Sanctions on Russia

Coca-Cola is pure branding—it’s basically a symbol of the West. Without that image, you're just drinking some random soda.

Back before the war, I used to mess around with this Canadian syrup that tasted just like Coca-Cola, mixing it with sparkling water. The flavor was identical.

George Robinson43 said:To clarify, we aren't talking about a pipeline, but rather an LNG terminal co-owned by two Japanese corporations.
At the same time, Japan has asserted its sovereignty over two islands in the Aleutian Islands claimed by Russia. Just thought you should know.

Regardless, if there is demand, buyers will exist for Russian raw materials—but shifting entire trade routes to the other side of the globe takes years.
Just look up how long it took to build all those pipelines heading toward Europe. By the time they finish building all that infrastructure to reach China and India, the demand for gas might not even be there anymore.

So, what's Ursula waiting for before she hits Japan with sanctions?

Look at the auto industry, or even Coca-Cola—everything relies on machines getting input from a server. If there’s no input, you don't have a product. You can't just conjure it out of thin air.
You end up nationalizing buildings and equipment that aren't even running.

Jesse Hughes6 said:It doesn't matter, they'll just end up servicing them themselves and manufacturing their own spare parts.
Until everything eventually falls out of the sky, at which point they'll just switch over to those incredibly reliable domestic Boeings.

🤣
Good grief, I am absolutely dying laughing here.
Come on now, it’s not like they have to rely on Boeings where the survival rate feels like maybe 80% at best. 🤣
Plus, there's always that ultra-modern Embraer 130, which famously slammed into a mountain during its very first demo flight when they were trying to sell it to Indonesia.

urbanotter said:That whole idea about there being some magical, untouchable formula? It’s really just a myth at this point.

The recipe is famously guarded as a closely held secret dating all the way back to 1886, with the only official written version supposedly locked away in a bank vault. According to the Daily Mail, only two employees actually know the specific formula that gives the soda its signature flavor. However, the full list of ingredients was actually published back in 1979—according to This American Life—in a local newspaper in the beverage's hometown of Atlanta, though nobody really thought much of it at the time. The article even features a photo of what looks like the original handwritten recipe, likely penned by a friend of the pharmacist and inventor, John Pemberton. To verify if it was the real deal, This American Life reached out to historian Mark Pendergrast, who believes the document could indeed be authentic. Of course, there is no way to know for sure if the actual recipe has been tweaked over the decades.

Read more at: - www.vecernji.hr

And me? Selling Coca-Cola? Honestly, what kind of fool would ever try to pick a fight with them?

Arthur Miller7 said:Look, it’s not even about the recipe. Seriously—what part of this am I missing? You can't just buy a reputation! Sure, they could set up shop right next to a Coca-Cola plant and churn out their own version—maybe even make it taste better—but it’ll never be called Coca-Cola. Period. That's the bottom line. You could start making soda using their exact same ingredients tomorrow, but you can't slap their name on it. And honestly? You'll never reach that level. Not you, not anyone else.

Seize Coca-Cola's equipment and force them to make soda under duress. I'm talking about taking the gear—that's at least 50 million in machinery right there. It's just a matter of space, the bottling lines, and obviously, the Coca-Cola name.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/russia-says-we...t-into-default

Russia claims the West is forcing them into bankruptcy 🙂

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/14/e...ces/index.html

Man, even crude dropped below $100 once the speculators finally stopped freaking out and those Middle Eastern producers hinted they were about to cut production back.

Daniel Barnes53 said:The Associated Press is reporting that US President Joe Biden has signed a law allowing US Airlines to keep foreign aircraft for use on domestic flights.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/rus...U0aMqdgs7HDTKb

I think they're talking about seizing foreign planes—apparently, there are maybe 500 of them sitting in the US right now.

I'd love to see the trolls explain how they think Americans will just wiggle out of these obligations. 😵 Global aircraft delivery backlogs are massive right now—Russia is basically a tiny market that can be ignored in the global civil aviation scene without much trouble.

