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Texas Middle School Teacher: “Conservative Christians Need to Get COVID and Die”

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch reported on Wednesday that a Texas middle school teacher was caught on film saying, “conservative Christians need to get Covid and die.”
<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://danaloesch.substack.com/p/video-texas-middle-school-teacher?utm_source=url" target="_blank">According to Loesch</a>, Colleyville Middle School teacher Lisa Grimes is the person in the video complaining to two other women about conservative views on Covid-19 vaccines while on campus.
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The remark is especially disturbing considering the teacher lives in Texas where many of her colleagues and parents of her students are surely conservative Christians.
Read a transcript of the conversation below:
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“We have a political system that will not allow us to [inaudible] so we’re vaccinating like the flu … which is, you know … get the flu vaccine if you want but you can’t — don’t ‘tread on me.’ [crosstalk] But it’s too late. It would have had to have been immediate. If we would have done it immediately, it’d already be gone. That’s what’s frustrating. The rest of my life is impacted because of politics? Because of conservative Christian crap? [crosstalk] I’m telling you, those conservative Christians … they need to die … they need to get covid and die.”
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The left’s vitriol for anyone opposing the Marxist mob’s groupthink is growing stronger every day.
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/texas-middle-school-teacher-conservative-christians-need-to-get-covid-and-die">https://www.infowars.com/posts/texas-middle-school-teacher-conservative-christians-need-to-get-covid-and-die</a>

news Texas Middle School Teacher: “Conservative Christians Need to Get COVID and Die”

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch reported on Wednesday that a Texas middle school teacher was caught on film saying, “conservative Christians need to get Covid and die.” According to Loesch, Colleyville Middle School teacher Lisa Grimes is the per…

Disturbing: Reporters Posing As 13-Year-Old Girls On Facebook/Apple VR Game Witnessed Simulated Sex, Grooming & Rape Threats

Reporters for both the BBC and the Mirror discovered a disturbing amount of pornographic material and simulated sex acts taking place while posing as 13-year-old girls in an Apple-hosted VR game using Facebook’s Meta Quest headset.
Users only need to use their Facebook VR headset, formerly known as Oculus Quest, to download the VRChat app in the Apple Store to join in on the adult online activities.
Sadly, despite the game being rated for ages 13 and older, many users encountered by the journalists were suspected to be much younger than 13.
<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/predators-use-virtual-reality-chatroom-26186533" target="_blank">According to the Mirror</a>, “Millions of families now have the VR headsets, now called Meta Quest, while the Oculus app needed to play on them was the most popular on Apple’s App Store over Christmas, with 1.3 million downloads worldwide.”
The reporter for the UK outlet described witnessing an adult encouraging a teenage girl to “kill herself” and “a robot avatar with a deep voice” using the screen name “pedo” who disappeared to a private area with a different young girl.
Within six minutes, the investigation documented “racist, homophobic and misogynistic language, bullying and threats, as well as explicitly sexual conversation and abusive behaviour, including simulating sex, virtual sexual harassment and masturbation” with children present.
At one point, a group of children watched a user with a SpongeBob SquarePants avatar perform sexual acts.
A spokesperson for a far-left charity focused on countering digital hate referred to Meta as “a cesspit of hate, pornography and child grooming.”
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On Wednesday, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60415317" target="_blank">the BBC published an article</a> detailing a similar experience their reporter had while posing as a 13-year-old girl, stumbling upon “strip clubs and dungeons” in the VRChat app.
A man in the VR world told the journalist users can “get naked and do unspeakable things.”
“There are two people to the side of me now who are trying to get on top of each other,” the researcher described.
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“I was surprised how totally immersed in the spaces you are. I started to feel like a child again,” the BBC journalist explained. “So when grown men were asking why I wasn’t in school and encouraging me to engage in VR sex acts, it felt all the more disturbing.”
Footage of the reporter’s VR experience, slightly censored by blurring, shows a group of avatars engaging in an orgy before another character in the false reality threatens to “fuck” a user and rape their sister.
Another person investigating these virtual worlds, consultant agency head Catherine Allen, claims she once stepped in and prevented a group of adult men from “raping” a seven-year-old girl while using a Meta-owned app.
The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) responded to the BBC report, calling it “extraordinary” that children are being exposed to these “harmful experiences.”
“This is a product that is dangerous by design, because of oversight and neglect. We are seeing products rolled out without any suggestion that safety has been considered,” a group spokesperson said.
Social media’s negative physical and mental health effects on society have been well-documented and the growing realm of virtual reality will inevitably do harm we cannot currently fathom.
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/disturbing-reporters-posing-as-13-year-old-girls-on-facebook-apple-vr-game-witnessed-simulated-sex-grooming-rape-threats">https://www.infowars.com/posts/disturbing-reporters-posing-as-13-year-old-girls-on-facebook-apple-vr-game-witnessed-simulated-sex-grooming-rape-threats</a>

