Nelson de Sá: Joe Biden sanctions make ruble and Moscow Stock Exchange rise

Joe Biden announced US sanctions and, on top of Russian financier Kommersant, the Moscow Stock Exchange rose almost 2%, with Gazprom and state-owned banks standing out. Also the ruble rose by more than 1%, on top of Argumenty i Fakty.

And even in the financial RBC, attention was drawn to the unusual sanctions against CSKA, one of the oldest football clubs in Russia, founded in 1911.

Given the little impression also left by the European Union’s announcements, that left the Nord Stream 2, which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after all, “suspended”.

Two weeks ago, at the White House, on camera, Scholz avoided mentioning the pipeline and ended up hearing a threat from Biden: “We’re going to finish him” with Nord Stream 2.

Now the chancellor has stepped forward and, in the words of Germans such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “interrupted the certification” of the pipeline. But he did so “until further notice” or “for now”, as the same newspapers pointed out.

In the US, the New York Times sought to be more assertive, in the so-called “Germany puts an end to Nord Stream 2” (in the original, “puts stop”).

WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT WINTER?

The negative highlights soon began to appear, especially after the former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev tweeted ironically round numbers about the discontinuation of certification: “Welcome to the Admirable new world where Europeans will very soon pay 2,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas!”

The headline in the Wall Street Journal then changed to “Germany puts Nord Stream 2 on hold, heightening supply concern.”

And the Süddeutsche headline moved to “The State of the German Gas Supply” (above), noting: “This winter, houses in Germany will stay warm. But what about next?”

A HALF

From CNN, amid coverage: “Gazprom is the sole shareholder of Nord Stream 2, but 50% of the pipeline’s funding came from five European energy companies, including Wintershall and Uniper, from Germany. The other funders are Shell, from UK, Engie from France and OMV from Austria”.

‘NO MARKET IN CHINA’

With the suspension of Nord Stream 2, Chinese influencers defend on social media the option of taking gas from the same fields to China, via Power of Siberia 2 (above), whose construction was confirmed by Beijing and Moscow earlier this month.

They contrast with the CP press, such as the Global Times, which supports the Chinese government’s effort to deal with the crisis with “caution” and, in an editorial, proposes that “all parties should give Russia and Ukraine space to resolve the issue. ”.