#kocar# said:
I think I get what you're trying to say,

but you just refuse to realize that in wartime, the rules you think are set in stone aren't dogmas you can just ignore.
What would a company like Coca-Cola do to protect its brand if Russians were churning out Coca-Cola using their name and all those iconic trademarks?
Maybe they wouldn't even bother suing some court or trademark agency.

When you're looking through a sniper scope, the only thing you're doing is pulling a trigger or launching a missile.😉

So, what—are Coca-Cola's suppliers, shippers, and everyone else just going to keep providing ingredients, machinery, and any other kind of support indefinitely?

Even if the workers who actually know the recipe and other vital info agreed to stay—which I highly doubt, since they've probably already been relocated out of Russia with some sweet perks—you'd still run into a massive wall of problems trying to keep production identical.

Andrew Hall47 said:They'll probably just fly in some experts from Venezuela to help out. ☕ It'll definitely lead to an even better Coca-Cola and a much improved McDonald's.

And they'll probably rename the whole operation Zola and McDonald's.

urbanotter said:Honestly, that’s just nonsense; no matter how you spin it, Russia is going to demand payment for their gas in whatever currency they decide fits their interests at the moment.

If they start insisting on being paid in rubles, anyone who actually needs that gas is simply going to have to go out and buy rubles using dollars, euros, or whatever other major currency Russia decides to accept.
The reality is more likely to play out through massive legal battles where oligarchs see their global assets frozen, and in retaliation, Russia freezes the assets of Western corporations operating within their borders.
It’s a bit like how if Abramovich were to lose Chelsea, he might end up seizing control of something like Coca-Cola or McDonald's to keep his revenue streams moving.

At the end of the day, most of this feels like political theater designed to scare the average person, while the truly powerful and wealthy find ways to ensure they don't actually lose much of anything.

Are you even reading this? Russia has to pay the Bulgarians to move that gas through to Mexico.

The Bulgarians aren't taking rubles. They’ve already made it clear they’ll shut down the pipeline to the Russians—or rather, to Mexico—if the money doesn't come in dollars.

Instead, Russia is just going to sell their oil to China at a massive 5x discount in exchange for yuan, which they can then immediately dump straight back into Chinese tech.

As if they’re just gonna grab the bottling plants from Coca-Cola and run them themselves. Give me a break... 🤣🤣🤣

All those bottling facilities over in Russia were built by Anheuser-Busch out of their headquarters—it's all automated through software that's controlled directly from Germany. It was designed that way to keep an eye on licensing, and honestly, just to make Software updates way easier to push through.

You can't even get those machines running without getting a license confirmation sent over from Germany. It’s the exact same deal with Oracle, which—by the way—is baked into every major corporation in Russia, including the government agencies.

We aren't living in 1950, people. 🤣

#kocar# said:
Well, only about a third of the world actually imposed sanctions on Russia, so there’s still plenty of buyers left for Russian grain, synthetic fertilizers, oils, and rare earth metals.
Even Japan is suggesting they won't walk away from that pipeline through Alaska, even though they introduced sanctions against Russia due to pressure from the US.
Germany isn't exactly looking at these forced relations with Russia with much enthusiasm either.
So, I guess this whole idea of "Western unity" is mostly solid in the media, but maybe not so much in actual practice.

https://www.geopolitika.news/vijesti...-dcvQj0ZS8NKjk

One has to wonder about the actual purchasing power of the part of the world that didn't impose sanctions compared to those that did. And where exactly are these regions located, and how deeply are they tied to Russia? It isn't quite that simple, I suppose.
Russia isn't going to wiggle its way out of this mess easily.
China could certainly help them, but doing so might end up burying themselves too, and I suspect the Chinese care far too much about their own economy and money for that kind of gamble.

Without China, the global economy would basically collapse—they’re an absolute powerhouse. As for Russia, they had massive potential, but the parasites in power just sucked it dry for themselves.

It’s always the same story: nationalists are so easy to manipulate. Wave a flag and they'll follow you anywhere.