news Disturbing: Reporters Posing As 13-Year-Old Girls On Facebook/Apple VR Game Witnessed Simulated Sex, Grooming & Rape Threats

Reporters for both the BBC and the Mirror discovered a disturbing amount of pornographic material and simulated sex acts taking place while posing as 13-year-old girls in an Apple-hosted VR game using Facebook’s Meta Quest headset. Users only need to…

Lead Prosecutors Abruptly Quit Trump Investigation

The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan DA’s investigation into former President Trump and his business abruptly resigned on Wednesday – after having mysteriously stopped presenting evidence to a grand jury a month ago, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/nyregion/trump-ny-fraud-investigation.html">New York Times</a>, citing people with knowledge of the matter, and suggesting the future of the high-stakes inquiry has been thrown into “serious doubt.”
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned after new Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, expressed doubts about moving forward with the case.
Without Mr. Bragg’s commitment to move forward, the prosecutors late last month postponed a plan to question at least one witness before the grand jury, one of the people said. They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.
The precise reasons for Mr. Bragg’s pullback are unknown, and he has made few public statements about the status of the inquiry since taking office. In a statement responding to the resignations of the prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg said that he was “grateful for their service” and that the investigation was ongoing. -NYT
Now – with time running out for this grand jury, whose term will expire in April, and without Dunne – a veteran of the DA’s office who has been closely involved with the inquiry, “the yearslong investigation could peter out.” 
The sudden departures mark a dramatic shift from January, when the Times noted ‘significant activity related to the investigation’ at the Lower Manhattan courthouse – with at least two witnesses, Trump’s longtime accountant and a Real Estate expert – staying inside for hours.
And then the case just fizzled out.
That said, the pause in grand jury activity in the Manhattan case coincides with the ramping up of NY Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation, which is examining some of the same conduct by the former president.
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Last week, James received approval from a court to question Trump and two of his adult children under oath, and has filed documents which accuse the Trump Organization of misrepresenting the value of its properties. According to one filing, the company engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices. While James lacks the authority to criminally charge Trump, she has the option of suing him.
Trump has denied inflating property values or defrauding lenders – accusing both Bragg and James of being politically motivated “racists.”
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As Mr. Bragg’s grand jury presentation has come to a halt, another serious criminal inquiry into the former president has been gaining steam. In recent weeks, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/politics/georgia-trump-election-investigation.html">a district attorney in Atlanta asked a judge to convene a grand jury</a> for an investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Another criminal investigation, in New York’s Westchester County, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/nyregion/trump-westchester-golf-club-investigation.html">is examining Mr. Trump’s financial dealings at one of his company’s golf courses</a>.
The Manhattan investigation, which proceeded in fits and starts for years, was the most developed of the three criminal inquiries into Mr. Trump. It resulted in the indictments last summer of The Trump Organization and its long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, on separate tax-related charges. -NYT
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After Manhattan prosecutors announced indictments last summer, prosecutors focused on Trump’s net worth – suggesting he routinely inflated the value of his assets in order to defraud lenders.
Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, fired the Trump Organization and announced that it would no longer stand behind a decade of Trump’s financial statements. That said, Mazars says it has not, “as a whole,” found material discrepancies between information provided by the Trump Organization and the actual value of Trump’s assets.
That said, even with Mazars’ actions, a criminal case is highly unlikely according to the Times. Meanwhile, prosecutors have been unable to convince Trump CFO Alan Weisselberg to cooperate with the investigation.
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<a href="https://battleplan.news/watch?id=620c56bb5f384c080e0a2a27" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times Admits Trump Was Spied On With Hilarious Excuse For the Crimes</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/lead-prosecutors-abruptly-quit-trump-investigation">https://www.infowars.com/posts/lead-prosecutors-abruptly-quit-trump-investigation</a>

