YESTERDAY an embargo on seaborne Russian oil exports came into force, a move that will drive up the price of oil internationally and add yet more fuel to the cost-of-living crisis raging throughout Europe and Britain.
Included in these latest sanctions is a price cap which sets a maximum price of $60 a barrel subject to review every two months.
This latest attempt to destroy the Russian economy was agreed by the Group of Seven leading capitalist nations, and the cap is to be enforced by the G7, the European Union and Australia.
The price cap allows Russian oil to be transported by ship to third-party countries using G7 and EU tankers only if the oil being transported is bought at the capped level of $60 – a level below that of the international price of a barrel.
In other words, while not daring to cut off Russian oil on which Europe is completely reliant, the intention is to force Russia to sell cheaply at a price dictated by the imperialist powers.
Russia immediately reacted, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: ‘These measures will have no impact whatsoever.’
He pointedly added: ‘However, these measures will undoubtedly have an impact on the stability of the global energy market, as far as its complete destabilisation goes.’
Russia had already warned before the cap came into force that it would not sell its crude oil under these conditions even if forced to cut production. Further, it warned the western powers that it would not sell its oil to any country supporting the cap.
Already, the existing sanctions on Russian gas and oil imports have driven every EU country into recession, with Germany and Italy the most exposed.
This latest round of sanctions will drive the cost of energy along with the cost of all commodities even higher, sending inflation way above its already 40 year high of 11.1% in Britain.
With millions of workers and their families facing soaring costs of energy and food, the working class are not prepared to starve and freeze to death to support the imperialist war to weaken Russia.
Instead, the working class in Britain are engaged in a massive wave of strikes demanding pay increases to protect them from the inflationary spiral and being driven into the gutter by recession.
Similarly, across Europe workers are rising up. On Saturday, thousands of Italian workers and youth came out in protest organised by the USB union against the raging cost of living and energy prices and calling for a suspension of shipments of weapons and money to Ukraine. At the mass demonstration in Rome, protesters carried placards saying: ‘Put down the weapons, raise the wages.’
Meanwhile on Sunday, Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi publicly revealed that ministers are ready to draft 6,000 members of the armed forces to deal with strikes this month insisting it is the ‘right thing to do’ to break strikes in the public sector.
Zahawi went out of his way to blame Russia for the cost of living crisis, adding that strikes in the public sector are ‘exactly what Putin wants to see’ before going on to say: ‘Let’s not divide, let’s come together.’
Workers in Britain and Europe are not fooled by all the attempts to blame Russia for a crisis that has been accelerated by sanctions imposed by the imperialist nations.
Appeals to ‘come together’ and accept workers having the full brunt of the capitalist crisis dumped on them will fall on deaf ears.
The working class in Britain and across Europe are coming together to confront a common enemy – a capitalist system that can only survive through war on two fronts against the working class at home and war against Russia to liquidate the gains of the Russian Revolution and open up the country and its vast mineral wealth to capitalist exploitation.
The enemy of the working class is not Russia, or China, but the increasingly desperate capitalist class at home.
The way to put an end to capitalism’s war on two fronts is to force the TUC to call a general strike to bring down the Tories and go forward to a workers’ government and socialism.
