Thursday, March 27, 2014

Putin Threatens Sanctions Against Visa and Mastercard for Participating in Western Sanctions Against Russia; Russia slams Germany for Cancellation of Arms Deal

BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin has blasted Mastercard and Visa for taking part in the economic sanctions against the Moscow government for its invasion of the Crimea, the respected German Magazine Der Spiegel reported today. And Russia is extremely angry at the Merkel Government for cancelling a one hundred million euro ($140 million) deal that would have seen the Germancompany Rheinmetall build a training camp for Russian forces. A government spokesman in Berlin said that to proceed with the contract in the wake of the Crimean invasion would have been "indefensible."

Russia was equally angry at France for it decision to end all military cooperation with Moscow. And a spokesman for the government of Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin blamed the United States for pressuring both countries to proceed as they have.

Putin says that Russia will set up a system to replace the role played by the two credit card giants. He said that China and Japan already have such a system in place and it works very well. Der Spiegel said Putin called it "unfortunate" that "certain companies" have participated in economic sanctions ordered by Western Governments, chiefly the United States.

While Putin has been quick to minimize the importance of sanctions taken by Western Governments, the Russian Central Bank has taken steps to shield some Russian companies from the impact of such sanctions. It has taken steps to provide working capital to Russian companies because it fears what economists are calling "capital flight."

No comments:

Post a Comment