news Lead Prosecutors Abruptly Quit Trump Investigation

The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan DA’s investigation into former President Trump and his business abruptly resigned on Wednesday – after having mysteriously stopped presenting evidence to a grand jury a month ago, according to the New York Ti…

Detailed images of a shock wave that extends for 6.5 million light years

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An international team of astronomers led by the Hamburg Observatory made the most detailed images of the largest cosmic shock waves ever observed.
The observations are based on data from the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and have been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Galaxies are not evenly distributed across the universe, but gather in so-called galaxy clusters, which are held together by gravity. But gravity also causes galaxy clusters to attract each other—and collisions inevitably occur. The collisions of galaxy clusters are the largest astronomical events since the formation of the universe.
When clusters of <a href="https://phys.org/tags/galaxies/">galaxies</a> collide, gigantic cosmic <a href="https://phys.org/tags/shock+waves/">shock waves</a> are created that travel through the newly formed galaxy cluster. Now, an international group of astronomers led by Dr. Francesco de Gasperin, former Junior professor at Universität Hamburg and now Visiting Scientist at the Hamburg Observatory, has succeeded to produce images of the largest shock wave ever observed by using data from the MeerKAT radio telescope. The <a href="https://phys.org/tags/high-resolution+images/">high-resolution images</a> from the galaxy cluster Abell 3667 provide so far unique insights into the structure of cosmic shock waves.
“Cosmic shock waves are full of surprises and much more complex than we initially thought,” says Francesco de Gasperin and explains: “The shock waves act as giant particle accelerators and accelerate electrons almost to the speed of light. When these fast electrons cross a <a href="https://phys.org/tags/magnetic+field/">magnetic field</a>, they emit long-wave radiation that can be observed with the help of radio telescopes. The shock waves are threaded by an intricate pattern of bright filaments that trace the location of giant magnetic field lines and the regions where electrons are accelerated.”
One of the key research areas at the Hamburg Obervatory is the study of <a href="https://phys.org/tags/galaxy+clusters/">galaxy clusters</a>. The cluster Abell 3667 can be observed particularly well with the MeerKAT radio telescope in the southern hemisphere because it is comparatively close to the Earth. Abell 3667 was formed a billion years ago, but what scientists are measuring today took place about 800 million years ago. At that time, the shock waves propagated at 1500 kilometers per second and were about 60 times the size of our Milky Way.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/detailed-images-of-a-shock-wave-that-extends-for-6-5-million-light-years">https://www.infowars.com/posts/detailed-images-of-a-shock-wave-that-extends-for-6-5-million-light-years</a>

news Detailed images of a shock wave that extends for 6.5 million light years

An international team of astronomers led by the Hamburg Observatory made the most detailed images of the largest cosmic shock waves ever observed. The observations are based on data from the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and have been publ…

