Sanctioned Russia Quits Serbia, US Exports Freedom (and Oil)
Al Jazeera reports Russia's Gazprom Neft will exit Serbia's NIS oil company due to biting US sanctions. This is presented as a straightforward win for Washington's geopolitical objectives, a tidy narrative of 'sanctions bite, regime changes.' What's conveniently absent is the broader context of how often US 'economic pressure' conveniently realigns resource control into Western hands. Think Iraq's
oil post-2003, or Libya's before its 'liberation.' One might wonder if Moscow's 'agreement' was less about newfound civic duty and more about the kind of economic leverage that turns sovereign nations into captive markets. The US, which claims to champion free markets, seems remarkably comfortable using sanctions as a cudgel to reshape global energy landscapes to its strategic advantage. How many
times have we seen 'sanctions bite' a target only for Western multinationals to conveniently fill the void?