Posts by wiredseal7

slyfox43 said:It seems my colleague missed the fact that the Syrians—with help from Russia and Iran—never actually managed to unseat Assad, making it a bit silly to lecture us on how easy it was once he was gone.

With Putin and his ilk, Russia is essentially driving itself into a ditch, perhaps just enough to leave Russians walking on eggshells while they struggle for the "freedom" to have no say over their own leadership or their own lives.

Removing a leader isn't a guaranteed fix; it can just trigger a civil war. Look at what happened in Syria.
I wouldn't be surprised if that’s one of the preferred scenarios floating around the mob in Washington.

CERN tightened sanctions on Russia:
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wi...ussia-83674864

They're also looking at a total cutoff by June, once they figure out what kind of mess that would cause.
Seems like the organization is feeling the heat from its member states—mostly those over in Europe.

Paul Anderson7 said:Ukrainians are fighting for their very future, while the Russians have mostly just hunkered down in their holes, praying this Putin-esque madness blows over so they can go back to business as usual. They’re burying their heads in the sand, seemingly unaware that this apathy will eventually cost them far more than any revolution or civil unrest ever could. I realize it isn't a simple fix, but I'm holding out hope that the Russian people will soon realize they need to stand up and fight for their own future collectively.
If they actually start pushing back against Putin, they'll have my sympathy—and I suspect they'll have plenty of it—specifically in hoping that sanctions don't linger so long that they completely crush the nation. On the other hand, if it turns out that the Russian people truly support what Putin is doing, then let them sit under those sanctions for another twenty years; I won't be the one coming to their rescue.

No matter how intense street protests against Putin might look, they still pale in comparison to the horror unfolding in Ukraine.

They’d be better off just starting a revolution themselves—if they actually want to see how that ends. Look at what happened in Syria, where the people were sold this exact same dream: get rid of Assad and everything will be great. Eleven years later, the place is a total wreck, and the West—acting like the "friend of the people"—just keeps piling on sanctions to stall any recovery and keep them stuck in poverty.

I’d probably tell the Russians to just stick with Putin—show some backbone so they aren't getting bullied. They should pull out of Ukraine—well, except for Crimea and the Donetsk/Luhansk areas plus a buffer around Donetsk—but they shouldn't bow down to foreign advice designed to bleed their country dry, regardless of who's running things.

Honestly, Putin would be making his smartest move by stepping down—but only if there’s actually someone competent waiting in the wings to handle both the economy and the geopolitical mess. That is, provided it isn't just another group of clowns like Navalny's crowd. 🤣

hollowdriver13 said:And honestly, why should they care what the angry West thinks about them? At the end of the day, China and Russia are probably going to tear the West apart anyway, right? Plus, China might just ditch Western markets entirely if it means saving Russia's skin.
They really ought to be subsidizing investments to bail out their allies, especially since Russian oil is practically dirt cheap right now.
Or... hey, maybe those cold, calculating capitalists wrapped in communist colors over in Beijing actually find the wealthy West a little too important to ignore after all? ☕

It’s possible this company is exposed to the West through its business dealings, making them an easy target for sanctions.
If that happens, the Chinese will have to reorganize which companies take part in those ventures—pretty much like how they're handling the increasing amount of oil they buy from Iran.

Going straight to war via sanctions clearly isn't their first move, but if they get backed into a corner by someone being too aggressive, they’ll start playing that game too. During the Trump administration, they avoided it, even though they had the option to block rare earth elements. To play in that arena, they first need to offload Western bonds and anything else that can be frozen or canceled with a single stroke of a pen—all while ramping up trade using the yuan.

hollowdriver13 said:https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...es-2022-03-25/

Sinopec, the state-owned giant over in China, is pulling the plug on all their Russian projects and freezing any more investments.

🤔 I mean, weren't all those Putin fans claiming China would just swoop in and grab every last drop of Russian fossil fuel production? They made it sound like they’d easily just replace the European Union market. But nope—turns out Europe is basically just sabotaging itself by cutting off Russia, and apparently, Beijing isn't actually going to bail them out. Who would've thought?

Maybe do some actual reading. They’re moving forward with everything already on the books.
They just paused talks on a new project that was still being hashed out.
I'm guessing they don't want to stick their necks out too far until things settle down in Ukraine.☕

Bryan Booth82 said:Habeck, the German Minister for Economic Affairs, is making some bold claims according to reports from the German press... he’s suggesting that Germany will finally break its reliance on Russian coal by early summer, move away from Russian oil by the end of the summer, and completely cut ties with Russian gas by sometime in 2024.

