One panel at today\u2019s opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was chaired by the Valdai Discussion Club, moderated by the Club\u2019s Programme Director, Ivan Timofeev, on the global impact of sanctions. The title: \u201cThe Risks Sanctions Pose to the Global FInancial System and International Business.\u201d The program description included the following:\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSanctions present a threat to both the financial infrastructure of the \u2018target country\u2019 and foreign banks\u2026. The transformation of the dollar into a weapon carries the threat of unforeseen shocks. Restrictions on the financial sector are also associated with human rights issues, particularly a lack of access to financial services (underbanking) for large groups of citizens\u2026. The intensity and indiscriminate nature with which sanctions are deployed suggests that a targeted political tool is now becoming all-encompassing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan (a former professor of international law at Belarus State University), spelled out the unilateral sanctions from the US and EU are illegal under international law, and are imposed \u201cwithout any attempt at legal proceedings, without due process.\u201d Due especially to the use of \u201csecondary sanctions,\u201d they create fear in businesses and banks to do any business with sanctioned countries or businesses or individuals. The impact is severe on a nation\u2019s \u201chealth system, water and electricity, transportation — people can not get to the hospitals.\u201d She named Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen as countries in which the hospitals have practically no medicine, no vaccines, high unemployment, and a consequent vast increase in crime and trafficking of people and drugs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vladimir Kolychev, Russia\u2019s Deputy Finance Minister, said that as the result of these crimes, \u201ca new global financial system is coming into being. It won\u2019t come overnight, but it is inevitable. The sanctioned countries will do it.\u201d There is an ongoing withdrawal from\u00a0 the existing structures, he said, since it is not safe to use US dollars. Russia\u2019s trade was 80% in dollars as recently as 2019, but is now less than 50%. Reserves in Russia are now only 20% in US dollars. Russia and others under sanctions are also moving to produce goods domestically in critical areas, such as health care.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian Ambassador to the EU, said we are living through a \u201csanctions pandemic.\u201d The EU now has sanctions against 32 countries, including three which are applying to join the EU (Turkey, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Montenegro). The EU says it only uses sanctions as a \u201clast resort,\u201d Chizhov said, \u201cbut alas, this is not a fact, far from a fact — it is their first choice.\u201d Only sanctions approved by the UN Security Council are legal under international law, he added. \u201cSmart sanctions,\u201d he said, \u201care stupid. Above all sanctions don\u2019t work, \u201ceven legal ones — look at the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One panel at today\u2019s opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was chaired by the Valdai Discussion Club, moderated by the Club\u2019s Programme Director, Ivan Timofeev, on the global impact of sanctions. The title: \u201cThe Risks Sanctions Pose to the Global FInancial System and International Business.\u201d The program description included the following:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":75171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-75160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein-fa","tag-lang-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75181,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75160\/revisions\/75181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}