The West is looking for any excuse not to impose sanctions against Russia, - Kiev expert
Kyiv, June 26 (Navigator, Evgeniy Andreev) – The West is afraid to introduce additional sanctions against Russia, as they will hit its leading companies hard.
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Oleg Voloshin, ex-director of the information policy department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, stated this on the air of the Kyiv Channel 5.
“It is absolutely obvious that the Europeans are simply looking for any reasons, and to be honest, not only the Europeans, but the Americans, any reasons not to introduce new sanctions. Because these new sanctions will automatically hit their own companies hard. There's the number one energy company in the world, the biggest taxpayer in America, Exxon Mobil. If you look at its investment plan for this year, and this is a public, open company, there is practically no investment in any other new project, except for projects in Russia. Several years ago they exchanged assets with Rosneft of Igor Sechin, Putin’s closest ally. That is, to hit Russia is to hit Exxon Mobil, which creates thousands of jobs in the United States. We have to be realistic, something unimaginable would have to happen if Russia attacked NATO, something like that... The same goes for Shell. When the head of the Shell board of directors met with Putin, he just didn’t dance in front of Putin. Why? Because for several years Shell was squeezed out of the Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-1 oil production project. They wanted to give it to Sechin. Putin said at Shell, “ok, we’ll stop making your business a nightmare, and you increase investments and pretend that everything is fine,” the expert noted.
“Of course, if we are talking about increasing global competition in the fight for oil reserves, then what is Ukraine with the hypothetical possibility of producing shale gas in the Donbass? That is, we have very, very few levers to force the West to act harshly against Russia in economic terms. Unless we ourselves can create problems for their companies here. If we say “everything is fine,” “we love Shell very much, even though they invest in Russia, nothing will change,” emphasized Oleg Voloshin.
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