Skip to main content

If The West Sanctions Russia, The Kremlin May Suspend Western Airlines’ Overflight Rights

Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport  

Defense One: What If Moscow Cancels Airline Overflight Rights? 

The interconnected world gives Russia tools that the Soviet Union never had. 

The world is watching Russia, worrying that it might invade Ukraine or launch military assaults against NATO member states. But Moscow may, true to form, decide to do something completely different. And to throw the West into turmoil, the Kremlin would only need to take one simple administrative measure: suspend Western airlines’ overflight rights. Airlines are rightly alarmed at the prospect, and the rest of us should accept that the globalized economy makes our countries vulnerable. It’s not your parents’ Cold War anymore. 

Say you’re flying from London to Beijing. Your plane takes you eastwards, across the North Sea, above Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic Sea, a stretch through Finnish airspace—and then follows a very long stretch through Russian airspace followed by a brief one in the skies above Mongolia and one in China. When the plane touches down, you and your fellow passengers have spent more than ten hours in the air.  

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: Canceling airline overflights is a powerful lever. The Kremlin used this lever last year because of Belarus, and the West quickly folded .... Russia blocks flights as West's standoff with Belarus over diverted plane hits international air travel (CBS). 

There are other tools in the Kremlin's toolkit that they can use. 

Cutting natural gas supplies to Europe. Oil production cutbacks. All of these counter measures to Western sanctions will hurt the Russian economy. But it will hurt the West significantly more. 

The U.S. , the U.K., and some eastern European countries may be eager to go down this route of imposing sanctions. But I doubt that the major powers on the European continent (i.e. Germany, France, and Italy) would follow.



from War News Updates https://ift.tt/3nVvI3q
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US And Russian Chiefs Of Staff Discuss Ukraine In Rare Phone Call

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (left) and his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov (file photo)   The Hill: Milley speaks with Russian counterpart for first time since start of war   Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley spoke with his Russian counterpart on Thursday, the first such conversation between the two since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine began in late February, according to the Pentagon.  Milley spoke by phone with Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian general staff, and they “discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep the lines of communication open,” Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said in a readout of the conversation.  The Pentagon did not provide further information on the conversation.   Read more ....   WNU Editor: So much for the reports last week that Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov was fired b...

Is Putin's Inner Circle Already In Discussions On Who Is Going To Replace Him?

Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a meeting on economic issues in Moscow on Monday. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)   Daily Beast: Putin’s Own Men Are Already Discussing Who Will Replace Him   Three months into Vladimir Putin’s bloody “special operation” in Ukraine, his own men in the Kremlin are reportedly discussing who will replace him.  That’s according to new reporting by the independent news outlet Meduza, which cited several sources close to the Russian presidential administration who said officials are increasingly fed up with Putin personally.  Some of Putin’s own allies within the Kremlin walls have reportedly floated the idea of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin becoming his successor, or former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council. Sergei Kirienko, the first deputy chief of staff of the presidential administration, was also said to have been discussed as a contender.   Read mor...

China's shipyard CSSC launches 1st Pakistani Hangor class submarine PNS Hangor

  According to information published by the Pakistani MoD on April 26, 2024, the Hangor class submarine PNS Hangor was launched by the Chinese shipyard CSSC. This submarine is a part of the Hangor-class, which itself is based on the Yuan-class Type 039B submarines provided by China. Read full news at this link Hangor class submarine PNS Hangor. (Picture source: Pakistani MoD) Read more from World Defence News https://ift.tt/dgQWhs7 via IFTTT