Sanctions on Russia

Hey there!

Mexico is kicking out four Russian diplomats.
Mexico orders the expulsion of four Russian diplomats

Are we still just waiting for Darth Vader to show up?🤔

Melissa Bailey5 said:I mean, I guess I agree with you, I just wanted to point out that sanctions don't really do much when you're dealing with a total sociopath. The guy doesn't give a damn about the victims or any of that damage, and honestly, neither does anyone in his inner circle, I suppose.

They work, don't you worry... it just takes a little while...
I mean, let's be real, nobody is more of a bully than the USA...
If we're being totally honest, once this all settles how it's supposed to, we should just tell them all where to shove it and focus on getting stronger within the Union...
The Russians and the Americans are both terrible choices...
It's just a matter of which set of evils you're forced to pick from...
The USA is the main one to blame for all this mess, period! No debate!
Just listen to that Nulandicu-fuck EU. That's enough smarts for one day.

Sam Alvarez4 said:Hey there!

Mexico is kicking out four Russian diplomats.
Mexico orders the expulsion of four Russian diplomats

Are we still just waiting for Darth Vader to show up?🤔

The Swiss are such cowards—they decided not to kick them out, hiding behind their "neutrality" and that whole "we can mediate" routine. In reality? They’re just terrified of losing their business deals.
Honestly, every single Swiss person I’ve run into so far has been a total pain in the neck—just impossible to deal with.

rustynomad12 said:They work, don't you worry... it just takes a little while...
I mean, let's be real, nobody is more of a bully than the USA...
If we're being totally honest, once this all settles how it's supposed to, we should just tell them all where to shove it and focus on getting stronger within the Union...
The Russians and the Americans are both terrible choices...
It's just a matter of which set of evils you're forced to pick from...
The USA is the main one to blame for all this mess, period! No debate!
Just listen to that Nulandicu-fuck EU. That's enough smarts for one day.

I don't think I've ever seen a case since the Vietnam War where the US deliberately and methodically targeted civilian spots and slaughtered non-combatants like that. Now, sure, there were crimes—that happens in every war, obviously. And yeah, Guantanamo is an absolute disgrace for the US, no doubt about it.

They’re hitting the railway station right in the middle of the civilian evacuation!
Full sanctions. Forget about the gas and everything else.

Kyle Nelson2 said:How on earth do they plan to get gas to India?
What, by trucking it over the Hindu Kush? I guess they'll just load an LNG tanker up at Yamal and sail it all the way around Asia to Mumbai?

Or maybe just send it via elephants through Kashmir. Can't go wrong there, right?

Inflation in Russia is hitting 200%, which I guess works out to about 2% every single week

rustynomad12 said:They work, don't you worry... it just takes a little while...
I mean, let's be real, nobody is more of a bully than the USA...
If we're being totally honest, once this all settles how it's supposed to, we should just tell them all where to shove it and focus on getting stronger within the Union...
The Russians and the Americans are both terrible choices...
It's just a matter of which set of evils you're forced to pick from...
The USA is the main one to blame for all this mess, period! No debate!
Just listen to that Nulandicu-fuck EU. That's enough smarts for one day.

Listen up, because the trolls are actually being sincere for once

The trolling antics never seem to end, do they?

First, you have to establish the premise that both Russia and the USA are equally shady

And only then do you aggressively pivot to claiming the Americans are even worse.

Only someone truly sharp can see through that logic.

hiddeneagle98 said:Listen up, because the trolls are actually being sincere for once

The trolling antics never seem to end, do they?

First, you have to establish the premise that both Russia and the USA are equally shady

And only then do you aggressively pivot to claiming the Americans are even worse.

Only someone truly sharp can see through that logic.

I’m not quite following you... are you saying I don't have a right to my own opinion?
After watching a million deep dives, strategic breakdowns, listening to generals, experts, professors, looking at historical facts... and keeping up with this forum, yeah, I do.
My whole thing is taking all those little puzzle pieces and putting them together to figure out what the big picture looks like.
And I’ve already laid out my conclusion clearly! Honestly, if you get what I mean, I really don't care what everyone else thinks about it...
I choose what matters to me.
But let me be crystal clear: absolutely NOTHING and NEVER justifies Russia's crimes, their invasion of a sovereign nation, or the pure nastiness they're bringing to this war.

Michael Ortiz68 said:I was scrolling through some local news site earlier and stumbled upon an interview with an olive oil producer. His logic? He’s planning to hike up his prices because sunflower oil has gone up, and he thinks it’s just plain unfair for olive oil to stay at the current rate.

Look, I produce olive oil. Fertilizer costs have skyrocketed, diesel for the tractors and machinery is way up, and electricity rates are climbing too. That means the cost to process everything at the mill goes up automatically. Ergo, olive oil prices will rise, and frankly, I’m not happy about it. My apologies for the off-topic tangent.

Melissa Bailey5 said:Coal imports only make up about 3% of what the European Union brings in.
Most of that vodka actually comes from Finland. There was already a mess with that because consumers started boycotting it left and right without even realizing it wasn't even Russian.
Not sure about the timber situation.
With SWIFT, they managed to get it so that less than 50% of Finnish institutions are under sanctions.

Russia got kicked out of the UN Human Rights Council. I mean, they probably don't give a damn about that though...

This whole "step-by-step" approach just isn't working, I guess. You really gotta squeeze them hard if you want anything to happen.