Anthony Hill5 said:And they'll probably rename the whole operation Zola and McDonald's.

It isn't even really about Western junk food for Russians; the real sting is losing access to an iPhone, a MacBook, a PlayStation, a brand new BMW, or even just being able to get their current car fixed.

The core issue is that they can't do business with the West anymore, ranging from individual IT freelancers all the way up to the massive corporations.

If things continue down this path—where they end up selling their oil and gas at a 25% discount just to move it—we're looking at a total systemic collapse for Russia across every single level of society.

They might not starve, but in every other sense, they’re going to be living like they're stuck in one giant, open-air prison.

We went from talking about Russia being all self-sufficient to them actually seizing Coca-Cola plants just to brew their own version of Coca-Cola.

hiddeneagle98 said:It isn't even really about Western junk food for Russians; the real sting is losing access to an iPhone, a MacBook, a PlayStation, a brand new BMW, or even just being able to get their current car fixed.

The core issue is that they can't do business with the West anymore, ranging from individual IT freelancers all the way up to the massive corporations.

If things continue down this path—where they end up selling their oil and gas at a 25% discount just to move it—we're looking at a total systemic collapse for Russia across every single level of society.

They might not starve, but in every other sense, they’re going to be living like they're stuck in one giant, open-air prison.

As if it were actually a simple matter for Russians to just engineer a superior and entirely self-sufficient iPhone, MacZook, PlayStation, BMZ, or anything else of that caliber.

Just ask urbanotter; I am certain he would be more than happy to explain all the wonderful charms and benefits of nationalization.

hiddeneagle98 said:Are you even reading this? Russia has to pay the Bulgarians to move that gas through to Mexico.

The Bulgarians aren't taking rubles. They’ve already made it clear they’ll shut down the pipeline to the Russians—or rather, to Mexico—if the money doesn't come in dollars.

Instead, Russia is just going to sell their oil to China at a massive 5x discount in exchange for yuan, which they can then immediately dump straight back into Chinese tech.

I honestly find it hard to believe that Bulgaria would actually shut down the pipeline. Besides, looking at the scale of things, Mexico isn't such a massive consumer that anyone would go to extreme lengths over them.

Even if they do end up selling oil at a discount, it’s still going to be more profitable than waiting for everything to settle back to the status quo. It's simple supply and demand: the higher the global congestion and the greater the hunger for oil and gas, the higher the prices climb, which means you get more even with a smaller margin.
I do agree with the point about them trading in yuan to purchase Chinese goods; that seems to be one of their primary objectives. If that happens, the Federal Reserve could print money all they want, but it won't have the same impact it used to. All it will really do is drive inflation much higher than the current 8% we're seeing.

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread how much Russia relies on imports just to keep their agricultural sector running, especially when you look at stuff like seeds.
And honestly, Bayer (who owns Monsanto) is wielding that exact leverage right now.

Bayer has threatened to suspend crop supply sales to Russia next year unless The country stops its attacks on Ukraine.

The German drug and agrochemical conglomerate, which is basically a powerhouse when it comes to seeds and crop treatments, mentioned they're weighing the idea of cutting off essential farming supplies to Russia—even though everyone knows a move like that could send global food prices through the roof and cause all sorts of chaos.

Bayer did say they already sent over the necessary products for Russia for this year ’ S Growing season in an attempt to help stabilize the global food supply, but they're holding off on any decisions regarding the 2023 crop supplies until they see how things play out in Ukraine.

https://www.ft.com/content/cf2c7515-...f-23827dff2ef4

On top of that, there are still several ways the U.S. could really ramp up the sanctions, like slapping on a total embargo or even cutting off Russia's access to International waterways.

Quote : Thus, Adeyemo said in an interview with the TV channel that the United States was still considering a complete trade embargo and blocking Russia's access to international waterways.

The official pointed out that the United States is currently discussing everything from banning imports of nickel, uranium, and titanium from Russia to cracking down on the crypto assets held by Russian entities.

https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/813329.html