US-EU Sanctions Ammo Fading and Nuclear War Between Russia, West Unlikely

Top stories from the Russian press on Wednesday, March 2nd

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: US, Europe running out of sanctions ammunition

European leaders promise to increase sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation. Washington says that depending on the development of the crisis, the sanctions may be tightened or eased. Meanwhile, the Russian government will soon present a plan to support the Russian economy. According to experts interviewed by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Western sanctions may have run out of steam.

EU countries intend to start an all-out economic war against the Russian Federation, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Russia will face new sanctions over the developments in Ukraine. The UK maintains options for tightening sanctions against Sberbank, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Some countries are even ready to "shoot themselves in the foot" by limiting cooperation with Russia in the field of energy supplies, the newspaper writes. Although the US and the EU are still afraid of such measures, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to ban imports of crude oil from Russia.

"The sanctions war has its own logic, it implies the need to increase the severity of the imposed restrictions. However, after the blocking of Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves, the West has only one last step left, this is an embargo on the supply of Russian energy resources," senior analyst at Esperio Anton Bykov told the newspaper.

But the West is generally not yet ready for such measures against Russia, the expert believes. "Ukraine, of course, is important, but neither European countries nor the United States is ready to risk their own macroeconomic stability for its sake," he said. "With caution, we can state that the West has exhausted their main sanctions by dropping the ‘nuclear’ package of sanctions currently available against the Russian economy," Bykov believes.

At the same time, Artem Tuzov, executive director of the capital market department at Univer Capital, told the newspaper he believes that the potential of sanctions will "never be exhausted". "The world is heading towards a new Cold War era. The pressure on Russia will be endless," he said adding that the power bloc in Asia, led by China, could restrain the confrontation.

US President Joe Biden told reporters they should not worry about the threat of a nuclear strike. Meanwhile, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes that Tokyo should consider deploying US nuclear weapons given the current situation. According to experts interviewed by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the level of confrontation between Russia and the West has not yet reached a point where one could talk about the threat of deploying new nuclear weapons near the borders of the Russian Federation, especially strategic weapons.

Abe's reckless remarks angered China more than Russia, the newspaper writes. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the statements violate the three non-nuclear principles and worsen the situation around Taiwan.

The dean of the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University Andrey Sidorov told the newspaper that the current world leaders still understand that the prospect of nuclear war and even just a direct military clash between Russia and the West does not suit anyone. Moreover, it is impossible to fully calculate the consequences of nuclear strikes for humanity: fortunately, the relevant experience was minimal.

"The fact is that China is able to consolidate Asia, so it is more dangerous for the US. And it is important for the White House to maintain advantages in economic relations, the financial sphere, and logistics. It was the trade representatives who were the first to talk about the need to restrain Chinese capital back in the 2000s," says Sidorov.

Meanwhile, although Beijing's fears about the possible deployment of nuclear warheads in Japan are understandable, China still has no serious grounds for concern, the expert believes.