Posted on 03/10/2022 6:19:21 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Russian terror campaign against Ukrainian civilians continues unabated even as its military operations resemble something dreamed up by the Three Stooges. On Wednesday, the Russian Air Force bombed a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol. They claimed that a very pregnant wounded woman, who happens to be a Ukrainian beauty blogger was a “crisis actor” (Alex Jones needs to demand royalties for this) before deleting their tweet. The Russians are claiming, without a shred of evidence, that the hospital was used for military purposes, that they had notified the UN (apparently in secret) that the hospital was being improperly used, and that they were “baited” into the attack. I have doubts that the attack was deliberate. The Russians seem to have stopped using precision-guided munitions for their air attacks and rely on gravity or “dumb” bombs. The presence of Stinger MANPADS forces the survival-oriented pilot to fly higher than 10,000 feet. At that altitude and going at high speed, it is doubtful that there is a Russian pilot who could hit anything smaller than the city. (Russian pilots fly about 8 hours per month, that is barely enough to keep flight qualified.) The Russian intent appears to be something out of the Blitz of London. That is, they plan to bomb the city at random to try to terrorize the civilian population. This attack goes along with the Russians mining evacuation routes from Mariupol knowing civilians would be using them.
As these war crimes are unfolding before us, Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesman and Putin Minime, sniveled about how mean the West was being to Russia. He declared that the West was waging “economic warfare” against Russia while all Russia was doing was killing women and children for the sole purpose of showing they could. He is also quoted in Interfax playing the victim:
“We have said repeatedly that Moscow was, is and will be a reliable guarantor of energy security not only for the European continent, but also at the global level. And even now, as you see, energy resources are being supplied,” Peskov told reporters, responding to a question from Interfax as to whether Russia is ready to continue supplying energy resources to countries that have supported the sanctions.
“And Russia values this reputation of a reliable supplier of energy resources. The European leaders unanimously admit that Russia is fulfilling its obligations under all current contracts continually and in full. But you see the bacchanalia, hostile bacchanalia carried out by the countries of the collective West, which, of course, makes the situation very difficult and makes us seriously ponder it,” he said.
I’d like to make two observations on his statement. I think Peskov got drunk and buggered his thesaurus (NTTAWWT) to come up with “hostile bacchanalia.” The reason that Russia is a “reliable guarantor of energy security” is because they get paid and energy exports are not subject to sanctions so it is crucial to Russia that they deliver agreed quantities of oil and gas and do so on time.
Is there an economic war underway against Russia? Not yet. Most Russian banks have not been sanctioned. Energy, food, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies can be imported/exported without any problem. But Russia is getting an idea of what economic warfare looks like.
U.S. and European financial penalties and restrictions are throttling banks and other businesses in Russia and in Belarus, its ally, limiting the Russian government’s ability to use its enormous foreign currency reserves, and impeding millions of Russians from using their credit cards, accessing their bank deposits or traveling abroad. Foreign assets of wealthy individuals and businesses allied with the Kremlin have been frozen. The European Union on Wednesday expanded the list of directly sanctioned people and organizations to nearly 1,000.
Rating agencies have sharply downgraded the Russian government’s credit, signaling that it may be unable to pay creditors. Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday that in its view, “default is imminent.”
Hundreds of Western businesses — manufacturers, oil companies, retailers and fast-food chains like McDonald’s — have suspended operations in Russia; Mr. Peskov said Wednesday that he hoped the number of Russians left unemployed by the exodus “would not be in the millions.” Russian lawmakers are considering nationalizing the assets of foreign companies that leave in response to the war.
How the ruble exchange rate has changed since 2000 after #Putin came to power. pic.twitter.com/Vd0Hw4kWwN
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 3, 2022
Morgan Stanley predicts that Russia could face a Venezuela-style default, possibly as soon as April 15.
“We see a default as the most likely scenario…It is unlikely to be like a normal one, with Venezuela instead perhaps the most relevant comparison.”
https://t.co/tZV7ft1gwg pic.twitter.com/pobrybMuzE— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) March 7, 2022
There are some Americans who see sanctions as “driving Russia into China’s arms.” The downside of such an event escapes me. China doesn’t need what Russia has to export and can’t get it economically as Russia’s lines of communications and transport run to Western Europe. If Putin has sand in his thong about Ukraine’s NATO membership being a threat, why would he allow Russia, with a GDP about equal to Texas, to enter into a close relationship with the #2 economy in the world?
