Be still, my Western heart: Putin is coming for G20 in Indonesia

Vladimir Putin is to personally attend the G-20 summit in Indonesia. Joe Biden's prompters will have to decide whether Biden should meet with the Russian president or not.

Late last week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was going to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November.

"Xi Jinping will come. President Putin also told me that he would come," Widodo said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Needless to say that Putin's arrival, if it happens, will cause a stir in the West. The US administration will have to decide whether Joe Biden should meet his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 summit and how he should behave on such an occasion.

After all, Biden will have to sit at the same table with Putin, shake hands and pose to photographers. Moreover, the whole world will compare the incompetent Biden with the confident and witty Putin.

Half of the leaders of the G20 countries that do not support sanctions against Russia will surely enjoy the show as they dislike arrogant American imperialism. Most of them need Russian raw materials, and they will therefore sit at the same table with the Russian leader and smile at him.

There will be few adversaries — not even Germany or France, but rather the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. The Anglo-Saxons that is.

Zelensky at the G20 summit?

The Indonesians also promise the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky at the summit, although Ukraine is not a member of the G20. Moreover, it has been moving further and further away from it. What is the reason for his invitation? It appears that it was Washington that made Jakarta make such a decision. At the same time, however, Indonesian President Widodo invited Putin.

The Indonesian leader leaves no doubt about the fact that Jakarta wants to cooperate with Russia and China, regardless of what Washington and Brussels might think.

"Rivalry between big countries is really worrying. We want the world to be stable, peaceful, so that we can ensure economic growth. I don't think this is just about Indonesia: Asian countries want the same too," Widodo said in an interview with Bloomberg.

"Indonesia wants to be friends with everyone. We have no problems with any country. Each country should have its own approach. Each manager has his own approach. But Indonesia needs investment, technologies that will change our society," the President of Indonesia said.

The Western embargo against Russia is cracking at the seams

Not only is the entire "global Asia" cold about the policy of sanctions, but major financial banks on Wall Street have secured exemptions from sanctions for themsevles. In particular, they have resumed trading in Russian bonds, Bloomberg said.

Earlier, the US Department of Commerce allowed companies from Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland not to obtain licenses related to the export of technological products to Russia and Belarus. In addition, sanctions were lifted from Russian grain and fertilizer manufacturers and all organisations related to logistics and banking chains.

Instead of the oil embargo, the United States started discussing oil price caps with its allies, but this initiative also stalled because China and India refused to discuss it.

The EU also started easing sanctions against Russia. The turbine from Canada for Nord Stream 1 project was released. Non-EU countries were allowed to deal with Russian entities, including banks and state-owned companies such as Rosneft. These exemptions have been made for the companies that ensure the supplies of food, agricultural products and oil to third countries outside the EU.

In fact, all of the above comes as an acknowledgment of the fact that Western sanctions against Russia are useless. Instead of their desired effect, they cause damage to third parties not involved in the Ukrainian conflict.

Everything is interconnected very strongly in the modern world, and attempts to isolate the world's largest country from the world sound absurd, to say the least.

The UK, for its part, is hesitant to join the ban on insuring Russian tankers. London's participation in insurance sanctions is necessary because of the huge market share that UK insurers hold in shipping insurance.

By and large, the West will be forced to buy Russian energy resources, raw materials and metals from third countries, albeit at exorbitant prices. The West will not tarnish the badge — it will rather tarnish its economy.