Stupid sanctions solve nothing

THE EU is reeling from a cataclysmic €50 billion in lost trade annually as a consequence of US-inspired sanctions. Mainstream media keeps quiet about the disastrous effects on EU businesses.
Mediterranean Europe, Spain in particular, welcomed high-spending Russian tourists. Russian investment was encouraged. What happened?  
The number of Russians holidaying abroad dropped by 40.3 per cent. Many now support their own holiday industry by taking their holidays at home. More than five million this year will visit sun-drenched Crimea. Spain, Italy and Greece now suffer a 41, 31 and 29 per cent drop in tourism. Italy lost €1 billion; there was no impact on the Russian economy.
Fed up with fruitless US /EU hostility and sanctions, Russians respond by taking their business elsewhere. Turkey’s meat supplies to Russia increased by 940 per cent. They are now the third largest supplier after Belarus and Brazil. Columbian and Russian trade increased by 1,000 per cent. Pakistan stepped into the shoes of EU nations by increasing vegetable trade 18 fold.  
The difference between EU produce and that of its rivals is a matter of indifference to Russians. Russians now invest in self-sufficiency. They once bought products from the Baltic States to balance the trade books. Now they grow their own.
Sanctions allegedly support Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Yet, trade between Ukraine and Russia has increased by 141 per cent (meat); pork 10 times. US and Russian trade increased by six per cent.    
Territorial integrity? Don’t mention countries invaded and occupied by the US and NATO. The EU is now a de facto colony of a country considered the greatest danger to world peace.
The EU has not isolated Russia; the EU has, with dire consequence for the peoples of the EU, isolated themselves.
Don’t think trade will resume on the lifting of sanctions. They’re kaput.
The threat to the well-being and security of the peoples of the EU is not Russia; It is the incompetence and corruption of the branch managers of Washington DC foreign policy and the Wall Street Banks. Brussels, not Moscow, is Europe’s ruin.