of the dollar system. And this is what helped the Russian ruble. The intention behind the Western sanctions was to collapse the ruble in order to make Russian imports more expensive…

Russia tackles ‘toxic’ dollar and euroREAD MORE: Russia tackles ‘toxic’ dollar and euro
Instead, the Russian government countered and decided: If we are not paid in euros and dollars for oil, gas, titanium and aluminum, the West will have to pay in rubles. And so the ruble has appreciated in value. It is fair to say that the West has shot itself in the foot.”

www.rt.com/business/560399-anti-russia-sanctions-are-great

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has voiced concerns over a potential disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, after Russia accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant in the country’s southern Zaporozhye Region on Friday.

Kiev claims that Moscow – which holds the area – is using the facility as a “shield” for its soldiers.

“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing. I hope that those attacks will end, and at the same time I hope that the IAEA will be able to access the plant,” Guterres said at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday morning, without blaming either side.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday it was “extremely concerned” by the Friday shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Targeting the facility with any “military firepower” amounts to “playing with fire, with potentially catastrophic consequences,” the UN nuclear watchdog’s director general, Rafael Grossi, said.

The IAEA also suggested sending a delegation to the site to “provide technical support for nuclear safety and security” and to “help prevent the situation from spiraling even more out of control.” Neither Moscow nor Kiev has reacted to the proposal so far.

www.rt.com/news/560434-nuclear-plant-suicidal-attacks

Russian forces are constructing a pontoon bridge across the Dnepr river in Kherson Region in southern Ukraine amid renewed shelling from Kiev’s forces, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the local administration, told TASS on Monday.

The crossing will be used as a backup for the damaged Antonovsky bridge, which is a strategically important site. “The pontoon crossing will consist of barges which will not sink even if struck by a Ukrainian shell,” Stremousov explained.

“This will be a single pontoon that people will be able to drive through,” he noted.

The re-opening of the Antonovsky bridge was supposed to take place on Wednesday, but it was delayed after Ukrainian forces renewed their attempts to destroy it on Sunday night. The attack struck equipment brought to the site to repair damage from previous artillery strikes, such as a concrete mixer and a temporary shack, and has created new gaps in the bridge’s structure, Stremousov said.

www.rt.com/russia/560471-russia-pontoon-crossing-ukraine

Moscow has informed Washington of a “temporary withdrawal” from the inspection regime under the START nuclear disarmament treaty, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.

Citing provisions in the document for “exceptional circumstances,” Russia claims Western sanctions have prevented its inspectors from performing their duties, thus giving their US counterparts an unfair advantage. Once the principle of parity and equality is restored, the previous arrangements will resume, the statement added.

Moscow cited “anti-Russian unilateral restrictive measures” imposed by the US and its allies, such as visa restrictions on Russian inspectors and a ban on Russian aircraft in US and EU airspace. These restrictions effectively make Russian inspections under the treaty impossible, while the Americans “do not experience such difficulties.”

www.rt.com/news/560487-russia-suspends-us-inspections-nuclear-military

The US Department of Defense has announced its largest military aid package for Kiev since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began in February, planning an additional $1 billion in weapons shipments to the former Soviet republic.

The latest batch of weaponry was approved under President Joe Biden’s so-called “drawdown authority,” the 18th such package for Ukraine, the Pentagon said on Monday. It will include more ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers that the US previously sent to Ukraine, as well as 1,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles, C-4 explosives, Claymore anti-personnel mines, and tens of thousands of artillery and anti-aircraft rounds.

The Pentagon also plans to provide 50 armored medical treatment vehicles, plus more pallets of medical supplies and equipment. Biden has now approved about $9.8 billion in military aid to Kiev since he took office in January 2021, including $9 billion since Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders. Congress approved $40 billion in overall new aid to Ukraine in May after previously providing $13.6 billion.

www.rt.com/news/560495-us-approves-billion-ukraine-aid

Calling the current anti-Russian sanctions “weak,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told the Washington Post on Monday that the West must impose a full embargo on all energy imports from Russia and a travel ban on all Russians for at least a year.

Interviewed inside his fortified office in Kiev, Zelensky told the Post that “the most important sanctions are to close the borders – because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land.” Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy.”

www.rt.com/russia/560496-zelensky-travel-ban-sanctions