Agony

American foreign policy is in agony — the introduction of new sanctions against Russian companies clearly shows this.

What was the American plan last year, when the U.S. State Department was just beginning to launch its “Euromaidan” project?

The plan was quite simple and consisted of two parts.

The first part of the plan was to seize Crimea — an important region for Russia, from a geopolitical point of view. If the American puppets that seized power in Kiev would kick the Russian fleet from Crimea and invite NATO airplanes to Sebastopol, Russia would be seriously weakened. Russia would lose a very important access point to the sea and have a military base of its main enemy in the “underbelly.”

Americans were seriously counting on Crimea, and in September 2013 the Naval Facilities Engineering Command submitted a request for a proposal to renovate a school in Sebastopol, Ukraine on the federal government procurement opportunities website.

Nevertheless, American plans for Crimea did not work out.

The second part of the plan was more adventurous. Using Ukraine, America decided to set Russia at loggerheads with the EU and become part of the EU economy instead of Russia by supplying Europeans, for example, with their expensive shale gas instead of less expensive gas from Russia.

Of course, for Europe the break in relations would be a catastrophe. In addition to very expensive American gas, the EU would suffer from the loss of the huge Russian market: EU exports of goods to Russia accounts for more than 200 billion euros.

The national debt of the U.S. is $17 trillion, and Americans have no hope to pay it off on their own. The American economy is on the verge of collapse, and the news reminds us about the Great Depression every day. For example, a few days ago it was officially announced that Microsoft will cut 18,000 jobs. This is the largest layoff in the company’s history.

All measures to stimulate the U.S. economy have been exhausted; the U.S. federal funds rate is the lowest in the history of the U.S. All sectors of the economy are affected by the debt, and unless a miracle happens, the debt pyramid will collapse and bury America soon enough.

Americans see the European Union as a last chance to rescue themselves: Americans truly believe that by drinking the blood of the European economy they will be able to stay afloat for some time. That is why Americans hold on to their hope to become a part of the European economy, which is now their only option to hold on, at least until the end of 2015.

To complete this part of the plan, the Americans need to get Russia to send their troops to Ukraine or to force the EU to unilaterally withdraw from trade with Russia.

Because Russia flatly refuses to fight with Ukraine, Americans can do one thing only — push for sanctions.

And so, Americans just imposed the third round of sanctions against Russia.

Sectoral sanctions are imposed on the companies Novatek, Rosneft, Vnesheconombank and Gazprombank. The assets of these companies will not be frozen, but American companies and citizens are now prohibited from investing in new shares and bonds of these companies.

Restrictions on exports were also imposed on a number of companies in the Russian defense industry, including such companies as Almaz-Antey, and [also] concerning Kalashnikov, the nongovernmental organization Izhmash, the nongovernmental organization Basalt, Uralvagonzavod, the joint-stock company Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies, Concern Constellation, the nongovernmental organization [called] Engineering, and the joint-stock company Instrument Design Bureau.

However, these sanctions are not particularly painful to our economy by themselves. The state will help the banks, and the Russian defense industry was not relying on the American market to begin with.

Of course, the concern for the Kalashnikov [company is that it] had serious expectations for the U.S. market: Americans buy more personal weapons than anyone in the world, and even if the U.S. economy collapses during the expected crisis, the demand for Russian rifles would only grow. Still, there will be buyers of weapons in other countries.

It is unclear what Americans will use now to fly to Afghanistan and how will they fix helicopters already bought from Russia. But again, that will cause more problems for Americans themselves.

Russian companies will suffer from difficulties only if the European Union joins in on the U.S. sanctions against Russia. A number of joint projects would have to be ended and there may be difficulties with the changing of technological chains.

Fortunately, the EU is not in a hurry to play the role of America’s fattened pig, saved for the winter. Nine EU countries, including Germany, France and Italy refused to support economic sanctions against Russia.

If Americans do not succeed to push these countries, then the U.S. would finally undermine its own reputation as a world tyrant: It is impossible to organize hysterical boycotts alone, and after such blunders no one would take the U.S. State Department seriously.

So far, Americans have not lost completely. Perhaps the Boeing that was shot down on July 17, 2014 over Novorossiya so fortunately for the U.S. will help Barack Obama finally force the leaders of the EU to forget about the economies of their own countries and save Americans.

Nevertheless, these spasmodic actions of the United States look as agonized as a large cornered rat. Over the past two weeks the attitude toward the U.S. in the EU has changed dramatically. And I would not be surprised if in two weeks the official EU will start treating the U.S. pragmatically — as their enemy.