Posted on 04/14/2022 5:09:51 AM PDT by Cronos
Shoigu is thought to have suffered a heart attack possibly caused by foul play
Russia's defence minister, 66, has been a close ally of Putin ever since 2012
He was a mainstay early in the invasion but has been largely absent for weeks
....hoigu, 66, is now thought to be in intensive care after suffering 'a massive heart attack' which 'could not have occurred due to natural causes', according to Leonid Nevzlin, suggesting Putin's longtime ally may have been the subject of an assassination attempt ordered by his boss.
Shoigu was last seen on yesterday on a video conference with Putin and other ministers about the development of the Arctic but did not speak, and there is speculation the Kremlin is using previously recorded footage of Shoigu since his withdrawal from public appearances weeks ago.
... 20 Russian generals have been arrested in Russia and charged with embezzling up to 10 billion dollars allocated to the war effort in Ukraine.
..the total embezzlement of funds for the preparation of [taking over the leadership of Ukraine]. Since 2014, about $10 billion (USD) allocated by Putin for the preparation of the blitzkrieg has been stolen.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Because the exchange rates you see are totally artificial. Russia doubled its interest rates and set up rules to make it difficult to move assets out of country or to different currencies. The question is whether that’s sustainable since this is a very expensive way to prop up a currency.
If you want to see how a free market would price the rouble, you have to look at the black market in Russia, just like in the old Soviet days. I have heard, but have been unable to confirm this, that the current black market exchange rate is 300 roubles to the USD, representing a drop to 25% of the pre-invasion value. This is consistent with expectations.
He’s just pissed because those were the $billions left after he took his share off the top.
Oh well, at least he has someone else to blame now when people ask where all the money went.
oh and your statement is false - on feb 20th the exchange rate was 77 rubbles to 1 USD. Today is is 82 rubbles in the OFFICIAL rate -- considering that no one is allowed to exchange the rouble, in the same way the North Korean currency was closed.
#25 and I’m first in with...
IT’s THE VAXX!
HA HA HA!
During the 90s life was terrible for the Russians. they went from having an empire to being basically Zambia. They had pride but no bread.
Then Putin rode the rising petrol prices and brought "prosperity" to Russia - of course most of it went to line Putin's and his oligarch's pockets, but the lower classes also gained some money
But Putin claimed that it was all due to him, the stronk leader -- just as Chavez claimed
The sad part is that the Russian people are smart, if Putin had put SOME money in education and infrastructure he would have had a really rich country - instead the per capita GDP of Russia is lower than Latvia's
With the same oil riches, if, instead of lining oligarch's pockets, Putin had tossed largesse at its neighbours like Ukraine, he would have retained them in Russia's orbit
But he p*$$ed that away.
here's the crude oil prices
Male Russian life expectancy is only 68.2 . At 66 Shoigu is actually due.
And...... Putin will soon turn 70. He’s alive beyond his expiry date. He knows it is now or never
The Kremlin Flu is back!
The plane was loaded to the rafters with swag the generals wanted to take back with them. It was too heavy and crashed.
CC
Who would have ever thought embezzlement was a good thing? At least for the Ukraine people.
Why do Russian men die early? Because they want to!
“ Umm, the Ruble has maintained it’s relative strength against foreign curriencies because the prime interest rate in Russia is 17%.
That maintains the value of the currency, but chokes the domestic economy. ”
Correct.
What’s more, those rubles are like wooden nickels in most of the world.
Incredible video!
It’s far more interesting if the article’s claim that Russian generals are being rounded up and sent to prisons is true.
Nezvlin has no way of saying the heart attack was not from natural causes, and is a criminal, one of the oligarchs who leveraged tax law and bank capital to make the Russian people’s shares of formerly state-controlled industry worthless. Not a useful source.
LOL! The Soviet Union labels incompetence and fear-based rushing, “greed” and forty years later, YouTube mindlessly parrots the label.
Sounds more like it was a matter of “Admiral Zoandzoski wants on that craft, and I don’t want to be stationed in Siberia for telling him, ‘no.’” From Wikipedia, which, yes, seems to reliably summarize its sources (but one of which is no longer available):
“The investigation of the accident revealed that the crew allowed the aircraft to be improperly loaded. Evidence was uncovered that led investigators to believe that some military officers did not comply with seating assignments given by the crew and that these officers pressured the crew to make the flight in an unsafely loaded aircraft. Another factor reported by witnesses was that large rolls of printing paper were loaded on board, and these are believed to have rolled rearward during acceleration on take-off, causing the center of gravity to shift aft of acceptable limits, thereby reducing the stability of the aircraft in pitch, making lowering the nose impossible for the crew.”
Alternatively, the KGB solved a lot of problems with one single action.
The path to success in the Russian Officer corps before this Ukraine war was to be a thief in the cooperative of thieves.
This changed when the bullets started flying.
Putin has made himself the biggest target in Russia he’s not on anybody’s like list.
So WHO is left that hasn’t been executed or sent to Siberia including protesting Ruskies?
A bullet to the back of the head has been known to cause heart failure.
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