Sanctions on Russia

Noah Martin2 said:Sanctions hit us too—there’s no debating that. My late father used to joke with his buddies, who weren't exactly intellectuals, about how people act when they're desperate—basically, how you make do with whatever is at hand. Reading through these sanction updates feels a bit like trying to decipher a technical manual in a language I don't speak.
So... things are going to get messy, especially for those who think they're "untouchable."

The sanctions are targeting Russia; otherwise, we wouldn't be seeing so much footage coming out of the East.
Perhaps some of you have forgotten, but our neighbors went through similar struggles under sanctions, and the narrative pushed back then was identical to what we see now from the Russians and those who swallow their propaganda whole.

Best regards

Europe is in a massive bind right now, but honestly, that’s just a symptom of the sanctions.
The real issues go way deeper than that.
The truth is, Europe has been trailing behind the USA economically for at least two decades now.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator...994&view=chart
Take a look at this comparison of GDP per capita between the Eurozone and the US starting from 1994.
You can see that steady gap widening ever since 2008.
And if you look at total GDP rather than just per capita, the lag is even more staggering—the US population has grown by about twenty percent while the Eurozone has basically stayed stagnant.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator...994&view=chart
Back in 2008, the US GDP was maybe ten percent larger than the Eurozone's, but today? It's sitting at roughly 60% higher.

The sanctions didn't create this mess; they just stripped away the mask to show what's been happening for decades.

Bryan Booth82 said:The sanctions are targeting Russia; otherwise, we wouldn't be seeing so much footage coming out of the East.
Perhaps some of you have forgotten, but our neighbors went through similar struggles under sanctions, and the narrative pushed back then was identical to what we see now from the Russians and those who swallow their propaganda whole.

Best regards

I didn't have green text on my phone, my bad.

These sanctions are hitting the European Union so hard that you’ve got Germans, Canadians, Belgians, and Poles basically going broke. It feels like they'd be willing to shell out $300 a night for a B&B just to speed up their own downfall.
Someone really needs to break it to them that they’re already circling the drain... though maybe "ruin" just means skipping a few days of summer vacation, or waiting two years instead of one to upgrade your iPhone.
I mean, even back in the USSR days, they used to claim the decadent West was just waiting to collapse, yet here we are in 2022 and only one of those two blocks actually survived.

mellowsurfer14 said:Come on, stick to football if you're going to be this dense.

Can't you see that everything, including fuel, just went straight up in smoke?
Wages haven't moved, and for heaven's sake, pensions haven't budged either; they're exactly where they used to be.
People living on minimum wage or tiny pensions already had to be magicians just to make ends meet back in the day; ask them how much harder it's become now.

To hell with these sanctions. 🤮

I don’t know who’s trying to play dumb here, but let's look at the facts. Energy prices have actually settled right back down to where they were before all the sanctions and the invasion kicked off. Meanwhile, everything else? Everything else started climbing way before the invasion or the sanctions even hit last winter.
Do you have amnesia, or are you just playing dumb?

The Louvre Asks:
I’ve already touched on this in another thread, but here's the deal: Russia knows they’re basically finished as the West's main energy supplier. That isn't just a coincidence; it was a calculated strategic move by the West. At this point, it honestly doesn't matter whether they follow the letter of their contracts or not—Germany is going to stop importing their gas in a few years regardless. They’ve got one massive, high-stakes card left to play before the clock runs out, and that's cutting off the gas supply entirely to squeeze some concessions out of Germany.

Spot on. 👍It’s pretty wild when you actually look at the numbers—about 60% of the Russian federal budget is basically just riding on energy sales. They’re heavily reliant on those fuel exports to keep the lights on.
Things are about to get pretty lively over in Putinland.

