France rebels against ‘unacceptable’ anti-Russian sanctions

The French people have come to face the truth – the US is indeed exceptional – exeptionally arrogant.The French Ambassador has made it clear that France has always opposed US extraterritorial sanctions, and finds them to be ‘unacceptable’. TASS news quotes the Ambassador as saying:

“France has an absolutely clear position in what concerns the US sanctions of exterritorial character,” she said. “We find them to be unacceptable. We would like to safeguard our own interests and the opportunities for investment and economic presence here in Russia.”

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know what extraterritorial sanctions are – they are a ridiculous concept that no sane person should worry about in a normal world.

Here is what they are in a very simplistic way:

With normal sanctions, one country imposes them on another entity, forbidding their own people and companies, and those whom they have jurisdiction over, from doing business with them.

What makes extraterritorial sanctions different than normal sanctions, is that they demand that not only their own people must obey the sanctions, but all other countries should also obey these sanctions created by the US.

So essentially, the US sanctions Russia, and not only expects US companies and citizens to comply, but they demand that OTHER countries, nationals, and peoples also obey US sanctions against Russia, and by default, that these countries also sanction Russia. So in other words, the US is saying:

Hey France, this is the world police here speaking. We noticed you’re traditing with Russia, perhaps you didn’t notice we forbid this trade in our sanctions…certainly you wouldn’t disagree with your Washington overlords. We expect you to obey us and follow us in every way, even if we ask you to betray your own interests, because to do otherwise would be betraying our interests, and then we can’t be allies, because allies don’t betray eachothers interest.

Extraterritorial sanctions are part of the economic sphere of the US view that it is the world police, with global jurisdiction. They are incredibly presumptuous and arrogant, a monument to US exceptionalism, in that they feel sanctions they create should apply to all other countries.

This is distinct from UN sanctions, (like the ones on North Korea), which DO apply globally, because these are created with the consent of the majority of nations participating in the UN.

The report by TASS points out that:

At the end of July 2017, the US House of Representatives adopted the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act. President Donald Trump signed it into law on August 2, expressing his strong objections to some of its provisions along the way.

The law envisions a toughening of unilateral restrictive measures against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Its initiators also made efforts to make the law exterritorial and spelt out the mechanisms for applying the sanctions to the companies and institutes in third countries, which cooperate with the Russian energy sector businesses, defense manufacturers or intelligence services.

In this regards, the US feels its sanctions carry the same weight as those imposed by the entire international community, and that America is, in fact, greater than all the nations of the world. It is one thing to love your country above all – that is patriotism. It’s a completely separate matter to think your nation is intrinsically superior to every nation in the world.

Russia understands that all countries have national interest, US included, Russia has always defended hers, but the way the US views their own is different. Not only do they defend it, which is normal, but they aggressively attack others, with the genuine belief that anything they do is truly just and Holy. They feel other countries should betray their own interests if it suits US goals, and to do otherwise would be immoral.

France needs Russian trade, and Russia is happy to trade with France. After the Ukraine crisis, France was forced to scrap a lucrative deal with Russia to supply Minstral Warships to Russia. This deal would have been wonderful for THE French shipping industry, and in scrapping it, and caving to foreign pressure, France has shown the world that it is possible she is already no longer a great power, which does as she pleases, but rather subject to the commands and pressure of her allies.

Good allies don’t ask each other to betray their national interests.

The French Ambassador also noted the connection of the sanctions with the Ukraine crisis, and is hoping for a resolution to the crisis, and with it, sanctions in their entirety:

“Sanctions are instruments and we do hope the situation [in eastern Ukraine] will be changing,” Ambassador Bermann said. “We also hope for their revision after the Minsk accords are translated into life.”

Russians may say “C Nami Bog” (God is with us), and the Greeks “Met’h h’Imon O Theos“, Germans may say the same “Gott mit uns“, and the French may say “Dieu avec nous“, but it seems the US is saying “God is with us, and ONLY with US, and if you aren’t with US, God isn’t with YOU”.

The way the US imposes sanctions on a country, and then expects the entire world to comply, is just another example of the way the US is exceptional – exceptionally arrogant.