But can China provide Putin with an economic lifeline? I’d say no, for four reasons.
First, China, despite being an economic powerhouse, isn’t in a position to supply some things Russia needs, like spare parts for Western-made airplanes and high-end semiconductor chips.
Second, while China itself isn’t joining in the sanctions, it is deeply integrated into the world economy. This means that Chinese banks and other businesses, like Western corporations, may engage in self-sanctioning — that is, they’ll be reluctant to deal with Russia for fear of a backlash from consumers and regulators in more important markets.
Third, China and Russia are very far apart geographically. Yes, they share a border. But most of Russia’s economy is west of the Urals, while most of China’s is near its east coast. Beijing is 3,500 miles from Moscow, and the only practical way to move stuff across that vast expanse is via a handful of train lines that are already overstressed.
Finally, a point I don’t think gets enough emphasis is the extreme difference in economic power between Russia and China.
Some politicians are warning about a possible “arc of autocracy” reminiscent of the World War II Axis — and given the atrocities underway, that’s not an outlandish comparison. But the partners in any such arc would be wildly unequal.
Putin may dream of restoring Soviet-era greatness, but China’s economy, which was roughly the same size as Russia’s 30 years ago, is now 10 times as large. For comparison, Germany’s gross domestic product was only two and a half times Italy’s when the original Axis was formed.
So if you try to imagine the creation of some neofascist alliance — and again, that no longer sounds like extreme language — it would be one in which Russia would be very much the junior partner, indeed very nearly a Chinese client state. Presumably that’s not what Putin, with his imperial dreams, has in mind.
The irony of this is that Russia proceeded with the invasion of Ukraine knowing that it would be the target of economic sanctions. In fact, its financial institutions took extraordinary steps to try to limit sanctions impact.
Vladimir V. Putin’s posture toward the West through the recent Ukraine crisis seems unusually defiant, even for him. But there may be more behind his confidence than military power or empty bravado.
Over the past several years, Mr. Putin, Russia’s president, has restructured his country’s economy for the specific purpose of withstanding Western financial pressure.
Russia has drastically reduced its use of dollars, and therefore Washington’s leverage. It has stockpiled enormous currency reserves, and trimmed its budgets, to keep its economy and government services going even under isolation. It has reoriented trade and sought to replace Western imports.
Russian economic officials “are pretty proud, and have good reasons to be, for the work they have done to make the Russian economy more immune to sanctions,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
This transformation, among the most dramatic examples of what is known as “sanctions-proofing” worldwide, comes less than eight years after Western sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 mired Russia in economic and political upheaval.
Russia has not yet experienced anything like an economic war. Nothing like the full range of potential sanctions and economic actions have been brought to bear and already Putin’s Russia is reeling like an aging punch-drunk fighter despite having used the last decade to prepare for the eventuality. When all this is over, one hopes Putin has learned a valuable lesson but one doubts that he’s capable of doing so.
“without the red rubber noses”
—
What? You mean to say some people don’t take the combo Gandhi-Mother Teresa-Albert Schweitzer god-like democratic leader-liberator of the free world seriously? Can’t believe it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbmZrzN3WFE
Román Shujiévich was one of those Ukrainian nationalists who made the Ukraine a shining bastion - when he and his guys weren't torturing, raping and murdering Poles to rid the Ukrainian motherland of them...
“I dare you to watch Oliver Stones’ “Ukraine Burning.”
—
Looks like the ‘short version’ here’s the full film:
https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
I agree that our barn is on fire. We’ve got huge problems here. All that you said and we just had 2 million foreign nationals saunter across our border and we have no idea who the hell they are. Drug cartels? Muslim fanatics? Russian saboteurs? All of the above? Who knows?
But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing for us if Russia conquers Ukraine. I wish the Ukrainians well in their fight for self-government, let’s us and Europe give them weapons.
There just seems to be this idea of a segment of conservatives (I’m sure some are just Russians posting talking points, set them aside) that Putin is somehow “on our side.”
He ain’t. The globalists are not on our side and neither is Putin on our side.
Sorry to be black-pilling everyone. We don’t have many allies.
People grabbing onto Putin imagining him as some sort of latter-day American Founding Father are going to find that Putin is an anchor around the neck drowning everyone.
Putin snivels and Zelensky whines.
Yeah and Z’s thrown his share of journalists and dissidents into prison.