Watch: Student Dragged Out Of Class For Allegedly Not Wearing Mask

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Footage being spread online shows a teacher manhandling a student and carrying him outside, allegedly due to the child refusing to wear a mask.
In the video, the only maskless student in the classroom can be seen getting dragged out of class by a male teacher while the masked kids watched in awe.
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The incident took place at Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, California.
The Apple Valley Unified School District issued a statement regarding the incident on Wednesday, writing, “We have been made aware of a video circulating on social media of a student and staff member at AVHS. At this time, AVUSD is investigating the incident and appropriate outside agencies have been notified. All investigations are confidential. We cannot comment on active investigations.”
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Infowars reached out to Apple Valley Unified School District but they have not responded.
The person who posted the original video told Infowars the footage was sent to him by a friend whose son recorded the confrontation.
Liberal prejudice against those who choose to not wear masks or those who wear conservative-themed masks is now a common occurrence as multiple videos have proven in the last couple of weeks alone.
Last week, a young man was filmed being <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-mall-cop-kicks-out-young-man-for-wearing-trump-face-mask/" target="_blank">kicked out of a public mall</a> for wearing a Trump face mask.
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Also, last week <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-another-airline-passenger-removed-from-flight-over-anti-biden-mask/" target="_blank">an Allegiant Airlines passenger was kicked off his flight</a> for writing, “Let’s go Brandon” on his mask.
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This guy was reportedly kicked off a flight because he had “let’s go Brandon” written on his mask and refused to change masks. <a href="https://twitter.com/Allegiant?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Allegiant</a> employee claims it’s an “FAA regulation” <a href="https://t.co/4ipRbqggEB">pic.twitter.com/4ipRbqggEB</a>
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1493758772107304960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The week before that incident, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/spirit-airlines-forces-passenger-to-cover-offensive-lets-go-brandon-mask/" target="_blank">Infowars wrote about another man</a> who was told he couldn’t wear a “Let’s go Brandon” mask while riding Spirit Airlines.
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The left’s authoritarianism and disdain for anyone opposing the mob narrative has trickled down to everyday liberals.
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-student-dragged-out-of-class-for-allegedly-not-wearing-mask">https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-student-dragged-out-of-class-for-allegedly-not-wearing-mask</a>

news Watch: Student Dragged Out Of Class For Allegedly Not Wearing Mask

Footage being spread online shows a teacher manhandling a student and carrying him outside, allegedly due to the child refusing to wear a mask. In the video, the only maskless student in the classroom can be seen getting dragged out of class by a ma…

