‘Sanctions are US weapon against self-determined countries’

Washington uses sanctions to punish and isolate any nation that dares stand up against America’s interest, Daniel Shaw of the Answer Coalition told RT following US President Barack Obama signing a decree that allows imposing further penalties on Russia.

Robert English, International Relations expert at the University of South California: “It resembles the legendary American game of chicken when both sides in some confrontation refuse to back down, who will blink first, they keep raising the ante in this game.”

RT:President Obama's decision comes soon after his administration said it had no immediate plans to introduce sanctions. Why the change of plans?

Daniel Shaw: The term “sanctions” is indeed a curious term. The United States is sanctioned by whom? If you listen to them and their opponents you will swear the US was somehow sanctioned by divine providence, or by God, herself and himself. To impose sanctions around the world against any country who dares to stand up against their hegemonic interest. The latest round of sanctions that Barack Obama announced before his vacation is a sign of this imperial hubris, his imperial arrogance against the interest of the world’s people from the Crimean region to Korea, to Cuba. The US has always used sanctions to punish and isolate any country that believes in its own self-determination.

RT:What is the US trying to achieve by targeting businesses working in Crimea?

Robert English, International Relations expert at the University of South California: “The additional sanctions don’t add a great deal to what’s already in place... Both sides are in dangerous position. Obviously the West, the Americans understand that the Russian economy is really hurting and it is in a fragile situation...the West doesn’t fully appreciate that they are in fragile position too.”

DS: The sanctions are the latest upgrade in what is both covert and open war against Russia. Russia has been a balancing factor in the world. Anything that Russia does to protect its own interest, the US and the EU characterize as aggression on a part of Russia. We understand who the true aggressors are. In the worlds of Martin Luther King we understand who the greatest purveyor of violence in the entire world is. And that is the US. The US has hundreds and hundreds of military bases and installations outside of their territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, to far-off places in the world occupying more than 140 countries. So why doesn’t Russia have the right to defend its borders against Ukraine which has been converted into a neo-colony of the West? The US understands this but uses the international media to mischaracterize Russia, as though Russia were the country that is on the offensive.

Robert English, International Relations expert at the University of South California: “If Russia’s currency is tumbling and Russia’s hard currency reserves are being drained then everything is ten times worse in Ukraine. The country literarily is weeks away from a complete collapse, and the bill for that collapse will be laid at the West's door.”

RT:Are sanctions really the only way to solve the crisis in Ukraine?

DS: We have to ask first why there is a crisis in Ukraine. There is a crisis in Ukraine because the NATO powers and the US in a conspiratorial way did everything to overthrow the central regime in Kiev, because it was a regime that they couldn’t control. It was not a neo-colonial puppet regime. And that is the roots of this modern-day problem. Russia has acted with dignity protecting its own self-interest by honoring these democratic referendums throughout Ukraine. And the US doesn’t want to see different parts of Ukraine go over into a different sphere of influence. That is about the imperialism. You understand the ABCs of the imperialism, the imperialism is about the control of markets, the control of natural resources, the control of peoples, and their labor power. And that is what the US is after in Ukraine. As soon as they can gobble up this piece of the chessboard - Ukraine, they are even closer to Russia and making further encroachments into Russia, recolonizing Russia, and recolonizing like they did in Libya, like they are trying to do in Syria. They will stop by nothing, this empire is truly the greatest purveyor of violence, and the greatest violator of human rights the one could ever imagine in history.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.