A World United Against U.S. Sanctions
In its 2023 forecast, the International Monetary Fund (imf) expects that Russia will be economically better off than Germany or the United Kingdom. The report added that sanctions against Russia failed. Why? EuroIntellegence wrote: “Our blunt answer is this: A large part of the world hates us [America] more than it hates [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
The forecast: The imf expects the U.K. economy to contract by 0.6 percent this year. Germany is expected to grow by only 0.1 percent. Russia’s economy is expected to expand by 0.3 percent in 2023, and then 2.1 percent in 2024. Russia’s growth is expected to be robust due to a recovery in oil prices.
In March 2022, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said: “The Russian economy will be devastated as a consequence of what we’ve already done, but we … continue to consider further steps we can take.” Such early predictions have proved inaccurate.
What happened? Russia appears to have more friends than enemies. And even its supposed enemies seem halfhearted. Large economies, such as Brazil, China and India, prefer to be neutral and reject strict sanctions. “The world is almost united in condemnation of the war,” EuroIntellegence wrote. “But when it comes to sanctions, large parts of the world are united in their opposition to the West.”
Thus many friends of Russia simply ignored the sanctions. Others worked to prevent them.
In the early days of the Ukraine invasion, Germany was accused of preventing serious sanctions, such as cutting Russia off from swift, the main payment method used by businesses around the world. Last week, Germany approved the exclusion of certain Russian banks. However, the banks involved with Russia’s gas exports are exempt from the sanctions. America said it wanted to cut Russia off completely. The European Union initially agreed to cut it off from 70 percent. The final figure was 30 percent.
Russia’s rise prophesied: Ezekiel 38 prophesied that Russia would be a leading power during the “latter years.” Ezekiel 27 shows that Russia’s strength is derived in part from an economic alliance. A related prophecy in Isaiah 23 prophesies about “a mart of nations” (Isaiah 23:3). Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains in Isaiah’s End-Time Vision that this economic alliance will revolve around a European superpower—and that the alliance’s goal is to sideline the United States.
We are now seeing this alliance bring forth its prophesied results: The U.S. is increasingly isolated.
Learn more: Request a free copy of Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.