The big question remains: does Putin actually have the stones to double down on demanding energy payments in rubles? If he does, he might just end up fast-tracking the entire process of cutting off his own lifeline to the West.

lp

And Putin's response is basically, "Fine, I'll just shut everything down right now to save you the trouble."

The think-tanks have decided that economic reliance on Russia shouldn't stop them from acting—because apparently, staying dependent is considered surrendering to Russian policy.🙂

Now Russia is doing the exact same thing—claiming their dependence on the EU shouldn't stop them from acting, because that would be surrendering to European policy.🙂

It's a mutual scorched-earth tactic that's going to bring both Russia and certain European economies (looking at you, Germany) to their knees. We're talking decades of industrial damage. Honestly, they might as well just call for a new lockdown—might make people think it's all just another COVID thing.

Or maybe they should just flip the switches on those nuclear plants again? I'm rooting for them to walk back that politically suicidal, self-destructive de-nuclearization nonsense.

Peter Ruiz2 said:Russia is actually one of those rare countries that exports more than it imports, and this whole mantra about them being solely dependent on raw material exports is honestly a joke. Sure, sanctions hit them. They made it hard to get the tech components needed for their industry, but nothing that would actually shake them to the core. Americans have kept Cuba under an economic blockade for sixty years, and you don't see people starving there, do you? Cubans even managed to develop their own vaccine while the European Union couldn't even figure out how to make masks. As for factories closing—where exactly do you live that makes you think what's happening in the EU is some distant reality? Factories are shuttering in Germany right now; workers are getting laid off or sent back to "short-time" work like during the pandemic (which, by the way, hasn't really ended). But this time, it's not because of a virus. Like I said, Russians are used to sanctions; they play the long game. They aren't living hand-to-mouth like we are, where our biggest tragedy yesterday was an Amazon package arriving late.

We're living in a version of the EU where the German Chancellor is openly calling for everyone to "freeze ourselves in protest against Putin." Newsflash: he and the rest of these sanction-obsessed elites aren't actually going to freeze or shop in half-empty grocery stores. It’s not just gas and oil we’re talking about; it’s grain and fertilizer that the EU mostly imported from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. This level of shortsightedness from Western political elites is just unprecedented.

And it's happening here in the States, too. Saw a news segment yesterday where the leadership was basically threatening neighbors with sanctions over their neutrality regarding Russia (they didn't say it outright, but the subtext was loud and clear).

It’s a joke—threatening anyone who refuses to pick a side in a conflict. I can't even support my own government on this. This long-standing policy is exactly why the rest of the world—mostly America until recently—is starting to look at us with pure contempt. Lately, even that polished European Union facade has started to slip. You could see it coming with how they handled Syria and Venezuela, where everything was just dictated by the big boss via sanctions and whatnot.

Maybe someone should remind the administration that we weren't immune to this kind of pressure a decade ago. ExxonMobil took a massive hit back when they were forced to follow those Syria sanctions in 2012—back when we were still trying to find our footing globally and didn't have much leverage.

slyfox43 said:Better late than never, I suppose, though I suspect you won't see it that way. You likely find it all quite tragic that the people you hold so dear are being stripped of their assets.

If there is criminal activity involved, there are legal institutions designed to investigate such matters. Sanctions essentially deny an individual their right to due process, turning the whole situation into what looks like politically motivated expropriation.

Sanctions carry the weight of law and are the direct result of institutional action.

But I doubt that's particularly comforting to you.

I won't call this specific case a robbery, but in other instances, it definitely is—freezing central bank reserves just to tank the Ruble is straight-up theft from the Russian people.

As for the UK being late to the party regarding Mexico, it’s either a) pure selectivity, since they don't touch anyone who supports the "regime," or b) they're just looking to protect their own cash.

Sanctions carry the weight of law and involve institutional consequences.

Not that it's any of your business.

Sure, they have the weight of law, but they're the opposite of law—laws are supposed to be general rules for everyone, not a list of specific names and surnames.

The names on that list weren't picked by a judge; they were picked by some government bureaucrat playing politics. It’s an indictment and a sentence without a courtroom.