The US and allies start punishing Russia for its Ukraine aggression

The United States and other Western countries <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-scholz-halts-nord-stream-2-certification-2022-02-22/">have</a> started to impose sanctions on Russia for its moves into eastern Ukraine.
The sanctions so far are forceful signals that target certain financial institutions and individuals — but they are not yet the most severe sanctions the West has the capability to impose.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced what he called the “first tranche” of sanctions, which will include full blocking sanctions on two Russian financial institutions and penalties on Russian sovereign debt, designed to cut Russia off from foreign financing. Biden said sanctions on Russian elites and their families would follow.
The United States’ measures come after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-envoys-discuss-scope-sanctions-after-russian-move-ukraine-regions-2022-02-22/">Europe</a> and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-says-russian-invasion-ukraine-has-begun-2022-02-22/">United Kingdom</a> also imposed sanctions on Russia, including asset freezes and travel bans for certain Russian oligarchs and politicians. Germany also <a href="https://twitter.com/Bundeskanzler/status/1496107140993400835?s=20&t=fAYeVgJjiGZp_ATULpQYuQ">paused certification</a> for the $11 billion <a href="https://www.vox.com/22881709/nord-stream-2-russia-ukraine-germany-united-states-cruz">Nord Stream 2 pipeline</a>, something the US and many of its partners very much wanted. (The US a day earlier <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/21/u-s-to-sanction-russia-ukraine-territories-independence-00010443">placed targeted sanctions</a> on those doing business in the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russia was moving in.)
This flurry of diplomatic action came after <a href="https://www.vox.com/22917719/russia-ukraine-invasion-border-crisis-nato-explained">tensions on Ukraine’s border</a> rapidly escalated this weekend, and on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to recognize as independent the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, two territories in eastern Ukraine where he has manufactured a separatist conflict since 2014. Shortly after, Putin ordered troops into the region for “peacekeeping” operations. European <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/22/russia-ukraine-updates/">officials said Tuesday</a> that Russian troops have since arrived in these breakaway regions.
The United States and some of its partners appeared to vacillate on what, exactly, to call Russia’s actions in the immediate aftermath. This was not the march toward Kyiv that US officials had warned about. But it was a violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty, an attempt by Russia to essentially redraw Ukraine’s borders.
The diplomatic language matters, as the US and its allies have promised Russia will face <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/594002-biden-warns-putin-of-swift-and-severe-costs-if-russia-invades-ukraine">“swift and severe costs”</a> if Putin decides to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22917719/russia-ukraine-invasion-border-crisis-nato-explained">invade Ukraine</a>. And Russia’s latest acts look like the beginning, not the end of this conflict. Biden warned Tuesday that Russia is “poised to go much further in launching a massive military attack in Ukraine.”
The West faces a real dilemma here. The US and its allies are trying to avoid executing the most punishing sanctions just yet, so they have options if, or when, Putin escalates — and there are few signs that Russia is deescalating in eastern Ukraine. Some <a href="https://twitter.com/RepLizCheney/status/1495896311933333504?s=20&t=fAYeVgJjiGZp_ATULpQYuQ">have called for the harshest sanctions now</a>, essentially arguing that failing to harshly punish Putin now won’t deter him at all, a repeat of what happened in 2014. But the West also risks exhausting its harshest tools, leaving nothing left if Russian mounts a greater attack.
The US, in combination with the efforts of European allies, are showing that they’re willing to punish Russia, but these packages are not yet at the level of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/america-prepares-the-mother-of-all-sanctions-against-russia/21807487">“mother of all sanctions.”</a> Whether that happens will depend on what Russia does in the coming hours and days, whether sanctions will be enough to stop Putin at all, and the costs the US and Europe are willing to risk giving up.
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<figcaption>A pedestrian walks past Rossiya Bank headquarters in Moscow, Russia, on February 22. The United Kingdom sanctioned five Russian banks — Rossiya Bank, Industrial Savings Bank, Promsvyazbank, Genbank, and Black Sea Development Bank — and three individuals.</figcaption>
<cite>Peter Kovalev/TASS via Getty Images</cite></figure>
“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074466148/biden-russia-ukraine-minor-incursion">President Biden said in January</a>. “And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do.”
Biden received a lot of flak for that comment, but in the end it proved prescient: The US and its allies are trying to figure out how to calibrate for Russia’s declaration of independence and order of troops into eastern Ukraine — a violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty, but something Moscow didn’t need the approximately 190,000 troops it has gathered on Ukraine’s borders to do.
The United States and its allies have ruled out sending troops to defend Ukraine. The West is relying on other foreign policy tools, including defensive support to Kyiv and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/biden-sends-troops-baltics-f-35s-natos-eastern-flank-us-official-2022-02-22/">shoring up the US presence in NATO’s eastern flank</a>, which Biden said Tuesday the US would continue to do. And the next step is sanctions.
Sanctions have, at best, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/671672020">a mixed track record</a>. The US has applied aggressive economic blockades on countries like Cuba, but they have not necessarily generated the policy and regime change the US has sought, while also squeezing average citizens.
For sanctions to really work — <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-iran-nuclear-deal">like the coordinated sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table for the original Iran nuclear deal in 2015</a> — wide international participation is critical. But it’s unclear how collective the global response — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/22/china-russia-ukraine-reaction/">specifically, from China</a> — will be to Russia’s moves into Ukraine.
