Posts by silverotter72

Brenda Murphy3 said:...Some of you aren't even remotely grasping the reality of these dynamics...

I suspect that’s actually the crux of the issue here. Sure, Russia has plenty of hardware—nothing groundbreaking, mind you—but their industrial capacity is nowhere near what you'd see in Europe. And if history has taught us anything, it's that wars are won in the long run solely through industrial output.

gentlehawk95 said:Honestly, who cares if Putin gets hit with sanctions? If he decides to just shut off the gas valves, the entire European economy would basically collapse overnight. There isn't a single sanction on this planet that he or the Russians won't be able to weather through sheer spite. If anything, we should be more worried about him turning the tables on us and cutting off our supply lines first.

You really can read just about anything on this forum. People are acting like the sanctions aren't having a massive impact—their largest bank is falling apart (not just their European branch, but the main one at home too), their currency is in a total freefall, and we haven't even seen the full weight of these sanctions hit yet. And yet, here we are, hearing all this talk about how Europe is doomed while Russia just breezes through it....
I mean, just look at the GDP of Europe compared to Russia. Let's try to be realistic here, shall we?

At the end of the day, this is how modern warfare is waged. Europe hasn't been conquered by weapons, but by capital. I suppose only the truly reckless or the utterly desperate even attempt to push back with force these days.

Carl Lee27 said:Honestly, when you look at natural gas, Russia seems to have much more breathing room for the next few years, mostly because of how Germany has been acting lately. I mean, gas prices over in Europe have basically leveled out with what they're paying in Japan, Taiwan, or China... so now the whole thing really boils down to how much LNG is actually available, and from what I can see globally, there should be plenty coming toward Europe. Just look at the US—within a few years, once you factor in a realistic 65-70% utilization rate for the terminals, the US will have enough export capacity to cover most of what used to come from Russia into Europe. It all comes down to how fast Europe can actually get its act together and do its part.

As for everything else, I honestly think it’s almost laughable to even try and compare the West to Russia. I mean, seriously, who holds the upper hand? Is it the most open, free, and therefore by far the wealthiest and most advanced societies ever known... or is it just one autocratic society that draws all its strength and wealth from primary industries and squeezing resources out of the ground?
To put it simply, the West could literally build a wall against Russia tomorrow just by throwing mountains of cash at it.

Those are just my thoughts, anyway. We'll probably find out sooner rather than later whether we were right.

The impact of sanctions is starting to ripple through, though, as is often the case, the effect isn't exactly a surgical strike. It’s messy. Both Russians and Europeans are going to feel the sting of this one, I suppose.
The real question, perhaps, is just who actually has more room to maneuver when the pressure builds.

It isn't exactly a weapon, though perhaps it carries even more weight than a blade or something similar.
https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/...92515262746630
At this point, I suppose it’s becoming impossible to plug the leaks, even if we were looking at a city completely cut off from the rest of the country.