Russia - threadbanned users in OP

And highly tanned weapon operators..... So Niger is next on the list for de-Nazification? No, that does not sound right... maybe "De-westernization???

Yes, I remember something about that happening...heading for the workers utopia. Came to a sorry end if I remember rightly, and they were not the only ones either. There was another story going the rounds that selected Russians were educated in western style villages, completely isolated from Russia, so that they were the genuine article when later on in life, when they were inserted into the US etc as spies.

Any links to that?

Videos circulating supposedly showing artillery shells lying on the ground near the optics factory explosion aftermath.

Would go someway to explaining the absolutely enormous explosion. So it wasn't just a factory producing optics that went boom.

98.1 rubles to the dollar now. "ThE SanCtiOns HaVe No EfFect"

xyz

"Also, please remove the sanctions."

It costs the US Federal Reserve about 2.8c to print a dollar bill.

Smallest note in Russia is 5 rubles (currently worth 5.1c)

The Shah is a major example of someone being better than what came after him .... as we speak Iran is probably the second worst regime in the world ... only Afghanistan is worse ... and the Shah's reign now looks like the golden age of modern Iran ...the current ultra hardline Iranian government that took office in 2021 is by far the worst Iranian government of all time ... and created due to Trump's sanctions/leaving the JCPOA ... in turn this government will neither moderate its stifling laws or engage with the rest of the world to improve the economy ... thus assuring social and economic reform are not possible until this regime is gone ...

Shah Reza Pahlavi III would be a much better leader hands down than the guy who prob currently rules, or, ruins Iran who is Mojtaba Khamenei the son of the current ailing leader ... Khmanenei II seems to have a more oppressive and mean streak than even his father ... typical of someone handed power on a plate ... I feel the Iranian people need to get rid of this nightmare regime now ...

Saddam was sort of a Shah meets Napoleon meet Hitler ... Saddam's warmongering made him too many enemies ... and 9/11 sealed his fate even though he had nothing to do with it ... but Americans wanted someone's head for it and thus the war started .. we all know now this war was a mistake but back then Saddam was regarded as a mega villain with armies of terrorists waiting for his order ... and the US govt did not do anything to discourage this myth ...

True a major mistake in US wars was not cooperating with some from within the regime ... today it is clear something needs to be done about both Iran's Khamenei/Paydari regime and Putin .... the latter is off limits for a war in obvious terms ... but could something be done to help Iran's opposition more and perhaps inspire Russians to do same?? ... Now moderates within Iran's government need to be reached out to .... Trump messed up things with the moderates in the 2013-2021 admin ... but Trump a hardliner himself had no interest in talking to Iran's moderates ... today Mohammed Bajer Qalibaf is one of the more moderate members of the current system ... I'd say a lot of people like him would be glad to see the back of the Khamenei family ... whatever whoever they need to be included in a post Khamenei Iran and all parties bar Paydari/other hardlners I feel should be part of a new Iran .... where a culture of respect and tolerance replaces the current negative confrontational policies ... also professionals who can rise above ideology are needed ... I feel the Khameneis and their Paydari pals cannot change to form positive relationships with the world and end compulsory Hijab even if they wanted to .... they don't know how ... and therefore have failed Iran and its people ...

Exactly what Gary Kasparov said about the west treating Putin like a politician. He said we should see him not as a politician but as a gangster.

Another "double tap" hit on residential buildings in Ukraine. Part of a long list of similar war crimes by Russia, starting in Syria.

I hope the ICC prosecutors are putting the relevant military people on their lists.

Russia just wants the uranium and any instability is a bonus for them.

Unskilled migrants are the backbone of a huge amount of factories here in Ireland but we're not sending men off to war. Russia was doing this well before the war, their national workforce isn't made up of Flintstones.

What are you basing that off?

Russia has relied on a migrant workforce doing the **** for a long time now. There are plenty of gaps to fill but assuming that migrants are filling the factory floor in place of conscripted Russians is nonsense. Russia had a higher migrant workforce before the war.

Exchange rates have little bearing on reality since central banks on both sides can manipulate the value of their currency.