BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades!

Plan: Russia shuts off gas to Europe if payment isn’t made. Putin isn’t budging regarding only wanting Rubles. Rubles = Gold. Putin upset their scheme and could possibly have the whole oil market trading in Gold backed currency. If oil is traded in Gold, the US Petro dollar is in trouble.

The deck chairs on the global energy market on being rearranged. New alliances brought on in large part by the sanctions placed on Russia. What looked like an easy tanking of the Ruble is causing heartburn for those who thought their plan was going to be easy. The price of energy in Europe is soaring.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝.

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐎𝐢𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭! Source

The story gets picked up here. One fascinating story.

Conservative Tree House: 

Something odd is happening in the background of the G7 energy ministers’ announcement earlier today.

BERLIN (AP) — The Group of Seven major economies agreed Monday to reject Moscow’s demand to pay for Russian natural gas exports in rubles.

German energy minister Robert Habeck told reporters that “all G-7 ministers agreed completely that this (would be) a one-sided and clear breach of the existing contracts” for natural gas, which is used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry.

The energy ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as the European Union energy commissioner, met by videoconference and reaffirmed that contracts “must be respected,” with most stipulating payments be in euros or dollars, a G-7 statement said.

“Payment in ruble is not acceptable, and we will urge the companies affected not to follow (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s demand,” Habeck said.

Remember that moment {HERE} when Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland seemed really uncomfortable and weird at the presser – just 36 hours before the Trudeau administration announced they were going to drop the Emergency Act banking sanctions against the truckers? {Go Deep}

Here is an encapsulation of what’s weird, and you don’t have to be an expert in geopolitics and international trade to see it:

The G7 countries (including the U.S.) announced today they were demanding that Russia accept payment for oil and gas in euros and dollars.  This is happening at the same time NATO is demanding (via sanctions) that Russia be blocked from accepting payments in euros and dollars.

Something is weird.  Keep in mind, the same nations in the G7 are the same nations in NATO with the exception of Japan (G7 only).

The only way this conflict could make any sense, is if the G7 energy ministers realize that forcing Russia to trade in non-euros and non-dollars will structurally undermine the G7 unilateral hold of global finance and energy policy.   In essence, the G7 see the non-sanction countries, particularly India and China, lining up to replace the petro-dollar, and that not only weakens their position financially, but it also weakens their climate change position.

Saudi Arabia is not returning phone calls from the Biden administration, and the extended OPEC-plus are not following the sanctions regime of the western NATO alliance.  Which makes sense, because Opec+ includes Russia, and the geopolitical dynamic appears to have fractured around the energy sector, with the western alliance chasing renewable energy and the non-sanction countries staying on course with oil and gas.

The conflicting position toward Russia, insofar as the G7 demands they keep selling using euros/dollars while NATO demands Russia stop receiving euros/dollars, remains brutally stark.  It is a conflicting interest, within the same policies, within the same geopolitical group.

Keep reading

Bonus:

MasterCard and fintech company Doconomy launched a credit card that tracks the carbon dioxide emissions of purchases, and caps the climate impact of users’ spending.

Best of the swamp.