81
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Western countries boycott the 2018 World Cup?
For many countries, the decision to attend or not is deferred to the national football association. The countries that you mention don't require exit visas, so it would require an exceptional act to ...
- 124k
64
votes
Why is the USA able to damage the Russian economy by imposing sanctions but Russia can't do the same?
Top five trading partners for the United States by imports:
China
Mexico
Canada
Japan
Germany
If we replace Germany with the European Union as a whole, the EU would be second.
Top five trading ...
- 90.3k
64
votes
What is the basis for the Western leaders to believe that harsh economic sanctions will not lead to a nuclear war with Russia eventually?
That's not necessarily the belief. When trying to make arrangements for future outcomes, anything can go wrong. The best that people can do is try to maximize probabilities of good outcomes and ...
- 9,628
61
votes
Accepted
What does Putin/Russia gain from only accepting payment for gas in Rubles?
It benefits Russia by forcing gas customers to purchase rubles at unfavourable rates, rather than Russian gas suppliers. At the moment, since President Putin enacted a decree obligating exporters to ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
60
votes
What is the political justification by China and India for not participating in the sanctions against Russia?
First, please understand that China and India are sovereign nations, not in the EU, not in NATO. They do not need to take a position. Just because you say they do does not make it so. *
Having said ...
- 92.7k
56
votes
Accepted
Does Congress not have to approve the US withdrawal from the Iran deal?
From Wikipedia:
Under U.S. law, the JCPOA is a non-binding political commitment. According to the U.S. State Department, it specifically is not an executive agreement or a treaty. There are ...
- 90.3k
52
votes
Why did Russia have their foreign currency reserves in overseas banks?
You cannot really "store" lots of money in the physical sense. Money is an entitlement to benefits in the future and mostly is just numbers in some computers and typically there is always a ...
- 9,832
49
votes
Is there any meaningful purpose in stopping selling consumer goods to Russia?
For foreign companies to stop selling goods, consumer or commercial, (as well as to stop buying Russian products) is an excellent way to make Russian citizens realize that a war is going on.
There is ...
- 2,422
47
votes
Accepted
Why has Pakistan never faced the wrath of the USA similar to other countries in the region, especially Iran?
The US relationship with Pakistan is complicated, but for decades it was viewed as an ally. In the 1970's and 80's, India was somewhat friendly towards the Soviet Union (while remaining nonaligned). ...
- 780
47
votes
Accepted
What does the West have to gain by not allowing Russia to pay its debt?
By not allowing Russia to pay its debt, the West adds further financial costs to Putin's regime as a punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. This is consistent with economic sanctions against Russia ...
- 12.6k
45
votes
Accepted
What exactly is the purpose of the Non-Proliferation Treaty when nuclear weapons can be substituted with conventional explosives?
A single missile delivering a nuclear payload can wipe out a city. Needing to deliver hundreds or thousands of bombs or missiles to "simulate that" is a much more difficult proposition, in terms of ...
- 21k
45
votes
Why do EU sanctions against Russia stop short of a total trade ban?
I think there are at least two obvious reasons,
The EU profits from trade with Russia. Russia buys a lot of stuff, sells a lot of stuff the EU needs, and also uses the European market for its ...
- 18k
44
votes
Accepted
Why is the USA able to damage the Russian economy by imposing sanctions but Russia can't do the same?
Please note that this answer is from 2017. While the general idea is still true, I've added a note on the current (February 2022) situation.
Asymmetry
The economical relation between the USA and ...
- 2,438
44
votes
Accepted
Why can't the West just ban Russia from trade?
Whenever you ask the question "Why?" in politics, it is necessary to "round up the usual suspects."
There is horse trading. The political situation inside various countries, and ...
- 829
44
votes
How do Western democracies justify censorship of foreign media outlets?
You linked the case of RT. The story of the RT ban is, in large parts, the story of RT DE, and the question if that is Russian or German news (or possibly Serbian, or Luxembourgian).
Even democracies ...
- 116k
40
votes
Accepted
Serbia will not impose sanctions against Russia, why?
"They (Russia) were the only country not to have imposed sanctions against us in the 1990s," Vucic said after a National Security Council meeting.
"They also supported our territorial ...
- 3,558
40
votes
Is there still more room for more sanctions from the West against Russia?
Yes.
There is still remaining trade between Russia and the West, and this could be banned.
There could be "secondary sanctions" (i.e. sanctions against countries and entities which are ...
- 116k
39
votes
What is Russia getting in exchange for their gas and oil now that they've been cut off from the Western financial system?
Money, of course.
As of March 7th, Russia is not completely cut off from SWIFT. Selective Russian banks were thrown out, but not all of them. It seems that the US is negotiating with other oil and gas ...
- 116k
37
votes
Did Ukraine lose half its GDP because of sanctions against Russia after its 2014 invasion of Crimea?
False
First let's clarify what the comment is about. The most relevant figure to the "a contraction of the GDP by a half" seems to refer to Ukraine's GDP in US$, of which there is some data
2013: US$...
- 32.9k
37
votes
How exactly could a TikTok ban be enforced?
Keep in mind that it isn't necessary to fully ban it. Impairing a global Internet social media firm's reach is in the horseshoes and hand grenades domain where a moderately close to the target and ...
- 88.3k
36
votes
Why didn't Western countries boycott the 2018 World Cup?
FIFA has very strong policies against government interference.
If a government would pressure its football association to boycott the world cup, the result would be immediate suspension. So not ...
- 1,173
36
votes
What does the West have to gain by not allowing Russia to pay its debt?
Western governments are banning Western banks from doing business with Russia. If that means Russian companies and the Russian state cannot repay Western investors, they are going to accept that.
Also,...
- 116k
36
votes
Why does the EU have a huge amount of sanctions on Russia but not on the USA?
Consider, say, the invasions of (say) Iraq and Afghanistan. The invasion was more-or-less seen as legitimate by most of the world at the time (and in particular by most of the western world, including ...
- 1,923
34
votes
Accepted
Fact-check: Has the US increased imports of Russian oil?
Sort of - this claim is based on the figures published weekly by the Energy Information Administration. For the week of 03/25/22, the US imported 100,000 barrels per day, up from 70,000 barrels per ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
34
votes
Accepted
How effective are sanctions in overthrowing regimes?
Opinions are divided on this. It's because no dictator has quit because his own car was out of gas or out of spare parts. So one can easily claim that sanction don't work (like that). The discussion ...
33
votes
Accepted
To what extent does China need the SWIFT system?
China needs the SWIFT system quite a bit, because its economy is heavily driven by international trade, especially exporting manufactured goods, in a diversified market with large numbers of small to ...
- 88.3k
31
votes
Why doesn't the EU use its economic power to deal with Turkey's demands?
You seem to fundamentally misread the situation. Turkey does not owe it to the EU to help them save face and solve their problems for them. Erdogan has leverage and the EU is listening to him because ...
- 32k
31
votes
Accepted
Does banning oil import from Russia damage its economy in the short term?
Tucker Carlson would appear to be wrong about this. He has been talking a remarkably pro-Putin line since the Russo-Ukrainian war heated up, and this doesn't seem to have much contact with reality.
...
- 10.9k
30
votes
Why haven't the sanctions relief improved Iranians living conditions?
Sanctions relief and sanctions being in action, didn't have any direct connection with our lives in Iran.
See the government is shadowed by another government (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - ...
- 425
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible