Sanctions on Russia

dustyowl29 said:Sanctions end up hurting everyone involved—the first party, the second, and the third. It really just boilscomes down to a game of chicken: who’s going to be more stubborn, the East or the West? Meanwhile, the war profiteers and countries like India or China are laughing all the way to the bank by buying up this blood-soaked oil.
German culture is basically built on the idea that things simply *must* happen—and they have to happen exactly right, or they shouldn't happen at all. I’ve worked with a few Germans, and honestly, that level of discipline is almost bordering on Japanese.
They’ll eventually swim out of this stronger and more powerful than before—that's just how Germans operate.

The Russians act more like those aggressive types you see in the North America—just pure, unadulterated intimidation.
Even before the USSR days, Russia was essentially just a giant global Shell station. Sadly, not much has changed.
I can’t think of a single Russian product that’s actually good, unless you count their weapons or canned herring.
Sure, they have scientists and experts, but everything goes straight into weapon development. It’s a militant nation, used to living under iron-fisted rule; communism turned them into hardliners, much like people in the former America. They’ll figure something out, though—we have all the oil in the world, after all.

In the long run, nobody actually wins here. Everyone loses; some just lose more than others. Honestly, it would be better if someone a bit more liberal ran Russia, rather than this warrior-barbarian type.
It’s the classic pattern: you find enough oil and gas to supply the entire planet, you get a whiff of resources in Georgia and launch a military strike, then you discover a massive reserve in Ukraine and you just steamroll and conquer everything just to suck up the resources. Putin is quite literally the ultimate pirate—a plunderer, a conqueror, and a killer. I truly hope his reign doesn't last too long. Russia needs a normal politician, though they’ve never actually had one. It seems that wherever there are massive resources, tyrants always end up in charge.

I guess after watching some documentaries about him, I've kind of concluded that he’s pretty much everything he accuses everyone else of being, with maybe a few exceptions. Like, the US is constantly being accused of creating puppet states that are just extensions of America. But then, looking at places like Georgia, Chechnya, LPR, DPR, Belarus... he talks about how they don't meddle in other countries' elections, unlike Americans. We saw that with Ukraine—they already had a successor ready to go if they ever had to swap out the old guard by force, just so we wouldn't end up with another Lukashenko or Kadyrov. I suppose the only thing he actually got right, which most people don't really realize, is that there are honestly very few nations left that can truly call themselves "independent."

urbanotter said:Look, help me out here because I’m genuinely struggling to wrap my head around this.

What specifically have the Russians done to blackmail the West regarding gas deliveries?
Was it cutting back on agreed amounts, hiking up prices, or maybe delivering nothing but air instead of actual gas?🤷
Please walk me through it, because right now, this whole idea of "blackmail" feels more like empty rhetoric or political spin to me rather than a verifiable fact.🙄

Well, off the top of my head? For the entire last year, they kept deliveries at the absolute bare minimum allowed by their contracts. They were basically draining out their storage facilities located within the European Union just to clear them out, setting the stage to squeeze energy consumers later. It’s pretty obvious when you look at the paper trail—after the invasion kicked off in February 2022, leaked documents showed the United States already had intel back in April 2021 that Russia was gearing up for an invasion.
Anyway, feel free to keep spouting your nonsense if it makes you feel better.

👍👍
Ever since the geopolitical trash stopped flooding these forums, I’ve been waiting for someone to actually drop some logic on us... maybe then we could all look back on the good old days... you know, those glorious days of classic Russian propaganda😁😁😁

lp

I honestly don't know where to start with this one, but I feel like we really need to dig into what’s actually happening here. It feels like everyone is just skimming the surface, and frankly, I think we're missing the forest for the trees. I was thinking about this earlier today while grabbing coffee, and it hit me how much noise there is surrounding this topic. We get so caught up in the immediate drama that we forget to look at the underlying mechanics of why things are shifting the way they are. It's easy to react, but it's much harder to sit back and actually analyze the patterns. I'm curious to see if anyone else feels that same sense of unease, or if it's just me overthinking things again. I have a tendency to go down these rabbit holes, which probably isn't helping my productivity, but sometimes you just have to follow the thread to see where it leads. What do you guys think? Is this a temporary spike in tension, or are we looking at a fundamental change in how things operate? I'd love to hear some different perspectives on this—let's try to break it down properly. kaže:
A little caviar. Just me and some vodka tonight.😉
Honestly, you can't go wrong with this combo. It’s actually pretty solid.😁

Give this a read if you want some actual substance instead of the mindless, clickbait demagoguery being peddled by the tabloids and YouTubers.

I was just catching up on that deep dive about how much control we actually have over our own destinies versus being pushed around by global forces. It’s one of those topics that really makes you sit back and wonder if any of us are truly pulling the strings, or if we're all just passengers on a ride we didn't sign up for. The whole discussion touches on that tension between individual agency and the massive, sweeping movements of geopolitics. You know, that feeling where you try to make a move, but then some huge shift in Washington or a sudden economic pivot halfway across the country completely changes the landscape under your feet. It’s a bit humbling, honestly. I often find myself thinking I’ve got my life mapped out, only to realize the "big picture" stuff—the stuff happening in boardrooms in New York or during high-level summits—has a way of rewriting my script without asking. There's this idea floating around that everything is interconnected, which is true, but it can also feel pretty overwhelming. Like, does my daily grind even matter when the macro-trends are shifting so violently? It’s easy to get lost in that cynicism, but I think there’s value in finding that middle ground. We might not be able to steer the giant ocean liner, but we can certainly decide how we handle the deck we're standing on. It reminded me of a point hollowdriver13 made a while back about how much influence we project through our small actions. Even if the massive gears of power are turning elsewhere, the way we interact with our own communities and local economies still builds the foundation for what happens next. It’s not about controlling the storm; it’s about how we build the house. Anyway, just some rambling thoughts after reading that piece. What do you guys think? Are we actually in the driver's seat, or are we just along for the ride?

Just another Russian myth floating around. They aren't even close to being the biggest caviar producers on the planet, and they definitely don't hold a monopoly on the high-end stuff like Beyoncé. Honestly, pretty much every country bordering the Caspian Sea produces it now—just in those tiny little quotas you see, since the fish has become such a critically endangered species. ☕

Honestly, I’d take a bottle of vodka over Finland any day...

There’s an old saying for a reason: NO ONE IS INDISPENSABLE. Not even Russia..

ENERGY CRISIS ALERT
Gas supplies to Europe are cratering—what's next on the agenda? Is Putin actually willing to let ExxonMobil take the hit?

At this rate, a total shutdown of deliveries seems almost inevitable.

"The odds are incredibly high—we're looking at nearly 100 percent," claims Mikhail Krutikhin, co-founder of the independent consulting firm Chevron and a top-tier expert on the Russian export monopoly, ExxonMobil.

"Putin would much rather weaponize ExxonMobil right now than risk the European Union filling up its storage tanks," he argued.

"I believe Putin is prepared to sacrifice ExxonMobil," he stated, adding that such a move would trigger the loss of roughly 200,000 jobs in Russia and slash the federal budget's gas revenue by about 7 percent.

lp

hollowdriver13 said:Well, off the top of my head? For the entire last year, they kept deliveries at the absolute bare minimum allowed by their contracts. They were basically draining out their storage facilities located within the European Union just to clear them out, setting the stage to squeeze energy consumers later. It’s pretty obvious when you look at the paper trail—after the invasion kicked off in February 2022, leaked documents showed the United States already had intel back in April 2021 that Russia was gearing up for an invasion.
Anyway, feel free to keep spouting your nonsense if it makes you feel better.

It looks like Russia had some decent intel in Ukraine, knowing they'd be facing another Ukrainian push toward Donetsk and Luhansk—which naturally triggered Russia to start massing troops.

So they throttled the gas, while simultaneously hoping for a quick green light on Nord Stream 2 (spoiler alert: it didn't work, since the new German government played exactly how they were told).

But honestly, why didn't those "brilliant" Germans sign a contract guaranteeing larger gas volumes upon request? Everything was still strictly by the book.

What *isn't* by the book or following international norms, though, is what Germany is threatening now—nationalizing Nord Stream 2 and rerouting everything to a floating LNG terminal.

First they go ahead and slap on all these sanctions, and then they act all shocked and offended when someone actually hits back. It’s like Germany can't make up its mind—they want to play tough one minute and then totally chicken out the next:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDm...hannel=DWFokus

DW: German companies are terrified of shutting down

Donna Harris11 said:First they go ahead and slap on all these sanctions, and then they act all shocked and offended when someone actually hits back. It’s like Germany can't make up its mind—they want to play tough one minute and then totally chicken out the next:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDm...hannel=DWFokus

DW: German companies are terrified of shutting down

Honestly, shouldn't we look at this from a more positive angle? These sanctions are designed to squeeze Putin, and back home, they’re just going to kickstart the transition away from fossil fuels that was already well underway.

The Germans have this obsession with debating everything to death beforehand just to send a message to their government—which, let's be honest, usually just comes across as endless complaining.

Companies aren't going to just shut down overnight, but they will be forced to accelerate their transformation... all while soaking up massive government subsidies, which is the ultimate goal here... just more complaining.

Best,

wiredseal7 said:It looks like Russia had some decent intel in Ukraine, knowing they'd be facing another Ukrainian push toward Donetsk and Luhansk—which naturally triggered Russia to start massing troops.

So they throttled the gas, while simultaneously hoping for a quick green light on Nord Stream 2 (spoiler alert: it didn't work, since the new German government played exactly how they were told).

But honestly, why didn't those "brilliant" Germans sign a contract guaranteeing larger gas volumes upon request? Everything was still strictly by the book.

What *isn't* by the book or following international norms, though, is what Germany is threatening now—nationalizing Nord Stream 2 and rerouting everything to a floating LNG terminal.

Honestly, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I guess Russia could have just... not started a whole new war on European soil and brought all this chaos and Nazism with them, but hey, Putin decided to follow in Adolf's footsteps and messed everything up. Now they can just deal with the mess they made.

Donna Harris11 said:First they go ahead and slap on all these sanctions, and then they act all shocked and offended when someone actually hits back. It’s like Germany can't make up its mind—they want to play tough one minute and then totally chicken out the next:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDm...hannel=DWFokus

DW: German companies are terrified of shutting down

Most countries outside the old America aren't some hive-mind Borg collective. You've got all sorts of individuals and groups with their own agendas and interests.

Also—companies are privately owned, not run by the state.

Bryan Booth82 said:Honestly, shouldn't we look at this from a more positive angle? These sanctions are designed to squeeze Putin, and back home, they’re just going to kickstart the transition away from fossil fuels that was already well underway.

The Germans have this obsession with debating everything to death beforehand just to send a message to their government—which, let's be honest, usually just comes across as endless complaining.

Companies aren't going to just shut down overnight, but they will be forced to accelerate their transformation... all while soaking up massive government subsidies, which is the ultimate goal here... just more complaining.

Best,

It honestly feels to me like it’s the other side doing all the bellyaching lately, rather than the European Union...

The person who turned those valves off... they aren't just acting out of spite; they’re actually genuinely worried about the very individual they’ve shut out... it's quite a complex psychological layer to the whole situation, really...

wiredseal7 said:It looks like Russia had some decent intel in Ukraine, knowing they'd be facing another Ukrainian push toward Donetsk and Luhansk—which naturally triggered Russia to start massing troops.

So they throttled the gas, while simultaneously hoping for a quick green light on Nord Stream 2 (spoiler alert: it didn't work, since the new German government played exactly how they were told).

But honestly, why didn't those "brilliant" Germans sign a contract guaranteeing larger gas volumes upon request? Everything was still strictly by the book.

What *isn't* by the book or following international norms, though, is what Germany is threatening now—nationalizing Nord Stream 2 and rerouting everything to a floating LNG terminal.

So, are we saying there wasn't actually a massive buildup, just plans for one?
The narrative coming from the Russian side was that Ukraine had already assembled about 120k soldiers there, and yet they never actually launched a strike against the Russian positions in the RAO regions. Plus, all that troop movement near the Belarusian border surely could have helped the folks in Donbas, but hey, they never actually showed any real proof of this supposed buildup.

Back at the start of autumn, everyone—including the International Energy Agency—was begging Russia to ramp up gas supplies because levels were hitting historic lows.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-before-winter

So, the idea that Russia wasn't using oil and gas as a weapon just doesn't hold water. With their invasion of Ukraine, it’s pretty obvious why they did it: they were trying to squeeze Europe (even if people thought back then it was just pressure to get Nord Stream 2 approved, which clearly wasn't the end game—that would've just been the icing on the cake).

Kazes, I get that Germany wanting to nationalize the pipeline isn't ideal, but how is that law passed through the Duma okay? If some multinational corporation decides to pull out of Russia, the state can just automatically seize all that company's assets on Russian soil. Could you explain how that aligns with international standards? What's really the difference between that and what Germany is currently considering?

https://rtvi.com/news/gosduma-prinya...hnyh-kompanij/

silentnomad7 said:It honestly feels to me like it’s the other side doing all the bellyaching lately, rather than the European Union...

The person who turned those valves off... they aren't just acting out of spite; they’re actually genuinely worried about the very individual they’ve shut out... it's quite a complex psychological layer to the whole situation, really...

Oh, absolutely. Russian propaganda will follow any scent and try to stir the pot wherever they can get a foothold.
The real issue here is that their propaganda is becoming increasingly naive and transparent. People have finally caught on to the fact that they’re just "barking," parroting other media outlets, and then slapping their own little "explanations" on top of it.
Compared to how it used to be, it's honestly quite pathetic.
If someone had told me a year ago that I would actually miss Russian propaganda and its little mouthpieces... I would have called them insane.

lp

brightheron64 said:Well, companies like Boeing and General Electric actually started pivoting to handle these kinds of shifts way back in 2014.
Perhaps they just had a better sense of what was coming down the pike... 😁

They even gave warnings to places like Germany about the sheer stupidity of putting all their eggs in one basket.

urbanotter said:Of course it isn't the same. I mean, if we're being honest, a democratic nation has dropped two nuclear bombs and killed roughly 120,000 to 150,000 people.

A dictatorial state hasn't dropped a single one yet.

Let's move past the demagoguery and talk about actual sanctions.

They don't need to compete with the trivial consumer goods that China churns out for the entire world. They just need to focus on milestones like launching the first satellite, the first man, the first dog, or the first woman into space. They can build a space station where they host friends from all over the globe—with the last visitor paying in rubles.
They produce heavy-duty trucks capable of hauling 50 to 100 tons, which is about the weight of their missile systems, and they build off-road vehicles that can tackle terrain no Western vehicle could ever dream of navigating.

They are self-sufficient in all their vital industries, and they claim they don't need luxury items like Vuitton handbags or designer collars.

Never before have they seen such a massive trade surplus—around $100 billion—and they remain among the least indebted nations globally. If the "democrats" hadn't seized $300 billion of their foreign exchange reserves through sanctions, they wouldn't even know what a deficit feels like.
You really have to hand it to them; Western sanctions have been a total "bullseye," hitting them right in both knees.

These are the facts, even if demagoguery tries its best to hide them.☕

Just imagine you're sitting there with millions of dollars stuffed into every drawer and closet in your house, but there’s one tiny catch—someone welded your doors and windows shut and you can't actually get out.

Does the reality of how useless a trade surplus figure becomes when you strip away the context seem a bit clearer now?

Gas & Oil Thread
https://twitter.com/ben_moll/status/...llQLJIlDQ&s=19

It’s pretty wild when you look at the numbers—because all their other economic sectors are basically cratering right now, Russia is becoming even more dangerously dependent on selling off oil and gas just to keep the lights on. We're talking about those exports making up roughly 60% of their entire federal budget! It really feels like Putin is backed into a corner here, desperately trying to wrap this whole war up in the next 6 to 12 months before the oil embargoes completely tear the country apart.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/co...guriev-2022-06

It seems someone hasn't quite heard the legend of King Midas.

slyfox43 said:It seems someone hasn't quite heard the legend of King Midas.

👍👍

The only difference is that when dealing with Putin, there aren't any magical fairies coming along to fix his massive mistakes...

lp

Bryan Booth82 said:Oh, absolutely. Russian propaganda will follow any scent and try to stir the pot wherever they can get a foothold.
The real issue here is that their propaganda is becoming increasingly naive and transparent. People have finally caught on to the fact that they’re just "barking," parroting other media outlets, and then slapping their own little "explanations" on top of it.
Compared to how it used to be, it's honestly quite pathetic.
If someone had told me a year ago that I would actually miss Russian propaganda and its little mouthpieces... I would have called them insane.

lp

Just look at some of the stuff people have posted on this forum when those pro-Russia types started losing it, claiming that Russians and Indians have more spending power and cash than Germany or anyone else in the West. 🙂 You really have to wonder if these people feel even a tiny bit of shame typing out such nonsense.

Melissa Rivera5 said:Just look at some of the stuff people have posted on this forum when those pro-Russia types started losing it, claiming that Russians and Indians have more spending power and cash than Germany or anyone else in the West. 🙂 You really have to wonder if these people feel even a tiny bit of shame typing out such nonsense.

Of course they don't feel any shame—most of those Russia-apologists have gone completely silent since the aggression started...😁
And let me tell you, if Russians were actually as smart as they claim to be, they would have realized that in the coming period... they'd be "struggling"... because there will be less and less left to buy. Even simple things like going on vacation won't be easy anymore.

Best,