Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I dunno what crib sheet you're reading from but EU sanctions most certainly apply to metals. Steel, iron, silver and gold, including jewellry. Coal, gas and oil are also all on the see ya later alligator list.

Google et al are in Ireland because of tax breaks(which every country wields), an educated English speaking populace in a peaceful stable nation within the largest trading block and second largest economy on the planet. Historical ties to America helps of course, but that's the least of it. Though we need to get our moronic housing and energy issues on point and quickly.

Now Russia could have gotten into a more close attachment to the EU, maybe do a Norway if it so chose to keep her independence and the beady eye away from her mind bogglingly hilarious levels of grift and corruption, but that went well... It's now pinning hopes on BRICS, where China and India, especially the former make it look like the broken down petrol station it is, with the owners of said petrol station now looking about as stable as a one legged man on a unicycle to the BICS. And no it's not so easy and cheap to extract. Hell a large proportion of Russia's equipment and expertise to get it out of the ground, especially as the sources move ever northward were Western(mostly European). Your lot didn't really think this through. As I said China is happy to take your oil at knockdown prices, but at the same time has banned your aircraft from her skies in line with the rest of the international air authorities. When push comes to shove...

And you seem to have missed the part about me stating off shoring by American business was stupid if you were America's working man. IMHO I'd be bringing more and more manufatcuring back within the EU(and there are signs of that coming especially after covid). The fact is Covid and a Chinese ship that pulled a handbrake turn in the Suez so far caused more disruption to "our" electronics and metallurgy industries than sanctioning Russia. Yet Russian cars can't have airbags and ABS anymore.

And as you note Russia's population is only 2.2% of the worlds, though it's falling. It has incredible natural resources and an educated and previously innovative people as the old USSR showed, so why does it look more like a developing nation beyond the cities in the west? Why does it have one of the worst longevity stats in the first world? Why are average wages so much lower than the first world? Why doesn't it look like a better version of Finland? It should, if it was run by the Finns, or more, if the Finnish character was in play.

We in Ireland have many questions to ask of our own failings, our own idiotic repetiton of an oddly servile nod to the parochial authority of mostly morons and the like for our issues, which are a few. That and our mix of pride and insecurity(very like Russians). Maybe Russians should ask the same questions of their regressive cultural choices. Like all nations should. But I'll not hold my breath. Sadly. They were once sooo bloody close. When they ousted their inbred elites and tried to forge a better Russia for Russians, but sadly reverted to type. FFS since the fall of the USSR the Russian Orthodox Church has made the last Czar a bloody saint, or close to it. They had another chance when the Wall came down and that didn't go well. Though IMHO the "West" should have and could have done more. It did for her ex vassal states, but left Russia, Belarus and ironically Ukraine out of that loop in too many ways. Setting up McDonalds and the like in Russia only went so far and not far enough. Then again you'd have to get over the hump of that faded empire stuff, which was part of what carried the Brexit vote in our nearest neighbour.

That's a part of it and another part of it to a large degree is the beady eye, many beady eyes from many countries and positions are on Ukraine as the clearly wounded party and the "good guys" in all this. On the Russian side it's just their eyes, eyes that they vet for "loyalty". Any war crimes by the Ukrainian forces are far more likely to get out and quickly.