Compare that to freezing assets due to criminal activity in a court of law—that isn't meant to be political, at least it shouldn't be, since it's actually based on evidence.

slyfox43 said:There is absolutely nothing criminal about living off stolen and embezzled funds when there isn't a shred of proof regarding where they came from. 🤣

The Putin loyalists are suddenly clutching their human rights charters while lounging on yachts, in luxury penthouses, surrounded by caviar and champagne... Honestly, the farce is unprecedented.

As for the birds, they'll just have to manage on their own; they can no longer fly in such questionable company.

Honestly, I’m almost moved to tears by this sudden British concern regarding the purity of Russian money—after three decades of billions being dumped into the system on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis. 🙂

If the money comes from criminal activity, there are actual institutions meant to handle that. Sanctions just strip a person of any right to due process—it all boils down to politically motivated expropriation.

Sam Alvarez4 said:Sergey Lavrov’s stepdaughter hit by latest round of 65 new Russian sanctions from the UK

Among those on the list is Polina Kovaleva, part of the Lavrov family. She apparently worked her way up to buying a $5 million apartment in London by the age of 21... quite the achievement...

Maybe it's because her mother decided to marry the wrong guy in her old age.

Looks like they're sanctioning the whole family tree now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/w...imes&smtyp=cur

At this rate, even the birds won't be able to migrate back to Russia once spring hits.

rowdytiger13 said:Well, maybe Viktor Orbán will start paying for gas in rubles too, since he’s such a loyal member of the European Union. 🤣 🤣
Or perhaps this will be the turning point where everyone tells him to either get back to normal or pack his bags and head over to join the Russians. He’s already being kept in line by an increasingly agitated group of Poles.

It's all just noise—talking in circles.
The ruble still has an exchange rate, which means trading with them hasn't totally died—you can still see it happening on the Hong Kong forex markets, for instance.

Instead of ExxonMobil receiving euros somewhere in Europe and then swapping them for rubles on a forex market, the buyer now has to go out, buy rubles with their euros, stash those rubles (presumably in some Russian bank account), and then finally pay ExxonMobil.

This is essentially a pre-emptive strike against any attempts at secondary sanctions on trade conducted in Russian currency.
Plus, it actually bumped the ruble up by about 8%—not a bad result.

Gerald Chavez7 said:actually 2027 😉

Especially regarding gas, since it's nearly impossible for them to make up for those lost exports to the European Union. They just don't have the pipeline capacity to theoretically export to China instead.

True, the sanctions are gutting Russia's ability to intervene—whether in Ukraine or anywhere else globally.

I look at this on a daily basis—it seems pretty obvious to people here in the West why fossil fuel prices spiked in the first place: it was Putin's invasion.



Moscow was banking on these price hikes triggering mass protests (think a new wave of Yellow Vests) and general chaos across the West, hoping politicians would cave quickly just to avoid an angry electorate. Instead, what we're seeing is people in every neighborhood pooling money and supplies for Ukraine; you walk down any street and see Ukrainian flags everywhere...

It’s a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of autocrats—they seem to operate under the assumption that democracies are inherently weak...

By that same logic, plenty of folks in the USA and the EU thought sanctions—paired with arming Ukraine to maximize Russian casualties—would spark domestic unrest in Russia and lead to Putin being toppled.

Melissa Bailey5 said:Russian tank plant reportedly shut down, according to Ukrainian intel

So, apparently Ukrainian military intelligence is saying that this factory out in the Chelyabinsk region—the one responsible for building and fixing up Russian tanks—has basically ground to a halt because they can't get their hands on imported parts anymore.

I guess we'll see who actually has the guts to tell Putin 😁

The Ukrainians are saying this...? It's hard to take their word for it without some independent verification.

Though, I am reading that Kamaz is pivoting back to truck models from the late 70s just because everything else relies on domestic parts now. Modern trucks usually run on Mercedes engines.
How much more does that idiot Putk have to learn before he realizes you actually need your own supply chain.

stormybadger8 said:And it definitely doesn't kill the entire electrical system and fry the steering wheel display, too.🙂

So they’re probably just lying at this point
https://twitter.com/redbullracing/st...QWKLsXPIJtMIrw

Ferrari is back in the mix.

They’re saying both Red Bull Racing cars had fuel pump issues—both hit at the exact same time, which is just wild.

