Putin Recognizes Donbass Republics, Sends Russian Military to 'Denazify' Ukraine
- Thread starter bjorb
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Russia and Iran are cooperating at a level never seen before and it's interesting to consider the parallels in their current situations. Both are under a lot of pressure and expectation from their domestic populations to respond in an escalatory way. Both know that this is intentional provocation, and have little to gain and therefore little appetite for responding in such a predictable fashion. Both have reasons to be optimistic about their current economic and geopolitical trajectories, and have invested many resources over a long period of time to become resilient and protected from instability. They will not risk these resources being destroyed, Iran is particularly vulnerable to this.
I think direct strikes on NATO countries are probably the last thing on Russia's list of options. It's just not going to be necessary, time is on their side. They will have considered many other options to employ before that one. It is Ukraine that will continue to beat the brunt of this madness. US and UK assets in the Middle East would be next in the list.
I suppose I've become a 'nothing ever happens' person finally after these few years. I'm half joking, major things are happening at pace but it's never in this cartoonish, Hollywood style, predictable way that both mainstream and alternative media love to get carried away with.
I think direct strikes on NATO countries are probably the last thing on Russia's list of options. It's just not going to be necessary, time is on their side. They will have considered many other options to employ before that one. It is Ukraine that will continue to beat the brunt of this madness. US and UK assets in the Middle East would be next in the list.
I suppose I've become a 'nothing ever happens' person finally after these few years. I'm half joking, major things are happening at pace but it's never in this cartoonish, Hollywood style, predictable way that both mainstream and alternative media love to get carried away with.
From a staunch supporter of Trump (in San Francisco, California), Michael Savage gives his take on the recent debate with other opinions and thoughts on Ukraine.
Attachments
Yeah, in both cases, the internal pressure from their own population, many of whom demand “to do more“ and be less "soft," is likely the biggest concern.
That pressure is very real, but those masses that demand that, can be very lucky that they have someone like Putin on top who thinks long term and isn’t willing to do shortsighted maneuvers to satisfy that graving. Such shortsighted measures based on hot emotions of the moment have repeatedly lead to disaster (and will again). I wish people who are putting such pressure on people like Putin would learn at least a bit about history and the values of restrained actions and patience. But, unfortunately, I think that is unlikely to happen any time soon in our reality. If they only knew just what kind of hell they are demanding/inviting with such shortsightedness.
Corvus
Dagobah Resident
Just being the difference it is not the same now when it comes to WWII, ruling people in Russia, China, Iran are not stupid and know the game. They are x100 stronger then in those times. Stakes are higher now because of modern weaponery, and US being economicaly tied to China, not so economicaly strong anymore and laden with internal strife, US does not have enough skilled or willing workforce to massivley produce and give logistics, etc...
Can anyone throw some light on why the IMF are stating they are going to talk to Russia as Andrei has mentioned in the above video? No one has been talking to Russia recently so why the IMF.
Being an American organisation do they still have clout in Russia?
Being an American organisation do they still have clout in Russia?
Russia is preparing brutal response to NATO.
It looks like the IMF pissed off the NATO-backed EU.
IMF plan to visit Russia to assess economy prompts dismay across Europe
Protest letter sent to fund’s head over move to send staff to Moscow for first review since invasion of Ukraine
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will send staff to Moscow next week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, in a move that has prompted anger and dismay across European capitals.
Officials of the Washington-based organisation will travel to the Russian capital and meet “stakeholders” before publishing an assessment of the economy and providing recommendations about how the Kremlin might improve its economic handling and tackle issues such as the climate crisis.
The IMF said it was a “mutual obligation” to carry out an article IV review of a member country and the process was only suspended because of the volatility of economic data. The situation in Russia was now “more settled”.
On Friday, nine European countries protested against the IMF’s plans, saying it would damage the reputation of the Washington-based fund to resume dialogue with a country that had invaded another.
After Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the IMF stopped its annual consultations with Russia.
“We would like to express our strong dissatisfaction with such IMF plans,” the finance ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Poland said in a letter to the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, seen by Reuters.