Maria Wells14 said:Europe is in a massive bind right now, but honestly, that’s just a symptom of the sanctions.
The real issues go way deeper than that.
The truth is, Europe has been trailing behind the USA economically for at least two decades now.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator...994&view=chart
Take a look at this comparison of GDP per capita between the Eurozone and the US starting from 1994.
You can see that steady gap widening ever since 2008.
And if you look at total GDP rather than just per capita, the lag is even more staggering—the US population has grown by about twenty percent while the Eurozone has basically stayed stagnant.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator...994&view=chart
Back in 2008, the US GDP was maybe ten percent larger than the Eurozone's, but today? It's sitting at roughly 60% higher.

The sanctions didn't create this mess; they just stripped away the mask to show what's been happening for decades.

What you're actually looking at there isn't Gross Domestic Product—it's Gross National Income.

It’s been nearly a month and we're still seeing the exact same comments.
Seriously, how do you guys have enough energy to keep typing all this out?

I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

Amanda Allen4 said:I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

I mean, it really just depends on how far they're willing to go. They could blow through every cent and go totally bankrupt—maybe doing it for some grand cause this time—or they might just shift the goalposts again (like how it's all about taking down Zelenskyy now) and just pull back.

Amanda Allen4 said:I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

Those aren't even huge foreign exchange reserves. For context, American reserves per capita are way higher—if you look at a smaller economy like a mid-sized US state, the math looks much better.
https://www.una.world/hr/makroekonom...1-266f8bed65dc
Our per-person reserve ratio is significantly stronger than what Russia is working with.
And let's be real, the Russians have already burned through a ton of cash just trying to prop up their banks and stabilize the ruble, on top of everything else they're spending on the war.

Amanda Allen4 said:I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

The Russians are asking themselves the exact same thing: how much longer can these pampered Europeans stomach the fallout from a war that isn't even theirs? Look, we Americans and Europeans are soft—we actually have the luxury of democracy, which means protests are coming. My take? We’ll probably snap much sooner than they will. Their sanctions likely sting more deeply, so factor that into your math and tell me what you conclude... 😁

Amanda Allen4 said:I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

TASS: Russia’s budget deficit in 2022 could reach up to 2% of GDP (June 16)

Siluanov added that about 3-4 trillion rubles ($51.59-68.79 bln) from the National Wealth Fund of Russia will be allocated to finance the budget deficit.

Since the war started, social spending has spiked—but honestly, it all depends on that classic Russian budget loophole called "President of the Russian Federation functions." Nobody really knows where that money actually goes, yet it swallowed up 34% of the annual budget this year.

I just saw some data suggesting that running this war is costing Russia about $500 million every single day.

Joshua Myers432 said:The Russians are asking themselves the exact same thing: how much longer can these pampered Europeans stomach the fallout from a war that isn't even theirs? Look, we Americans and Europeans are soft—we actually have the luxury of democracy, which means protests are coming. My take? We’ll probably snap much sooner than they will. Their sanctions likely sting more deeply, so factor that into your math and tell me what you conclude... 😁

The thing is, this war definitely affects us, though I think we can hold out for a really long time.

Joshua Myers432 said:The Russians are asking themselves the exact same thing: how much longer can these pampered Europeans stomach the fallout from a war that isn't even theirs? Look, we Americans and Europeans are soft—we actually have the luxury of democracy, which means protests are coming. My take? We’ll probably snap much sooner than they will. Their sanctions likely sting more deeply, so factor that into your math and tell me what you conclude... 😁

We’ve already established plenty of times on this thread that Russians can survive on nothing but black coffee and cheap whiskey if they really have to.

Europe isn't going to face the kind of total collapse Russia is staring down once they're forced to tighten their belts to keep the masses from starving.

Once the only things left are black coffee and cheap whiskey for Putin and his inner circle, we'll see how that plays out. At that point, even a powerhouse like Iran won't be able to bail them out.

gentlestag15 said:Those aren't even huge foreign exchange reserves. For context, American reserves per capita are way higher—if you look at a smaller economy like a mid-sized US state, the math looks much better.
https://www.una.world/hr/makroekonom...1-266f8bed65dc
Our per-person reserve ratio is significantly stronger than what Russia is working with.
And let's be real, the Russians have already burned through a ton of cash just trying to prop up their banks and stabilize the ruble, on top of everything else they're spending on the war.

