RT
The West is rapidly degrading, while the economies of Russia and the Global South are growing, Maksim Oreshkin says.
The US insistence on sanctioning Russia has caused a downturn in the EU economy, according to President Vladimir Putin’s top economic adviser, Maksim Oreshkin.
In an interview with Expert magazine published on Tuesday, Oreshkin said the sanctions imposed since February last year have caused the EU to lose both its energy security and a key export market.
Oreshkin pointed to the key factors underlying the EU’s economic prosperity, outlined by the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. They include easy availability of energy resources from Russia, the use of cheap production in China, and access to the Russian and Chinese markets.
“The gradual loss of these factors is leading the EU economy towards long-term stagnation,” Oreshkin argued, “because European manufacturers now have neither the export market nor the advantages in technology that they had five to ten years ago.”
Oreshkin accused the US of “cannibalizing its European partners, killing European chemicals, automotive and other industries.” This comes amid a broader degradation of the West and its economic model, he said.
“The economies of the Global North – the US, Japan, the EU – are slowly losing their status, their significance. This gradual decay of the countries of the Global North and the growth of countries in the East and South is what will further shape the landscape of the global economy,” he predicted. Oreshkin noted that China has already become the leading global economic power, while Russia is now the largest economy in Europe, “on course to replace Japan as the world’s fourth largest.”
According to the presidential aide, the world’s key economic players will be focusing their development strategies on growing markets in Asia and Africa in the coming years. Russia’s development will take the same direction, he predicted, especially in the energy sphere.
“The stronger the economic growth [in Asia and Africa], the higher will their level of energy consumption be, and the better the energy markets will feel… For Russia, the key task is to remain the most efficient producers of what we make, which includes energy. We must have lower costs, more efficient production, and then the changes that will occur in the energy markets will affect us to a lesser extent.”
Via https://www.rt.com/business/589681-us-eu-economy-russia/
The Most Revolutionary Act 
“. . . easy availability of energy resources from Russia, the use of cheap production in China, and access to the Russian and Chinese markets.” Now the EU has to cope without all this: To what end?
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I essentially agree with the author of the article, Aunty. France and Germany were the last Western countries to main their industrial sectors. All the others (including Australia and New Zealand) have outsourced manufacturing to cheap Asian labor markets. As such they produce no real wealth. For France and Germany to maintain their industrial wealth would allow them to outstrip the US economically (as Russia and China are doing), which was an intolerable situation for the US.
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It seems food is key. Military leaders like Julius Caesar would control the food in areas he was trying to conquer, and the kings of old kept central stockpiles. The pharohs of Egypt. Maduro in Venezuela now. I hear Gaza is being deprived of food and water. In Ukraine, formerly the “bread basket of Europe” the war has interrupted production.
Since the US substitutes fake money for food, it is possibly undermining Europe’s food self sufficiency. Its economic war against Russia makes it worse for everyone. What does the US gain in all this?
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I also think industrialization is important, Katherine, as historically manufacturing has been essential in lifting poor people out of poverty (as China has done). I think the US and the rest of the Western world made a terrible mistake in deindustrializing – all for the benefit of a few thousand bankers.
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I noticed the deindustrialing in the 80s though it had been going on since the mid-70s. You are correct. It benefited a small batch of greedy men and was well on the way of murdering the middle class.
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The same thing has happened in New Zealand, papasha408 and the result has been widespread poverty.
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Industrialization is a more recent development, but Cuba, a small, island country, managed to survive the US’ sanctions for over 60 years, by reverting to pre-industrial techniques. I haven’t heard much since Fidel died, but
he proved industrialization is not necessary for survival.
Today, industrialization may be necessary for an export economy, but ideally, an internally cohesive economy can sustain its populace, if that is the desire.
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You raise an interesting question, Katherine. I think there’s pretty strong agreement among political analysts that population growth is very slow in pre-industrial societies and there’s no way Western countries could maintain their high population levels without relying on manufactured goods (which I believe Cuba still does to a large extent). Prior to the industrial revolution, it was the role of women to make all the clothing, candles, soap, linens required by their families, in addition to caring for livestock and veggie gardens (and raising children). I’m pretty sure Cuba still imports most non-food items. So they are still manufactured somewhere (ie women don’t make them) even if not in Cuba.
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