Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Too simplistic.

Germany exports more to Russia than it imports.

Russia gets the vast majority of their drugs from Germany and France.

Medicaments are not a commodity you can just easily strike up a deal with elsewhere.

What continues to amaze me is that US Republicans seem hellbent that the US energy economy depend on US oil. It makes no god damn sense, when you consider that the US's enemies have far more proven reserves than we do - they want us to make an active choice to ultimately, remain dependent on other countries for oil. There's nothing independent about making the economy reliant on oil, even our own oil, especially when we have such limited amounts of it.

They used 142 BCM of gas in 2021. 39% comes from Russia. 1 BCM supposedly costs $100m, so I make it about $15.17m a day.

High fertilizer prices cause concern

But large parts of the population are not self sufficient and happy to live off beets and bread

I've said this before, they won't collapse. But Russia's ability to execute and sustain war under crippling sanctions will be very curtailed. They may not starve, but their poor performing army will become even poorer.

They're still enjoying the ill gotten gains from Holocaust victims. Strange how most European countries were in recession and rations after the war, but Switzerland comes out sparkling. Pr*cks.

I saw a Russian analyst saying a default in 2022 would be three times worse than the 1998 one in terms of impact. I don't think they have any idea what is coming down the tracks.

Do we still have those? No time like the present...

I read an article a couple of weeks ago but can't find it. They basically said the command structure is nowhere near like a western nuke nation. They said the "Kremlin has the final say". As in, they could advise him not to nuke, but he gets to decide.

Russia is a vast country, but most of it is sparsely populated. Something like 114 million of Russia's 140 million population live in European Russia, i.e. Russia west of the Urals. I'd be surprised if some Babushka out in some Russian village even knew a 'special military operation' was taking place. But in the larger cities and towns of Russia where people, especially younger people, suddenly find themselves cut off from the outside world - that may raise eyebrows. Most likely, everyone will be 'just fine' if 'just fine' means 'able to survive', but a lot of people in Russia have also become used to a standard of living slightly above that.

Not that Putin is overly worried about the little person. It will be the circle of Russian oligarchs who are relatively close to Putin and his 'allies' such as China concerned about their economic position in being associated with Putin and his war that will apply pressure to cease and desist.

Also, I think this concept that people in the West are weak from generations of luxury is fairly false. Even my own parents remember a time growing up that they had no electricity, raised their own livestock to eat and had no running water. We're not had several generations of cultural and economic luxury in this country at the very least, not by a long shot.