But dying is the one thing you can be certain of…

That uptick is quite striking:

https://www.google.com/finance/quote/RUB-USD?window=5Y

but it’s still pennies on the dollar. Their threat of a 4M ruble sanction on Wikipedia for documenting the Ukrainian invasion was only $49k. You could put that on a credit card.

Technically, not at the moment, being invaded by Russia and all. But my point is that afterwards, Ukrainian deposits will be fast-tracked for development by foreign capital where as Russia will be starved for it. Belt and Road might be their only option.

The exchange rate makes burning rubles quite competitive.

You’re tacitly admitting Russia got kicked out of the G8. And you know who has oil and gas? Ukraine. Guess where all that sweet, sweet foreign capital is going to be redirected? And probably Russia’s frozen foreign currency reserves, too.

Russia is offering certificates of ownership, rather than delivery. People being to suspect it doesn’t all exist, at that point.

Lol, are you rushing to sign up for a Russian back account? I hear the exchange rate for rubles is starting to look like satoshis. And China plays so many games with their currency that nobody trusts it now. Seriously, keep wishing as hard as you can, but there’s nothing better yet.

I think the point is, nobody trusts them enough to accept certificates. They’ll sell it – at discount – when they put it on a train and deliver bullion.

Those monopolistic practices have created a software ecosystem that’s dominated by their OS. They aren’t the only solution anymore, but they are still the largest.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/russia-bombed-mariupol-art-school-sheltering-400-people-says-ukraine

When will America get around to this?

Yes, the top 10% wealthiest (the West?) enjoy a life on the backs of the rest. That has to change, simply from the carbon output. How do you convince westerners to sacrifice their comfort? Thanks, Russia?

I hope Europe uses this opportunity to curb their dependence on carbon-based fuel.

I don’t understand how it’s clear the Soviets achieved “more than anyone else.” They might have, without saddled by an authoritarian government. But despite your constant harping about my lack of historical knowledge, you did know that their manned moon landing was cancelled after their N-1 booster blew up three times? Why? Lack of computers to control many small rockets at once. And of course, they’re timetable was determined autocratically. It wasn’t the threat from the west, it was the threats from their own government.

Lol. Where did you learn this history? Stalin regularly purged his generals for giving him bad news. Field promotions were cheap and easy to come by. Interestingly, this is why so many Russian generals have been “liquidated” recently. They’re right up on the front lines because no one else has authority or information to make decisions and it’s their head in the noose. Remind me, professor, when was the last time an American general was killed in action?

I think you should read Clausewitz again. NATO got Russia to break it’s teeth on an unaffiliated nation. That isn’t achieving Putin’s goals. It’s achieving NATO’s goals with a minimum of effort. With an image of a mad dog, Putin has driven fence-sitting nations to join the EU and NATO. All that’s left for Russia is to hide under the skirts of China. Checkmate.

Chechnya and Syria? So more war crimes, I’m afraid…

Consider how immature that is. “You better not stand too close to me, or I’ll beat up my next door neighbor!” The west is like, “Are you sure you want to do that? We won’t invite you to anymore parties and we’ll give him our spare guns…” Now Putin is crying that they made him get shot. An idiotic miscalculation of historic proportions.

Cheaters never prosper. It’s not creating security, but serfdom. All the lies, the assassinations, the war crimes have finally come home to roost. Because of Putin’s megalomania, Russia is now captured in China’s orbit. Great, now you don’t answer to western masters. Now, it’s eastern masters.

Seeing dilapidated the state of it’s air force, navy, and military the claim of 6000 working nukes is absolutely preposterous. I cry bullshit.

No, I said Stalinist, since he left a stain that wasn’t easily removed, even today. He did actually send Korolev to prison in Siberia, though. Imagine what the Soviet space program might have achieved, if getting sent to a gulag a daily option. Echoes of the past, as Putin threatens his generals with arrest for telling him what he doesn’t want to hear.

In the US, the space shuttle’s goal was to reuse expensive engines and thereby bring the cost per kg of payload down. This did not come to pass. The Soviets spent all the money to copy the same idea but never actually used it, because they concluded, as well, that it wasn’t economic.

The invasion is in progress. The results are unclear at the moment, but judging by how insistent Putin and ~~Lapdog ~~Lavrov are bleating more and more about peace talks, it implies the stalled offensive cannot be sustained much longer. I honestly don’t see how Ukraine can capitulate to demilitarize, given Russia’s repeated aggression.

Whining to the west doesn’t work. France walked a long, hard road. Vietnam didn’t complain about it’s plight, it adapted. India didn’t cave into the American sphere and look at them today. Those countries built themselves up, they didn’t try to succeed by dragging everyone else down. Russia’s current strategy is deeply flawed.

Russia supplies the world with a flood of simple to maintain rifles, sure. Older Soviet gear is always on sale, too, just like anything that wasn’t nailed down from that era. But night vision gear on Russian tanks is French. Russia just isn’t the high tech wonderland you imagine. You’re being thick headed insisting that any single country is self-sufficient.

Also, you what happened to the great Soviet stockpiles of nuclear weapons? They were sold to the American nuclear energy industry to power homes and televisions. The ultimate triumph of capitalism.

Yes, I agree you. I would love that we address the extraordinary power that Murdoch and Koch have accrued while no one was looking. Again, I wish Putin would act like a big boy, shut up, and sit down so we can deal with the real problems of this age.

I’m not advocating them, but anything is better than direct nuclear exchanges. I prefer space races, to be honest. You, my friend, need to take it down a notch, before you give yourself an aneurysm.