The question of how to punish Russia also comes with another difficult dilemma: specifically, what costs are the United States and its allies willing to bear.
The most aggressive sanctions, like making it extraordinarily difficult for Russian financial institutions and state-owned banks to trade in US dollars, could inflict a lot of hurt on Russia — and, very likely, its people — if the sanctions sparked inflation or other economic crises. Other dramatic options exist, like blocking Russia’s biggest exports, oil and gas.
But the more far-reaching and destructive the action against the Kremlin, the more potent the potential reverberations in the West. The most severe sanctions, like cutting off Russia from all or parts of the global financial system, may hurt other economies intertwined with it. <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/012122-russian-crude-exports-to-us-highlight-risks-to-ukraine-talks-for-biden">The US</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-09/europe-frets-about-economic-hit-if-russia-is-sanctioned-heavily">Europe</a> are not exempt, especially as these economies are dealing with the post-pandemic recovery and inflation. Russia <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/31/can-europe-survive-if-russia-stops-supplying-it-gas">may take retaliatory measures</a>, too.
These calculations are not new. The United States and its allies <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/world/europe/a-white-house-split-over-russia.html">made similar ones in 2014</a>, after <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/18088560/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know">Russia annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine</a>. Russia has also taken steps to insulate its economy since those sanctions in 2014, making it at least better able to withstand some pressure from the West.
Moscow is also very likely to engage in its own countermeasures, in defense of what it sees as a justified action in Ukraine — which Putin has already said he doesn’t see as a sovereign country. Russia also has the ability to create chaos in other ways, launching cyber operations or disinformation campaigns on Western targets. It could threaten to cut off the Russian energy supply to Europe.
The US and its partners have tried to counter these risks, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-can-divert-up-15-its-gas-exports-2022-02-22/">for example, trying to get countries like Qatar to make up some of Europe’s energy supply</a>. It’s a sign that Western allies realize any measures against Russia come with risks, though they may see no choice but to take them.
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<figcaption>A worker stands at the landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, on February 15. Germany has paused certification of the pipeline after Russia moved into Eastern Ukraine.</figcaption>
<cite>Michael Sohn/AP</cite></figure>
The US and its allies have a handful of options to punish Russia, some more punishing than others.
So far, Biden has announced “full blocking” sanctions on two Russian financial institutions, VEB and a military bank, along with sanctions on Russian debt. Biden said the actions mean Russia’s government “can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.”
The measures are largely a warning shot. These institutions are not Russia’s largest banks, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-can-divert-up-15-its-gas-exports-2022-02-22/">which means the effect on the larger economy will be limited</a>. Russia has decreased the amount of debt held by foreigners, as part of its efforts to insulate its economy after 2014 sanctions.
Europe <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/europe/eu-sanctions-russia-ukraine.html">has also imposed sanctions on individuals</a> involved in Putin’s decision to declare independence in the two regions in eastern Ukraine, and has put targeted sanctions on Russian banks helping to finance military operations in the Donbas. The EU said it had limited Russia’s access to European financing that might be used to facilitate military activities, and restricted trade with anyone in the two breakaway regions. The UK <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-says-russian-invasion-ukraine-has-begun-2022-02-22/">sanctioned</a> a few oligarchs, and put limited sanctions on some banks.
Perhaps Europe’s biggest penalty came in the halt of Nord Stream 2 development, which was really Germany’s decision to make. No gas was flowing through the pipeline, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22881709/nord-stream-2-russia-ukraine-germany-united-states-cruz">but the US and its allies have warned</a> that the project could become another tool for Russia to manipulate Europe’s national and energy security.
Europe’s reliance on natural gas from Russia is hanging over many of these sanctions decisions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in announcing the freeze on Nord Stream 2, noted that the country needs to examine the security of its energy supply. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/3/russia-ukraine-crisis-how-europe-may-cope-if-putin-shuts-off-gas">Europe is reliant on Russia for about a third of its natural gas</a>, and with fuel prices spiking and the continent already feeling an energy crunch (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-coal-price-rockets-iea-seeks-surge-green-energy-2021-10-13/">which some believe Russia has been happy to let happen</a>), it is wary of even greater disruptions. Conflict could deepen this crisis. So could Russian retaliation if Moscow messes with gas supplies — <a href="https://twitter.com/MedvedevRussiaE/status/1496112456858574849?s=20&t=LoXxKWhlsBsQRuNVB4-6nw">something it hinted at Tuesday.</a>
As Biden and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60476137">some of his Western counterparts made clear</a>, this is likely the first round of penalties. The US and the EU presented a fairly united front, a sign that they’re not fracturing under Putin’s pressure. But if harsher sanctions are to come, the risks increase for the West. And they come without any real guarantees any action will deter Putin.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/22/22945610/russia-sanctions-ukraine-nord-stream">https://www.vox.com/2022/2/22/22945610/russia-sanctions-ukraine-nord-stream</a>

vox The US and allies start punishing Russia for its Ukraine aggression

The United States and other Western countries have started to impose sanctions on Russia for its moves into eastern Ukraine. The sanctions so far are forceful signals that target certain financial institutions and individuals — but they are not yet t…