Ukraine have already said they will be seeking full compensation from the Putin regime after the war ends. At a very rough guess, that would be their entire national budget for a year gone in the space of five weeks.
give it another month and this war will have done 1 trillion dollars of damage to Ukrainian infrastructure, what a waste, but i guess thats war, money is made in breaking and making things
ENI in Italy can't pay in Roubles. It only kicked in today, mind you they can pay with Gold but it has to be physical Gold and a bit of a problem getting a flight to Moscow at the moment.
Seems a massive own goal by Putin if they eliminate Zelensky.
Not sure I believe all these attempts.
Do you think that they have much chance of receiving compensation..... imo as soon as the invasion ends , western countries will move on quickly. Capitalism demands same and Russian supplies of grain, oil gas etc etc are too badly needed for them to adopt any other policy.
Do you honestly believe that. The western world have such short memories. Why today virtually all American media are talking about an incident at the Oscars not about the war. With the enormous reserves of cash and natural resources that Russia have, western companies will be back like a light once some sense of normalcy returns. Not a pleasing prospect but that's what happened in various places during the twentieth century.
Острый.
I'd disagree with that assessment. The only trump card Russia has atm is energy supplies but the West is now seeking alternatives to those supplies and will continue to ensure they are weaned off Russian energy totally. As for general commerce Russia has shown itself to be a risky, devious and wholly unreliable business partner and unless there are serious wholesale changes to its regime, policies and governance I highly doubt businesses will be flocking to them.
As regards reparations to Ukraine some of those can be taken from the state funds frozen and the oligarchs assets that have been seized.
Putin has Russian people and politicians poisoned and murdered. They are kidnapping and even murdering Ukrainian mayors, raining bombs down on men, women and children. I would be surprised if the Kremlin wasn't trying to take him out, this is how they operate.
I would disagree on short memories, e.g. Cuba is still under sanctions.
Russia is toxic and will likely remain so for a long time. They will likely default soon, they are stealing leased planes, stealing foreign company assets, the mask is fully off and they've burnt countless bridges. Yes other countries will step in to fill the void, but they will exact a large cost on Russia just to do business, would you lend the Ru govt money? would you invest or setup house in Russia knowing what it does with foreign assets? It's going to get very, very expensive for Russia to do normal business with the world.
You are talking about a guy that has scored quite an amount of them already.
Besides in his mind he is the one keeping score and he is 10 up.
I think if he does manage to kill Zelensky his family in Switzerland will be taken out.
Gary Kasparov spoke about this, after he got thrown in jail because he challenged him for presidential election.
According to Kasparov he doesn't bother with the chess board, but just tries to find ways to take his opponent out.
He is anything but a genius, he is a thug pure and simple.
He tries to find weaknesses in opponents, no doubt using the old KGB blackmail and buy off tricks and when that doesn't work if one is lucky he throws one in jail on trumped up charges (ala Khodorkovsky or Navalny) or he has people simply assassinated.
He rules like a mafia boss, through fear and rewards.
The wholesale looting of Russia by himself and his cronies is coming back to bite him as the military is looking like a bit of a shambles.
All one has to do is look how much the Sochi Olympic Games cost and how billions were siphoned away to some in his inner circle.
Not sure if his son-in-laws family business was one of the major beneficaries?
Likewise with World Cup.
So if that was done for major one off state expenditure, imagine what has been done with military budget over last 20 years.
Jaysus wait until old Vlad fins out they are linked to company in Belfast.
He will nuke for sure then 😮
Ordinary Joe Soap Russians seem easy to have their eyes wiped. Senior KGB essentially civil servants divided up State owned businesses and many multi billionaire were created. In the meantime state funds from those businesses were not available to reinvest in their military and the **** show is there for all to see, not fit for purpose military equipment...running out of fuel...couldn't make it up and meanwhile Super Yachts running for cover around the globe..
Mushrooms.......
Exactly. Macron and UK already said Europe doesn't want regime change in Russia and sanctions will end when Russia withdraws from (most of) Ukraine. In no time at all they'll be back to lining each others' pockets
It appears the Russians are starting to take lessons from ISIS and other assorted Syrian fighters with the introduction of technicals.
The Tweet translation
"Interesting development.
Russia is beginning to adapt to the Ukrainian strategy of asymmetric warfare.
No heavy tank formations, but fast, mobile units - here with heavy machine guns on Toyota Hilux off-road vehicles.
A "syrification" of war."
Reading between the lines I would say given the absolute clusterfuck that the Russians have made invading and prosecuting the war that there is a very high probability that they will be dealing with someone new in the near future.
I don't see the sanctions being lifted quickly at all and they could be in place for years. A mere ceasefire in Ukraine and halting of fighting would be nowhere near enough to get them lifted. Russia was already under heavy enough sanctions since 2014.
But there has to be some incentive for Putin to withdraw, bottom line is morally that everybody wants Russia to stop killing Ukranians asap.
Things are not as bad as you make out for the Ukrainians. Only the top right is a Hilux. Still a serious escalation from Russia in terms of tech and capability. It's what many feared, that they've been keeping their higher end stuff in reserve. It will all depend now on how many Hiluxes they have.
Where has it happened? Yes Russia is big and Russia has a lot of resources people need but it's a long time since any country has done something like Russia has here. It is quite outrageous and it rips up + takes a huge **** all over "international order", idea of sovereign states & peoples and their rights etc. that US and West more broadly have (generally) been supporting since WW2.
Conquering your peaceful and unthreatening + democratic neighbour, levelling its cities, killing & expelling its people + taking territory like Genghis Khan or similar, basically because you have the "power" or think you have is not supposed to be on any more.
As regards Will Smith giving someone a slap I see it is below the fold on BBC website and smothered by Ukraine news. Maybe I'm wrong but I really think on a normal slow news day one of the award winners getting up and smacking the Oscars host in the mouth over a bad joke he told would have been at the top ... Whatever about the US, for us in Europe this is not going away I expect.
Closing in on 2,000 pieces of Russian war machinery put out of action..
Looking at FR24 just now there are 4 US plus a Swedish Electronic surveillance aircraft over Poland and Romania, + a tanker or two. This seems more intensive than previously. Antything up?
@Glenomra
Do you honestly believe that. The western world have such short memories. Why today virtually all American media are talking about an incident at the Oscars not about the war.
It's a bit like saying that a man who is recovering from a broken foot, masturbates one morning, and for a few moments forgets about his pain, so that must mean he's over the thing. No, the pain will return. Similarly, a brief buzz about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock does not indicate that concern about events in Ukraine has abated. It indicates that, shockingly, human beings can think about more than one thing at a time.
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