It’s a rich irony – in fact a richness worth about $7.4 billion, and counting. In the same week that European Union envoys voted to extend trade sanctions on Russia, news emerges from the Paris Air Show that American aviation giant, Boeing, is moving ahead to sell a fleet of its 747 cargo planes – to Russia.
Our own Finian Cunningham hits the nail on the head with his piece titled:
"US to EU: Sanctions Are For Suckers!"
It’s a rich irony – in fact a richness worth about $7.4 billion, and counting. In the same week that European Union envoys voted to extend trade sanctions on Russia, news emerges from the Paris Air Show that American aviation giant, Boeing, is moving ahead to sell a fleet of its 747 cargo planes – to Russia.
That deal – reportedly worth about $7.4 billion – will see Boeing supply Russian transport firm Volga-Dnepr with 20 long-haul aircraft. That inventory is in addition to the fleet of 14 Boeing 747s that the Russian company has already purchased, according to media reports.
Moreover, it also emerged this past week that the Pentagon is lobbying hard for the US Congress to ease trade restrictions imposed on Russian-manufactured space rockets. According to a report in the Washington Times, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and other Pentagon officials are calling on Senators to repeal a ban on Russian space technology. The Pentagon says that a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin needs to purchase 14 RD-180 Russian engines in order to power Lockheed’s Atlas V space rocket program.
So there you have it.
The European Union, caught in a debilitating trade war with Russia, is digging an even deeper hole for its beleaguered economy with renewed sanctions on Moscow – while the Americans are finding all sorts of loopholes to skirt those same sanctions on Russia when it suits them.