Of course they aren't huge. To a country like Russia, those 2,000 tons of gold they've piled up don't mean much. And if you really think about it, Russia is one of those countries with incredibly low external debt, sitting at around 13% of GDP, whereas the US is a moderately indebted nation with an external debt of roughly 90% of GDP. Once you start doing the math—subtracting those reserves from the total debt—you realize Americans actually owe more than the entire value of the reserves.😉

p.s.
Besides, those reserves haven't really served any purpose other than slightly tweaking the exchange rate of a "stable dollar."
God help us; if Russia didn't have someone like Vučić, but instead had that nightmare Nabiullina, and if they actually had the same per-capita reserves we do, we'd be in real trouble.

Compared to Americans and Russians, the Finns (with debt at 223% of GDP), Norwegians (181%), and Germans (165%) are basically living on scraps.

analogbear5 said:Compared to Americans and Russians, the Finns (with debt at 223% of GDP), Norwegians (181%), and Germans (165%) are basically living on scraps.

That’s just not right.
It really all comes down to how much you actually bring home and what kind of interest rates you're stuck with on your loans. If you look at Japan, they are one of the most indebted nations on the planet, yet half of that is domestic debt, and people there can access credit at incredibly favorable rates.
Ultimately, it hinges on your individual credit score, which is something those big rating agencies are constantly publishing,
and right now, we’ve reached a BBB+ status, which basically means we're in the investment-grade category.

I feel like you’ve gone off on another tangent again, completely missing my point just to argue about something else.

Or, to put it more bluntly, you're just trolling me, which is why🕺🕺 my immune system is feeling so weak right now that I think a doctor might prescribe me total self-isolation😉 just so I don't have to deal with your "trolling."

urbanotter said:Of course they aren't huge. To a country like Russia, those 2,000 tons of gold they've piled up don't mean much. And if you really think about it, Russia is one of those countries with incredibly low external debt, sitting at around 13% of GDP, whereas the US is a moderately indebted nation with an external debt of roughly 90% of GDP. Once you start doing the math—subtracting those reserves from the total debt—you realize Americans actually owe more than the entire value of the reserves.😉

p.s.
Besides, those reserves haven't really served any purpose other than slightly tweaking the exchange rate of a "stable dollar."
God help us; if Russia didn't have someone like Vučić, but instead had that nightmare Nabiullina, and if they actually had the same per-capita reserves we do, we'd be in real trouble.

Look, 2,000 tons of gold is about $100 billion. That’s significant, sure, but it’s nowhere near as massive as people love to pretend it is.
The American external debt is actually 70% private bank and corporate debt. It’s a sign that things are actually being built and invested in within the country, rather than just drowning in government loans.

urbanotter said:That’s just not right.
It really all comes down to how much you actually bring home and what kind of interest rates you're stuck with on your loans. If you look at Japan, they are one of the most indebted nations on the planet, yet half of that is domestic debt, and people there can access credit at incredibly favorable rates.
Ultimately, it hinges on your individual credit score, which is something those big rating agencies are constantly publishing,
and right now, we’ve reached a BBB+ status, which basically means we're in the investment-grade category.

I feel like you’ve gone off on another tangent again, completely missing my point just to argue about something else.

Or, to put it more bluntly, you're just trolling me, which is why🕺🕺 my immune system is feeling so weak right now that I think a doctor might prescribe me total self-isolation😉 just so I don't have to deal with your "trolling."

Japan's massive external debt is only half the story since most of it is internal!!
And personally? I'd take frog legs over chicken any day.
Russia could sit on a mountain of gold a trillion tons high, but if they can't get cars, trucks, planes, microchips, semiconductors, or Western machinery and tech... well, you can start listing them until tomorrow morning.