Mark Carter14 said:It looks like China has already made up its mind about backing Russia, and honestly, US officials are starting to sweat over it. Is anyone actually surprised? It feels like we’ve seen this script before.

Russia is in desperate need of an economic lifeline right now. They’re staring down the barrel of massive sanctions imposed by the USA and its allies following that February 24th invasion. It’s getting ugly. The country is actually flirting with a debt default; they have two interest payments coming up this Wednesday. Sure, they might get a 30-day grace period to breathe, but still... how much longer can they keep this up?

Moscow can't exactly get its hands on all $640 billion of its gold and foreign exchange reserves right now, but they’ve still got a chunk of that sitting in yuan. It looks like Beijing might be ready to step in and provide an emergency lifeline if things get desperate..

There’s this growing sense of pessimism over in Washington right now. People are starting to wonder if there's any way to actually steer China away from a confrontation with Russia. It’s hard to stay optimistic when it looks like the whole partnership is being driven straight from the top.

"This is really Xi Jinping's project. He's fully backing this closer partnership with Russia," an American official noted. There’s definitely more skepticism bubbling up through the lower ranks, but let's be honest—Xi and Putin are fundamentally aligned on their view of the USA. They seem pretty hell-bent on bringing an end to the era of American global dominance.

If China decides to back Russia in its standoff with the West, the Biden administration is going to have to pivot hard. The main goal will likely shift toward convincing allies—especially over in Europe—that they need to take a much closer look at their ties with Beijing. To that end, Sullivan is headed to Paris this Tuesday to sit down with the French government. It’ll be interesting to see if they can actually get everyone on the same page.

Just your classic American way of blowing smoke.
China isn't actually meddling—it's just that certain people keep cooking up these fake accusations, hoping to drive a wedge between China and the EU.

Yeah, the logo is definitely the strongest part. 🙏

Pure troll factor—it's off the charts.

Vettel tested positive—go get 'em, Hulk!
Unlucky for one guy, but I guess it's a silver lining for the other since he’s basically already eyeing that Haas seat anyway.

Dennis Price said:Justice? Hardly. The goal here should be hitting them hard enough that these kinds of one-sided moves aren't worth the trouble in any future scenario. In rogue states—and let's face it, Russia fits the bill today—the elites are the ones pulling all the strings, so they're really the ones who need to feel the sting.

The war in Ukraine is just the excuse to slap Russia with all these sanctions—it isn't the root cause.

The real issue is Russia rebuilding itself after being treated like a joke in the 90s—that wasn't caused by Western power centers, obviously. Then there's the rise of China, which is nearly impossible to contain if Putin's Russia stays standing. Add in some delusional Americans who think Trump was a Russian asset and want revenge... I've actually run into some pretty high-level people over there who buy into that nonsense.

Dennis Price said:Don't you see that the West has decided Russians need to come out of this war as net losers, one way or another? Since direct military action on Russian soil isn't an option, the damage is being redirected elsewhere. If this war is just politics by other means, I don't see why you're getting so worked up over the sanctions. Are the grenades falling on cities considered private property now?

I hear you—but let's not pretend freezing an oligarch's assets is some grand act of justice. Honestly? It's just a convenient excuse to loot them a little bit.

Anthony Hill5 said:One would have hoped that after everything we've witnessed over the last twenty days, you might have finally opened your eyes, yet here you are, still burying your head in the sand. It is truly pathetic.

If I may ask you a question: Is Khodorkovsky somehow the sole criminal among the oligarchs, which is why he's the only one facing justice? Are we really to believe that every other oligarch is a paragon of virtue, enjoying the fruits of their "hard work" while he alone suffers? What, precisely, is the distinction between Khodorkovsky and the rest of them?

A huge chunk of that wealth belongs to former criminals, relatives, buddies, and the various mistresses of officials—you name it. It’s stuff that should probably be investigated back in Russia, assuming they ever see more stable times.

That doesn't mean it's the job of the European Union or the USA to step in, slap on sanctions, and just seize all that property through freezing accounts. That money belongs to Russia and the Russian people.

Besides, what does any of that have to do with Ukraine? Why is this being bundled into these "crisis" sanctions? Since when did anyone care about oligarchs who spent the last two decades treating the European Union like an open buffet?
If they had just kept that extra cash at home instead of funneling it abroad, maybe things would be different.