The Ruble has 'mysteriously' surged to six-month highs against the dollar (and even stronger relative to the Euro) over the last few weeks since Russian President Putin demanded Rubles-for-Gas... (see below)

Why you may ask?

Well, according to the article in ZeroHedge this morning - "Hungary Throws EU Neighbors Under The Bus, Says 10 Nations Technically Buying Gas-For-Rubles From Putin", that is the reason.

"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, appears to have spilled the beans on what is really going on among the Russia-dependent European nations.

Gulyas told public radio on Sunday that while multiple European leaders have publicly proclaimed they won’t comply with Putin's demand that they buy Russian gas in rubles, 10 EU countries are technically going along with Putin’s plan."

While the article itself is a bit confusing on the mechanics involved here, a comment from a reader offers the following explanation, which sounds about right to me.

"payment is done once rubles are deposited to Gazprom rubles account (in custody of Russia), rather than before when the payment was done when the money is deposited into Gazprom euro account (in custody of EU).

Subtle but very important difference only understood by someone with financial system operational knowledge...

And it is not really possible to BAN this in EU unless you ban all t***sactions with Gazprombank... If EU allows t***sactions with Gazprombank, well, it cannot really ban sending instructions to the bank to convert into rubles and t***sfer the converted rubles. Well, they can ban it, but they cannot control it from EU side as this is all activity done within Russia and outside of EU control... basically, this is not enforceable..."

So, bottom line, the world needs Russian Oil more than it fears US/EU financial sanctions. They will find a way to bypass the "unenforcable" sanctions ploy, by hook or by crook. This in turn will ultimately bring about the demise of the "Petrodollar" that has enabled the US to fund it's massive debt creation process for the last 50 years. IMO, the debt bubble is getting ready to pop, and the chickens will be coming home to roost!

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/hungary-throws-eu-neighbors-under-bus-says-10-nations-technically-buying-gas-rubles-putin

While reading the ZeroHedge article "DoD Sends "Phoenix Ghost" Kamikaze Drones To Ukraine", I kept reflecting back on the book "War is a Racket" 
By General Smedley D. Butler.

We have a border situation out of control, a massive debt and inflation problem, an economy in shambles, and the Biden administration has committed more than $4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine which has just requested a whopping $33 billion more. This is money that we do not have to spend!

Instead of the US taking the lead in exercising it's proper role of helping to negotiate a peaceful solution to this crisis (which is one of NATO's own making), it is helping to fuel the fires of endless bloodshed.

Indeed, the US military-industrial war complex must be having an endless series of wet dreams envisioning all the profits from the new procurement that must be made to replace the gear lost/left in Afghanistan, and aid to Ukraine. Sickening.


https://www.zerohedge.com/military/dod-sends-phoenix-ghost-kamikaze-drones-ukraine