EU chief: Russia could be cut off from markets, tech goods

China will fill that void.

Good luck heating your house or running factories. Over 40% gas comes from Russia.

EU Chief: Could be (?) cut off from markets, tech goods

Could be? It looks like we're beyond that now. Russia should be cut off from markets and tech goods.

@NovemberIsComing

I would have to disagree because by just threatening to invade through its massive military presence on Ukraine’s border, Russia is inflicting a helluva lot of damage on Ukraine and its economy. Besides, there’s no reason for Russia to bully its peaceful neighbor, Ukraine, other than to frighten and intimidate its people. Russia seems to relish its role as a bully and this is unacceptable behavior.

China will fill that void.

Number one, not without access to SWIFT and number two China does not have the technology to substitute for lack of access to the west. China is as dependent as Russia is on the west for the most advanced tech. Just ask Chinese cell phone makers how things are going now that they cannot access the best forges and software for making microchips. Russia can't make a reliable high bypass turbofan, gas turbine peakers or durable diesel engines. They rely on Pratt Whitney, GE and Rolls Royce for big turbofans, Solar Turbines for peakers and Caterpillar for their big truck engines. They have to have their non nuclear powered ice breakers built in Finland. All that goes away if Russia invaded Ukraine, and China doesn't build reliable replacements.

No real threat from that little insignificant paper tiger. They have also own high tech, it’s even already flying in space for decades , if you need an example. And if the others all are becoming too noisy, they can easily take out western technology with newest weaponry or at least by a little bit computer hacking or they could build a few contradicting mega CO2-production places, coal, aluminium or cement factories and such, that surely would everyone else calm down quickly. Who does she think she’s playing with? lol

If Russia is cut off from markets & tech goods, she can find them somewhere else, but if Russia cuts you off from oil & gas, you will have to by camels from the Arabs to move around.

NovemberIsComing!Feb. 20  11:37 am JST

@stormcrow - Sanctions are unnecessary because there is no war!

Sanctions can do work, little by little. It worked to get South Africa to end its apartheid, unless you consider that their then-government was waging 'wars' on the so-called 'Bantus' (Blacks). Sanctions were imposed on Serbia and Montenegro during the Yugoslavia Breakup Wars. Sanctions were slapped on Russia by the Obama administration after they invaded Ukraine in 2014 and conquered Crimea. They were revoked by Trump but we all know he's a Russian sputnik anyway. that's too obvious.

And we can, and we must do it again.

@Sven. I have hands on with the Russian equipment and it is emphatically not better than the best western tech. You would have to see the hardware but it is old fashioned, hand assembly and crude. The surface finishes of Russian aircraft are horrible. No flush rivets, big panel gaps, engines that don't last very long. Their material science is decades behind the west and every year the gap grows wider. Worse for them their engineering talent is aging fast. Wages and working conditions are very poor for degreed engineers in Russia so their talent goes abroad. They are not training up new engineering grads to replace the old gray beards as they die off. The west does not have this problem.

We used to operate one of the old USSRs most fearsome ramjet powered missiles. For a brief time the US Navy was able to buy KH-31 Kryptons from Russia built to be used as aerial targets, surrogates for cruise missiles for our ships to train against and shoot down. We called it MA-31. Talk about kludge! They never met their advertised specs much less the fanboi foaming on the internet. They lacked speed, range and could not get low enough to the water to do what we needed in terms of a target. Boeing came up with a series of modifications to allow it to come closer to the Navy's needs but the Russians didn't want to adopt Boeing's ideas. Initially we mounted the Russian launch rail on US Navy aircraft but the rail was so wobbly and dangerous it wasn't considered safe for flight. We had to come up with a mod to one of our own launch rails to allow it to use the Russian missile. So I read comments like yours and wonder where this stuff comes from?