I don’t mind if someone has a rational reason to be pro or against getting involved in other countries urination competitions, but making one side Hitler or Jesus seems silly to me.
All I can tell you is I don’t have a twitter account, I’ve never had a twitter account, and yet I can see the post with no problem.
Remember Oliver Stone is the prolific liar who produced SALVADOR. I was in El Salvador during that conflict. I have family in the Donbas and it was not the Ukraine that was murdering thousands. Even Russian speakers like many eastern Ukrainians love the Russian language but hate the Russians and their puppet “Separatists”.
Yes, none of our business.I don’t care what happens in or the Ukraine. Soaring energy prices, millions of illegals invading the US, out of control opioid epidemic and the deindustrialization of the US, those are things that matter as they effect real Americans in real ways. The woes of Ukeland are theirs and not ours
I think they’re rooting for the truth. Which is sadly lacking. And can you blame people for feeling that way. The media is by and large an enemy of conservatives. They hate our opinions, our life styles, heck , probably the way we look and dress. They loathe us. So if they are all in to go to war for some country that will always be unstable due to its geography, can you blame them. And when they see who is cheer leading on the Ukrainian side it makes it even more difficult not to be sceptical. I won’t even name them, but it is for sure they have it in for conservatives too. They want no rivals in the market place of ideas. They want us dead. And lastly the social media barons. They hate us too. And it is disturbing for conservatives to see these anti nationslists suddenly giddy about Ukrainian nationalism and taking active measures to limit access to information they choose out of an abundance of net nannyism to deny people reading. They feed this ‘cancel all things Russian’ hysteria , forgetting that some of humankinds greatest works of art, music ,literature, science were created by Russians. It is not an insignificant culture to be ignored or despised due to a temporal conflict.
Remember, the global corporate gaslight press gave us the completely refuted (thank you John Durham) RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! hoax.
Only an idiot would worry about the neighbor’s chicken coop when his own barn is on fire.
***Then start your own barn-on-fire thread.
I think that people begin to believe they can read the minds of leaders [this is encouraged by the failed English majors of the Brandon Media - you see it all the time in their "news coverage"].
I don't know Putin. I don't know how he thinks.
All I see is him p*ssing off my enemies to the point where my enemies are cancelling a long-dead Russian composer, and cutting ordinary Russian stiffs off from their credit cards [but not the Germans off from their Russian energy!].
I did the same thing with Trump back during the Free Republic primary wars of 2015-16.
I didn't know Trump. I don't know how he thinks. All I knew was that he was America's rich uncle [who'd been around forever, doing rich guy Trump stuff] who suddenly became "evil" because he declared as a Republican presidential candidate.
All I saw was him p*ssing off my enemies to a fare-thee-well.
I have an advantage with these things, because I don't have TeeVee, and I don't let the thoughts of the failed English majors of the Brandon Media into my head.
I can be more objective about what I'm seeing.
RE: Yes, none of our business.I don’t care what happens in or the Ukraine
So, we shouldn’t be sanctioning Russia?
Europe has drawn and redrawn territorial lines from time immemorial. I see absolutely no reason to support any side. I say we finally tell Europe, and the rest of the world, to get bent. No American blood or treasure for European or overseas conflicts.
And before anyone wants to pull the WWII reference, I suggest you remember. Before we ever got into that conflict Japan attacked us and Germany declared war on us. Both of those warrant a good ole fashion American ass kicking.
Ukraine, or anyone else on this planet, wanting freedom, had better be ready to fight for it. Including ourselves, but for our freedom not “fill in the blank here’s”freedom.
I can explain computers and computer software to you, MTNB - but I can't understand them for you. 
Absolutely. To me it is undeniable that there is a certain animosity toward the Russian people among our Ruling Class, that it has deep roots, that it has nothing to do with what is in the real interests of the American people and that a lot of the problems we face are the result of reckless things they have done.
Also, I understand that there may be some FReepers who have their own negative views of Russians generally for whatever reasons. They have a right to feel however they feel, but I am not one of them.
And for the record, I think Tchaikovsky was a genius.
RE: You are quite the neocon, Biden loving spammer.
REALLY? In what way?
"Sanctioning" Russia two years ago, and sanctioning Russia NOW, in the New Age Of the TechnoDictators, are two completely different things.
The TechnoDictators can now get you, and your little dog too, Dorothy:
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Whoops! Sorry we cut off your second cousin's bank accounts, peasant.
But we don't care.
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