Putin keeps the world waiting: Russian leader’s promised 6pm address ‘declaring war’ FAILS to happen amid confusing reports from Kremlin and scoffing from rivals that he ‘can’t even mobilise a speech’

... Or lada.

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Look at some of the Russian daily life videos on YT. Late model Japanese and South Korean cars. Lots of minivans.

I saw Ladas (and some other brand that I forget, even chintzier) being lifted onto barricades in 1991. What are being driven now are top of the line Toyotas and Hondas and all the rest.

Another thing on those videos is no fat people. Lots of young people. Lots of baby carriages and strollers. People are well-nourished. Stores are fully stocked. Prices are comparable to the US and many prices are comparable to the US of 5 years ago or before.Huge malls with no mall rats and no fights and no police presence. No neon hair. No facial tats/hardware. It looks like the USA circa 1970.

And Putin did that in 30 years and that is why he is supported.

You are posting fever dreams. We’ll hear the real speech tomorrow. What you are posting & the media is pushing is more fear porn.

I watched his speeches. He is healthy and looks good for pushing 70. He sounds better than any Western *leader*. Not senile and after the past 2 years, we all KNOW senile.

My personal suspicion is Putin is having some fun watching the hyperbolic fear porn of the global western state legacy media being amplified by all the influencers. He’ll say what he said he’ll say and they can all screech how he’s lying as he goes ahead and does whatever he said he’ll do. Just like Trump always does.

But we’ll see, of course. Unlike the RDS-suffers, I don’t have a direct psychic line to Putin or the Russian leadership..

Prices comparable to those of a couple of years ago, except for some things that appear to have international pricing.

Russia admits to ~14% inflation.

There are a lot of things, like baby formula/food I never even look at. $10 for a can of dry formula powder seemed *reasonable* to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ups7Dmzk3E

GDP per capita is not the same as income per capita. Lots of things included in GDP that skew the numbers. Our $ (FRN) is inflated beyond the Ruble. IDK if their Central Bank is as compromised as ours, but observation tells me that countries are more likely subject to coup/war if they do not adhere to the Federal Reserve type-system we have in the US.

Income per capita in the 2 Wisconsin counties in which I have spent the past 46 years is around $12k-$14k. That is, of course, an average.

No one here knows enough about Russian income levels vs COL to make the comparison. But all you need to do for a rule of thumb is to look at the people in these videos and compare to your local grocery/Walmart/mall. Which would you prefer to look like, live next door to, interact with?

I’d rather pay the Russian prices.

See what you think. This is a big city: St Petersburg

I live in the sticks, so it seems to me most of our prices are still reasonable, meaning affordable, even though they have risen to double over the past year. Granted, I buy mostly fresh food, few canned/packaged and next to nothing processed if I can help it. I buy whole cryopacked meats and portion it. I buy cheap meat and prepare it so it is tender and stock up on sales/specials. I also rotate stored items, so buy the currently priced ones infrequently.

St Petersburg mall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYZARrICVfQ

Turn off the sound and people watch. Compare to videos of US malls past few years. Personally, I haven’t visited a mall for a decade.

This is not the Russia of even 20 years ago, from what I know (exchange student info/reading). They are doing better.
And we are not.

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