The White House and the russophobes in the Senate are livid and are trying to block the transaction because it opens up some very serious and nasty scenarios for the petrodollar.Since the regime-change events in Ukraine we are seeing a heating up of inter-capitalist ruling class rivalries. This article explains some steps Russia and other countries are taking to counter the global hegemonic plays of the US-based Empire.
If Sechin [CEO of Russian oil company Rosneft] decides to sell this Iranian oil for rubles, through a Russian exchange, such move will boost the chances of the “petroruble” and will hurt the petrodollar.
It can be said that the US sanctions have opened a Pandora’s box of troubles for the American currency.
This scene reminds me so much of what happened during the 1930s when the economies of most of the capitalist world lay in ruin. The appeal of fascist parties for capitalist elites was widespread across the world to deal with rising labor organizing and opposition. They took over in Germany, but also had very significant influence in France, England, Spain, and the US. The US ruling class under Franklin Roosevelt and their British counterparts adopted a more Keynesian approach to deal with their domestic opposition. The ruling elites of France and most of mainland Europe were so totally divided that they easily succumbed to German invasions. The contest devolved into a contest for world domination by these two camps which ended in the conflagration of WWII.
I think we could very well expect the same result today except for the fact of nuclear weapons. Capitalist love destroying things because they can then invest in reconstruction. However, with nuclear weapons the destruction is far too much and unpredictable. No sane person would contemplate using such weapons. (Let us pray that our masters maintain their sanity.) Therefore, we are seeing these battles waged on the economic front, but we can also expect to see more regime-change attempts from the Empire.