Alternatives are essential.

"US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports, a significant move in piling pressure on President Vladimir Putin to halt his devastating war in Ukraine," ET. "In 2020, the United States consumed an average of about 18.19 million barrels of petroleum per day, or a total of about 6.66 billion barrels of petroleum. This was the lowest level of annual consumption since 1995," eia. "India's oil consumption is forecast to rise from 4.8 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2019 to 7.2 mbd in 2030 and 9.2 mbd in 2050, as per the IEA's key scenario based on stated policies," ET. "India's crude oil imports in December soared to the highest levels in three years to more than 5 million barrels per day as its refiners cranked up output to meet a rebound in fuel demand," BT. However, not all of that is consumed within the country as India exports refined petroleum products. "India exported around 56,769 TMT (thousand metric tonnes) petroleum products worth $21,406 million in 2020-21 to countries like the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and China," TNIE. "Last year, roughly 8% of US imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Together, the imports totaled the equivalent of 245 million barrels in 2021, which was roughly 672,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products a day," AP. As the US looks to alternative sources, such as Venezuela, the price of the benchmark Brent crude has risen to $131.4 per barrel this morning, oilprice.com. "The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, has warned the conflict in Ukraine could send global food prices soaring, with catastrophic impact on the world's poorest," BBC. The coverage of the war by the Western media, which was complicit when the US invasion resulted in 150,000 to 1 million civilian deaths in Iraq, wikipedia, has been abominable with filthy abuse heaped on Russians. While the death of about 400 Ukrainian civilians is tragic,inews, Western media outrage at European deaths while belittling deaths of Iraqis and Libyans,msnbc, is utterly contemptible. Inflation is hitting the US as well. "US drivers have never paid this much for gasoline. The price of a gallon of regular gas now stands at $4.17, according to the AAA," CNN. In the US, "Average rents were up 14% in December 2021 relative to December 2020, and multiple times higher than that in cities like Austin, Texas, New York and Portland, Oregon," CNBC. Russian banks have been removed from the SWIFT system, which is essential for international money transfers, Reuters, and Russian central bank assets have been frozen, Fox. In a return to common sense, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is no longer interest in membership of NATO, which was the sole reason for the conflict, and is even ready to discuss the status of breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, BS. Even if the conflict stops quickly and prices come down, India and other vulnerable nations must now cooperate to find an alternative to the dollar and the SWIFT system to prevent being held hostage by the barbaric Western mafia. This must never happen again.