I wrote the same yesterday here.
I can refute the opinion of most here with their illusory delusions about Russia's actions, their "concern for people," etc. Many here are wishful thinking, unfortunately.
I have many, many different thoughts and conjectures, as well as a lot of different information and leaks, but these are huge texts and it is difficult and very long for me to translate everything. It's all in Russian.
I could have a look at your links, but will I learn something?
I hope you are well, take care of yourself, are willing to forgive that not all following this thread have the same background and view on things as you, and have time for something that can uplift you. Do you read romance novels, there is a whole thread about them? But I am digressing, below are some reflections on your post.
At the beginning of the operation, Russia had much money in foreign banks, due to the people in charge at the time, the policies had been enacted assuming the way the world used to work, at least that is what people say.
While the two following sources use different representations, there is no doubt Russia lost access to an enormous sum of money:
From NBC News, there was on
March 17, 2022:
Notes
Data on the distribution of funds across countries comes from June 2021, the last time the Bank of Russia published country-specific information. Between June 2021 and January, the assets held by the Central Bank of Russia increased from $585 billion to $630 billion. The location of these additional funds is unknown and omitted from the graphic. All money values are in the U.S. dollar equivalent. Dollar amounts were rounded down to the nearest billion.
Source: “Bank of Russia Foreign Exchange and Gold Asset Management Report”
Graphic: Monica Hersher / NBC News
Here is another report from the
Saker from March 16, 2022:
Why there are differences between the two, if it is because they use different sources or one is private and public while the other is public. I don't know, but we have an idea.
What do the RCB reserves consist of:
RCB publishes an annual report on its assets and a weekly one on its volume. It stopped publishing on March 4. As of that date reserves consisted of $643 billion, but the data on the structure go back to June 30, 2021, when it was as follows:
$311 billion: financial instruments by foreign issuers.
$152 billion: cash in foreign deposits.
$132 billion: gold in Russia.
$30 billion: International Monetary Fund.
Thus, 80% of Russia’s reserves are outside of Russia. We’ll explain why later, but first here’s the list of countries as of June 30, 2021:
Irrespective of the differences, it's a lot of money. According to the NBC report, the expectation in March was
The devaluation of the ruble will have a
cascading series of effects on Russians, said Mark Taylor, a professor and the dean of the business school at Washington University in St. Louis. As the ruble’s value declines, inflation soars.
“The bottom line is that life in Russia is going to become tougher for those citizens over the next few months,” Taylor said. “The prices are going to go sky-high, and the shops are going to start running out of goods.”
Creating misery in Russia, was what the West had in mind, by freezing and confiscating the money. As we have seen in the meantime, it did not develop quite as advertised. Instead, the Euro lost value and the inflation rose "unexpectedly" in the Eurozone. But the money remained frozen.
So now, if they along with the prisoner exchange do some business, I have no problem, and I can also imagine how the elite got involved. Some of them may have the contacts and profit from having them.
For instance, Putin commenting on the lack of grain that went to the poor countries mentioned that about a third of the ships ended up with Turkey, but that was okay with him, as Turkey was the ones facilitating the export. You can say 30 % is a lot, but it is normal under such circumstances. In UA in the nineties, car parking, in a major west Ukrainian city, was expensive and had risen a lot over a short period of time. It was 30 % to the tax office, 30 % to the police, 30 % to the crime cartel and 10 % for the owner working many hours a week.
Therefore, if a similar 30 % went to some VIP, it would be business as usual. Or you can imagine that one rich person had some company from where the Russian government bought a service or some material or support. Part of a deal could then be that the Russian Government buys this and that for such and such price, and will help the rich guy get his money out of the freeze, if he brings it back to Russia, buys stuff Russia needs through his contacts, or pays back a loan or whatever. These are just examples of possibilities.
Regarding the timing and publicity of the POW swap and how it was done. What if the timing was part of the deal for better and worse? We don't know, but those who criticize the swap should know they may very well be used. Put yourselves in first one shoe (Russia) and then another (Mediator), then a third (Other country) and imagine how you would act. Keep shifting back and forth between the roles until you have a hard bargained deal from every position. The opponent of Russia (internal, external) might well have intended not only to get a deal, but also to cause maximum havoc through it.
What you have to say about Russia, well I have not read all your sources, but I know that wars are not always as told on the front page. Here are a few points to consider, but probably they have already been mentioned.
First, Russia, as far as I know, did not promote an RNA vaccine similar to what was forced on the Western countries. If you are not aware, why not read up on the thread about Covid vaccine injuries and Corona. The magnitude of the crime is off the chart if it would be allowed to be discussed. I know the murder rate is higher in Russia, 6-7 ion average per 100,000 compared to 1-3 for many EU countries, but if you factor in what the Governments are doing with their Covid Vax, you would get to a much higher figure. Russia seems to care about people, after all, and about their children and descendant.
Second, the US worked with bioweapon development in Ukraine with support of the Ukrainian government. Not the only government, of course to do so, but definitely one of them, we know that some diseases were experimented with as was their distribution. Russia did not do that, although I am sure they would be able to.
And last we find the same with nuclear weapons, Ukraine supported by the west had that in mind too. And very considerate, NATO guided the UAF to shell the ZNPP, though I guess the for the most part, they just want to terrorize and make it impossible to do anything with the ZNPP, so energy has to be provided from elsewhere and the maintenance becomes a liability. Still, it is a risk to shell a NPP.
The intentions of Vladimir Putin were to avoid or minimize bloodshed among civilians, and I think Russia has lost quite a few soldiers on that account. At this stage however, and thanks to the generous propping up of Ukraine and the UAF as a US/NATO proxy army, Russia is essentially fighting a NATO command, with officers trained by NATO and NATO weapons. Qualitatively, it is a different situation on the ground compared to how it all began.
t.me
www.sott.net
korybko.substack.com
thecradle.co
havanatimes.org
