Although numerous economic and trade sanctions have been imposed on Russia, war still rages on as Vladmir Putin seems unbothered by the tons of frozen assets and the halted exportation of the country’s oil and gas to Europe and into the West.
According to RX Radio Presenters Daniel and Fatboy, it appears that European and Western countries are trying to eliminate Russia from the geopolitics of the world, yet it might be a ticking time bomb that might hurt them more than it will hurt Russia.
“It's thought that the effect of sanctions is going to force countries to explore options in the event that they might get on the canceling block next. Isn't the West only weakening themselves and the reliance of other countries on their services by showing a heavy hand on political disputes?” Fatboy asked Daniel, his co-host on The Fatboy Show.
Daniel in response said that the impact of sanctions could act in the reverse in the event that economic giants such as China show their support to Russia.
“Let's say China teams up with Russia, you can't touch China. They own so many large entities in Western countries like General Motors, imagine that! And Tik Tok is a Chinese app, which might have been created to deliberately destroy the US as an element of subversion. So this is them isolating themselves actually,” he replied.
Furthermore, Fatboy cited a thread on Twitter by Clint Ehrlich who used statistics to indicate that Russians were actually ready to face the sanctions.
“The West thinks that the sanctions are hurting Putin. They have it backwards: His power inside Russia is surging. Objectively, Putin’s poll numbers have improved since the lead-up to and onset of the war. This was predictable -a “rally ‘round the flag” effect is common for wartime presidents. In less than 2 weeks, his approval rating spiked 10 points from 61% to 71%,” the thread read in part.
He went on to say that although the West thinks the popularity will be short lived, it might be an underestimation of Putin’s power since most Russians do not blame Putin for the conflict or sanctions but rather blame NATO and the EU.
“In Russia, the average citizen sees the conflict as a war of necessity– one forced onto Russia by NATO and Ukraine. This was confirmed before the war in research by the Levada Center, a non-governmental polling firm widely trusted in the West. More than 66% of Russians blamed the conflict on America, NATO, or Ukraine. Only 4% said the conflict was Russia's fault. Because Russians do not believe Putin was responsible for the war, they naturally do not blame him for sanctions,” Ehrlich tweeted on Tuesday.
Fatboy explained that the sanctions have been ineffective since their imposition on countries such as the Middle East as they not only failed to make political leaders rethink their decisions and save their people from suffering inflicted on them but also the expected reaction of national uprisings against such leaders being non-evident.
“I can't think of anywhere in history where the sanctions have caused a revolution because in North Korea, it didn’t work, In Iran it didn’t and Russia has been sanctioned from way back even before Trump became President and it still didn’t affect them,” Fatboy reasoned.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.