U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Russia Again Over UK Spy Poisoning

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Last Updated on: 31st August 2018, 09:02 pm

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This past week saw the latest round of American sanctions on Russia take effect. These were unique in their stemming from the Russian nerve agent attack on the Skripals in Great Britain. They increase significantly the assortment of economic penalties and pain that Russia has experienced over the past few years.

It explains why you need to spend some time contemplating the top five gold coins for investors. The geopolitical condition of the world is the worst it has been in decades. These Russian sanctions and trade wars are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. This is why gold makes sense in an IRA. Now is the time to consider the various Gold IRA rules and regulations while the prices on the yellow metal are still fairly reasonable.

Is This The End of Western Foreign Assistance and Arms Sales To Russia?

This week's punishing latest round of Russia sanctions bit deep. More than this, they are a personal assault on some of the activities that are nearest to the Russian government's heart. Foreign assistance to Russia terminates now.

Arms financing and sales to the Russians are also largely shut down. Moscow will also no longer get credit from America and much of the West.  America will also no longer be exporting any technology, machinery, or goods that are considered to be security related items to Russia.

Relations Between Washington and Moscow At An All-Time Low

RIA has been busy reporting the Russian response. As you might expect, the Russians are anything but happy about the latest round of crippling sanctions. They are all the more irate as they stubbornly cling to the argument that they had nothing to do with the Novichok poisoning incident in the typically small, sleepy English town of Salisbury.

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that such new sanctions will only add further to the already tense relations between the United States and Russia. The strange part of the entire affairs is that U.S. President Donald Trump actually wants to have improved relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yet despite this personal affinity the two powerful men have for each other, the ties with Moscow have never been worse.

They have only been further strained by the supposed Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 year presidential election contest. Problems before this murky incident stem back to the dispute over Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine back in 2014. It also does not help that the West is heavily at odds with the Russians over their controversial part in the resolution of the devastating Syrian civil war.

The argument behind this most recent round of sanctions hails back to the sordid affair with the Russian father and daughter Skripal pair. One-time Russian GRU Military Intelligence Service Colonel Sergei Skripal along with Yulia his 33 year old daughter turned up unconscious lying on a Salisbury bench in a park in the south of England. The liquid state of Novichok nerve agent was present in their bodies. Both survived the assault after months of fighting for their lives in critical care in a British hospital. The Novichok had been put on their front door of Sergei's Salisbury home.

Will More Sanctions Actually Lead to a Noticeable Change in Russian Behavior?

The million dollar question on everyone's mind these days is: will still more sanctions applied against Russia serve to change their behavior? So far, at least three other previous rounds of them have produced little to no effect. Does the fact that the Europeans are on board with the Americans change things this time? Not really, they have been a nearly united front against the Russians on an economic level in each previous instance.

Moscow continues to vehemently deny any sort of involvement in the assault on the Skripals (besides having produced the Novichok exclusively in Soviet/Russian laboratories). Putin also looks in the eyes of his enemies and journalists alike and tells them with a straight face that he did not interfere in the U.S. elections back in 2016.

U.S. Will Not Back Off Until Russia Changes Its Aggressive Behaviors

Meanwhile back in the U.S., John Bolton the national security adviser of President Trump stated last Friday that Moscow has to alter its behavior meaningfully before America will consider lifting the lengthy sanctions' list. Bolton just sternly warned a Kiev news conference that:

“The sanctions remain in force and will remain in force until the required change in Russian behavior.”

The new sanctions measures became effective as of four days ago on August 27th. They will stay in place for minimally a whole year, per the Federal Register notice. The Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 is what authorized them. The only real exemptions will relate to government space collaboration, space flight-related activities, commercial airlines safety, and the most critical humanitarian assistance.

But What Happens Next if the Russians Do Not Cooperate?

The school yard bully's lines are very relevant in this daunting situation. “Who is going to make me stop picking on him?” The U.S. already has the mechanisms in place for a second group of penalties. These automatically become enforced following a 90 day period.

The only way out of this tightening economic vise grip is for the Russians to provide so-called “reliable assurance.” By doing so, Moscow will certify that it is no longer in favor of or working with chemical weapons. It must also permit at the site inspections of the facilities by the inspection teams provided by the united Nations or some other acceptable international observer organization.

America has already shown its undying solidarity with the British in expelling 60 Russian diplomats. This is the latest joint geopolitical action of the West against Russia. The way things appear to be going in this particular negotiation tells you that it will only be the first of many more such responses from the United States.

The problem is that things have changed in the world. What is different this time is that the U.S. is now deeply embroiled in a de facto economic war with China, Venezuela, Turkey, and Iran as well. The old solid U.S.-European alliance is showing signs of strain and cracks these days as well.

The real question on analysts' minds ought to be: will the Russians manage to unite all of the so-far disparate resistance factions to America's once unshakable post-Second World War economic order? If so, the economy of not only Russia, China, and the U.S., but of the entire planet, will be in dire danger.

Gold Is Your Retirement Portfolio's Personal Sword and Shield

With the collective future of both the United States and also potentially the entire world economic order at stake, it is time to do some serious soul searching. What will protect your retirement portfolio when the dominoes all start to fall? It will not be the Federal government of the United States, bankrupt social security, or any other national or international bank or body. The American government is completely insolvent on paper already with over $21 trillion in impossible to repay debt.

It is only a matter of time till the United States' various trade policy adventures or its greatest debt in world history sink the economic ship for good. This is why you had better start looking into top offshore locations to store your IRA gold. You still have time to secure some IRA-approved precious metals and rollover transfer a portion of your retirement funds into the sword and shield protector of historical global money.

David Crowder
David Crowder

W.D. Crowder is an American published author. His background and areas of expertise include history, economics, expatriate living, international relations, investments and personal finance. A widely read and top of his class graduate of Stetson University, he obtained his bachelor of arts degree in History with minors in Latin American Studies and International Relations and a special emphasis in Economics. He was President of his Phi Alpha Theta (National History Honors Fraternity) Stetson University chapter and a Phi Beta Kappa (National Honors Fraternity) member.

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