Georgieva is attending a meeting of EU finance ministers and central bankers in Budapest, where they will ask her about the IMF’s plans, EU officials said.
“What recommendations does the IMF want to give Russia at the end of the consultation? How to better run a war economy?” one senior eurozone official told Reuters.
Tim Ash, a Russia analyst at the foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House, said in a blogpost: “Clearly while article IV reviews are about surveillance they are also about providing policy advice to countries as to where they are going wrong and trying to provide advice as how to improve their economic outturns.
“Inevitably therefore IMF officials, in making the trip to Moscow, will be helping Russia improve its economy and by so doing will be leaving themselves open to being accused of helping Russia in the conduct of the war against Ukraine.”
According to the latest data from Moscow’s Federal State Statistics Service, Russia’s economy grew by 4% annually in the second quarter. However, much of the expansion was in the manufacturing sector, where factory output is increasingly dedicated to the war effort.
Consumer spending is believed to have fallen by as much as 10% but there is little reliable data to make an assessment. Russia’s trade with many countries is also disguised to avoid sanctions, hindering efforts to assess how much foreign income Moscow has accumulated.
Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said: “A basic requirement for IMF membership is data transparency, which Russia clearly no longer satisfies on a number of fronts.
“Russia has stopped publishing lots of data and there are questions around whether the data it continues to publish are accurate.”
Brooks said that trade data would be difficult to assess when much of Russia’s oil output was being sent abroad on “dark ships” to evade international sanctions.
He said the Kremlin was publishing trade figures that showed low income from oil produced in the Urals, even though the price of Russian oil has remained “quite elevated”. It meant the current account, which measures the net effect of trade and financial flows, would disguise the size of Russia’s war chest.
“Russia should be suspended from the IMF while these data questions persist,” he said.
Analysis by economists at Bloomberg said that while government subsidies had cushioned domestic businesses against sanctions imposed by the US and the EU, and higher benefits had supported household spending, growth was likely to slow over the rest of the year.
An IMF spokesperson said at a press briefing in Washington on Thursday: “The IMF and all of our member countries have a mutual obligation to conduct article IV consultations.
“It’s in our articles of agreement. Actually, in the case of Russia, since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the economic situation has been exceptionally unsettled, which has made it difficult to anchor article IV consultations, especially thinking about the outlook and policy frameworks for both the near and the medium term.
“Now that the economic situation is more settled, article IV consultations with Russia are resuming, as I said at the beginning, in line with the obligations of both the fund and the member country.”
New footage has been published of the Ukrainian GUR attempt to seize the #Crimea-2 drilling platform in the #BlackSea on the night of September 11, timed to coincide with the visit to #Kiev of the #US and #UK Foreign Ministers.
Evan
The Living Force
Garland picks up where Andrei left off and gives his alternative Russian response to long range weapons, which revolves around Russia essentially giving Yemen the Onyx missile and Russian guidance and operators. This would give them the same “deniability” as the US claims for giving Ukraine access. “You shoot our cities from Ukraine, we sink your ships from Yemen. Your move.”
Begins around 8:00 minutes in.
Begins around 8:00 minutes in.
I've already mentioned this once. At the beginning of her tenure, Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of Russia, openly called herself an "IMF officer." She may not have allowed herself to do anything like this for a long time, but it seems to me that such things do not just disappear into thin air.
Я уже как то упоминал об этом. Глава Центробанка России Набиуллина в начале своего пребывания на этой должности открыто называла себя "офицером МВФ". Пусть уже давно она не позволяет себе ничего подобного, но такие вещи, как мне кажется, просто так не растворяются в воздухе.
4d candidate
Padawan Learner
It's like letting a fox into a henhouse and trusting that it will sit there nicely. Why the hell does Russia need a visit from these lying psychopaths and what would they be looking for there? Out of politeness I would send some deputy minister to the airport and kick them in the ass so that they would fly to Switzerland and Washington with a stopover in London.Now that would be an epic turn of events!
They could even give them some loan until the war ends.
I think it would be funnier if the visitors asked for a loan.Now that would be an epic turn of events!
They could even give them some loan until the war ends.
Думаю, что было бы забавнее, если бы визитеры попросили взаймы.