US sanctions on Russia to impact global economy: Analyst



 

Sanctions imposed by the US against Russia will negatively impact the world economy, says Gilbert Mercier, a French journalist and analyst.

“The economic sanctions that are cooked up by the West will have an extremely negative impact on the global economy,” Mercier told Press TV in a phone interview on Monday.
President Barack Obama issued an executive order Monday that imposes sanctions on named Russian, Crimean, and Ukrainian officials.
The order authorizes the US Secretary of Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to impose sanctions on 11 Russian, Crimean, and Ukrainian officials for “contributing to the situation in Ukraine.”
Mercier, who is Editor in Chief at News Junkie Post, said any US sanctions against Russia will have serious consequences for both the US and Europe.
He said the US might be threatened by China although Beijing “has been very quiet on the issue of those sanctions against Russia.”
China “might threaten the US with doing a fire sale on the huge holdings that they have in [US] Treasury bonds which represent $1.3 trillion. As a matter of fact, it’s almost half of the Treasury bonds earned by foreign investors,” he noted.
The sanctions will also affect European countries as they might have difficulty getting gas from Russia.
“If the sanctions [against Russia] shape up, what Russia will and can do is shut off the gas pump [and] use gas as leverage on the EU,” Mercier said.
He also noted the US thinks it “can provide the EU, especially the Eastern European [countries] out of the EU, with their gas but they cannot do that because the technology is not in place.”

AT/ISH