For the first couple of weeks, the sanctions weren't incremental at all. They fired everything they could without causing a massive meltdown in the EU economy. Freezing those foreign exchange reserves—that was basically their 'nuclear option' for regime change.

So, contrary to the current narrative, they actually tried to squeeze them hard right out of the gate. It didn't stick. Putin navigated through that initial shock, people started adapting, and the ruble stabilized.

Now, we're left with either tiny scraps or moves that would be devastatingly painful for the EU itself—there's no more 'low-hanging fruit' left.

Though, looking at the latest massacre, I suspect whatever remains of their rationality will snap, leading to a sudden stop on buying gas, oil, coal, uranium (basically anything) from Russia.
If it's all just a masquerade anyway, fine. 🕺

From what I’ve gathered, as early as month three
Russia saw its raw material export revenues tank by about 30%.
And that was just the warm-up. The sanctions hadn't even really started biting back yet.
Negligible? Not even close...

wiredseal7 said:For the first couple of weeks, the sanctions weren't incremental at all. They fired everything they could without causing a massive meltdown in the EU economy. Freezing those foreign exchange reserves—that was basically their 'nuclear option' for regime change.

So, contrary to the current narrative, they actually tried to squeeze them hard right out of the gate. It didn't stick. Putin navigated through that initial shock, people started adapting, and the ruble stabilized.

Now, we're left with either tiny scraps or moves that would be devastatingly painful for the EU itself—there's no more 'low-hanging fruit' left.

Though, looking at the latest massacre, I suspect whatever remains of their rationality will snap, leading to a sudden stop on buying gas, oil, coal, uranium (basically anything) from Russia.
If it's all just a masquerade anyway, fine. 🕺

Yeah, it was a total mess how Putin was prepping for that 👎

Melissa Bailey5 said:Yeah, it was a total mess how Putin was prepping for that 👎

Not really. The Russian government was prepping for a limited annexation of Crimea without any actual armed aggression against Ukraine. And let's be real, Vlad wasn't exactly sharing his playbook with everyone.

I think the USA and the EU are playing the long game—slowly strangling Russia.
Kind of like an anaconda.
From what I can tell, they’ve made a decent start—about 30% in just a month.
And those sanctions? They'll likely drag on for years.

Christian Torres3 said:Not really. The Russian government was prepping for a limited annexation of Crimea without any actual armed aggression against Ukraine. And let's be real, Vlad wasn't exactly sharing his playbook with everyone.

Nah, I was actually talking about beefing up their foreign exchange reserves.

Timothy Kim9 said:I think the USA and the EU are playing the long game—slowly strangling Russia.
Kind of like an anaconda.
From what I can tell, they’ve made a decent start—about 30% in just a month.
And those sanctions? They'll likely drag on for years.

The EU won't actually be able to do anything until they sort out the whole Russian gas situation; otherwise, everything else is just window dressing for the public.
If Europe had been smart and started moving away from Russian gas seven years ago, they could have pulled off a total
isolation of Russia by now.

rustynomad12 said:I’m not quite following you... are you saying I don't have a right to my own opinion?
After watching a million deep dives, strategic breakdowns, listening to generals, experts, professors, looking at historical facts... and keeping up with this forum, yeah, I do.
My whole thing is taking all those little puzzle pieces and putting them together to figure out what the big picture looks like.
And I’ve already laid out my conclusion clearly! Honestly, if you get what I mean, I really don't care what everyone else thinks about it...
I choose what matters to me.
But let me be crystal clear: absolutely NOTHING and NEVER justifies Russia's crimes, their invasion of a sovereign nation, or the pure nastiness they're bringing to this war.

Trying to shift the blame onto Americans while Russia is actively tearing Ukraine apart is just a way to excuse the Russians, no matter how much you scream in all caps that you aren't doing that. In reality, that is exactly what you're doing.

People didn't give a damn about Iraq when it was actually happening, but suddenly everyone is an expert on the "bigger picture" and deeply concerned about Iraq when it serves as a convenient excuse to downplay Russian aggression.

We see right through you. You're just here to provide cover for the Russians. Every time they pull some absolute bullshit, you're right there ready to swoop in with your "big picture" perspective to make sure they aren't held accountable.

rowdytiger13 said:They’re hitting the railway station right in the middle of the civilian evacuation!
Full sanctions. Forget about the gas and everything else.

Anything less than that is just a complete failure on the part of the Western liberal progressives...

hiddeneagle98 said:Trying to shift the blame onto Americans while Russia is actively tearing Ukraine apart is just a way to excuse the Russians, no matter how much you scream in all caps that you aren't doing that. In reality, that is exactly what you're doing.

People didn't give a damn about Iraq when it was actually happening, but suddenly everyone is an expert on the "bigger picture" and deeply concerned about Iraq when it serves as a convenient excuse to downplay Russian aggression.

We see right through you. You're just here to provide cover for the Russians. Every time they pull some absolute bullshit, you're right there ready to swoop in with your "big picture" perspective to make sure they aren't held accountable.

Honestly, you just seem a little immature—especially since you keep using "we"... who is this collective "we" you think you represent?
Just you.
Sorry, I'm not going to sink to that level...
I respect any argument that's actually backed by facts, including yours...
Maybe re-read what I wrote... or don't. Whatever.
As far as I'm concerned, this debate is over.