(Newswire.net — October 4, 2014) — “We’ve given Putin a simple choice: Respect Ukraine’s sovereignty or face increasing consequences,” Biden told a gathering at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics on Thursday.
The sanctions which the EU imposed on Russia, first targeting individual politicians and businessmen held responsible for the crisis in Ukraine, then switching to the energy, defense, and economic sectors.
“It is true they [EU]did not want to do that,” Biden admitted, and there was a perfectly good reason why:
EU members, particularly those close to Russia, were the most affected by the loss of the Russian market.
For instance, the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products, the Netherlands, is loosing $400 million annually from canceled business with Russia, which represents roughly 10 percent of Dutch exports of vegetables, fruit, and meat.
Meanwhile, Poland was hit hard by the Kremlin’s sanctions, as its food exports to Russia totaled $1.5 billion in 2013.
Spain, is estimated to miss out on $421 million in food and agriculture sales, while Italy has estimated its losses at nearly $1.2 billion.
Overall, Moscow’s one-year food embargo against the EU, the US, Norway, Australia, and Canada will block an estimated $9 billion worth of agricultural exports to Russia.
The number of UK and Germany companies with long term contracts with RF reported heavy losses by a Russian ban on imports.
Additionally, it is not exactly clear whether EU producers will be able to return to the Russian markets after the one-year ban expires.
The EU countries are suffering the grater damage than they are wiling to admit. It gets much worse having in mind that the US not really cares.
“F**k the EU,” Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland allegedly said in a recent phone call with US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, as the two were discussing the crisis in Ukraine.
The four-minute video of intercepted call was uploaded by an anonymous user to YouTube.