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Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

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Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#111

Post by throwaway787544 »

russiano wrote: post #109
ShivShankaran wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> do you feel that the Russians have started to detest "West" more? It's certainly true for me and a few more people that I know. I used to be a cookie-cutter west-loving liberal, and now I'm slowly turning into a bitter vatnik. One of the things that made me change my mind (aside from diving deep into the history of the conflict after which many things started to make sense) is seeing how petty and ridiculous sancti…

> However, seeing rabid mccartism and imposing collective guilt only makes me feel under siege.

Seeing as that is the whole point of the sanctions, I'd say it's working. The point is to piss off regular Russians enough that at some point they might decide to overthrow their dictator.

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#112

Post by toomuchtodo »

throwaway787544 wrote: post #111
russiano wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you feel that the Russians have started to detest "West" more? It's certainly true for me and a few more people that I know. I used to be a cookie-cutter west-loving liberal, and now I'm slowly turning into a bitter vatnik. One of the things that made me change my mind (aside from diving deep into the history of the conflict after which many things started to make sense) is seeing how petty and ridiculous sancti…

> However, seeing rabid mccartism and imposing collective guilt only makes me feel under siege. Seeing as that is the whole point of the sanctions, I'd say it's working. The point is to piss off regular Russians enough that at some point they might decide to overthrow their dictator.

It seems very unlikely at this point Putin will be overthrown. Sanctions will need to do to Russia’s economy what Russia is doing to Ukraine’s cities, reducing them to rubble. You have to salt their economic earth to prevent this from occurring again after Putin dies, is couped, etc (allow for an authoritarian who will likely fill the power vacuum, without any military power).

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#113

Post by deepsun »

IshKebab wrote: post #98
rich_sasha wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy. Try buying and selling at this rate. It’s a hugely constrained market. I can tell you I have an asset worth 1e12 dollars but no one can buy it or sell it. This is kind of the same.

Ok but is the market rate not derived from the prices that people actually are buying and selling at? If not that's kind of insane.

Exactly, what their govt called "market rate".

Similarly, I remember at one point there was almost 0 cases of COVID positives officially. But a huge spike in respiratory problems or other causes deaths for some reason.

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#114

Post by russiano »

throwaway787544 wrote: post #111
russiano wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you feel that the Russians have started to detest "West" more? It's certainly true for me and a few more people that I know. I used to be a cookie-cutter west-loving liberal, and now I'm slowly turning into a bitter vatnik. One of the things that made me change my mind (aside from diving deep into the history of the conflict after which many things started to make sense) is seeing how petty and ridiculous sancti…

> However, seeing rabid mccartism and imposing collective guilt only makes me feel under siege. Seeing as that is the whole point of the sanctions, I'd say it's working. The point is to piss off regular Russians enough that at some point they might decide to overthrow their dictator.

Oh no, quite the opposite actually - the most pissed off demographics is people like me, faint-hearted internet liberals. A coup is extremely unlikely, like less likely than an actual nuclear war

Another funny fact that I wanted to tell about is that a couple of years ago Google/Apple helped to derail opposition effort to consolidate and push people not from the ruling party to parlament. They banned apps offering vital information on voting patters. Now they are on the high moral horse, along with FB

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#115

Post by ratsforhorses »

gutitout wrote: post #89
arroz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This answer is wrong from what I read Not all countries are buying oil and gas in rubble, just the ones russia considers “unfriendly”. But even from those, russia isnt enforcing it. Germany has said it wouldn’t pay in ruble. US doesn’t buy anything from Russia. Hungary is paying in ruble. By paying in ruble they create an artificial demand for the currency, making it worth more. However Russian government can make th…

“US doesn’t buy anything from Russia.” https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/russian-oil-flows-but-incre... “Germany has said it wouldn’t pay in ruble.“ True. Due to long term contracts in place, some oil is not purchased using rubles. Still, other European countries including Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Greece and others are purchasing in rubles. Also, India and China are purchasing a large amount of oil. ht…

"other European countries including Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Greece and others are purchasing in rubles. Also, India and China are purchasing a large amount of oil. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/who-is-still-buying-..."

I did a bored skim read through the linked article, but couldn't find any reference to " Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Greece and others are purchasing in rubles" Do you have any other sources? Btw thanks for the link, interesting info

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#116

Post by riedel »

azth wrote: post #107
michalu wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Russians abroad and in Russia who do not support the invasion" lol like Russians abroad have a choice ... it's funny to observe how the west from it's high moral ground and use or 'isms' left and right goes on to full on support of nazism. I guess nobody gave an F about Ukraine until now and all those mainstream media articles from 2014-2021 about nazism problem and anti-russian atrocities have gone ignored. Apparen…

Quoted post unavailable.

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#117

Post by smegsicle »

stavros wrote: post #94
macinjosh wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you even talking about?

No yeah, "But, whatever, Neocons never met an ugly stick that they didn’t want to use to beat someone over the head with. Too bad all they’re doing is hitting a rubber tire." sounds like the least biased sentence ever.

it's not a conspiracy, neocons are widely known to be war hawks- or are you asserting that 'neocon' is an unreasonable characterization?

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#119

Post by netsharc »

telchar wrote: post #88

Krugman looked this a few weeks ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/opinion/russia-ruble-econ... tl;dr: Russia is propping up the Ruble with all the means at their disposal

Extra tidbit: the number (exchange rate) is a visible marker of "The Western world is against us", and it's very hard to preach "Everything is fine" when that number is massively worse compared to before the war; so they're destroying the future of the economy just to make sure it looks right currently.

Re: Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?

#120

Post by bobkazamakis »

michalu wrote: post #103
frosted-flakes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole world does not hate Russians. On the contrary, I've seen a lot of empathy for Russians abroad and in Russia who do not support the invasion of and atrocities in the Ukraine but still have to suffer because of the Russian government's, or rather Vladimir Putin's, actions. Obviously, yes, Russians who express support for Putin are hated, rightfully so.

"Russians abroad and in Russia who do not support the invasion" lol like Russians abroad have a choice ... it's funny to observe how the west from it's high moral ground and use or 'isms' left and right goes on to full on support of nazism. I guess nobody gave an F about Ukraine until now and all those mainstream media articles from 2014-2021 about nazism problem and anti-russian atrocities have gone ignored. Apparen…

plenty of people cared about Ukraine; what the fuck are you on about? the previous US president tried to withhold aid to Ukraine in quid pro quo.

>Apparently, people had another pet cause to read about in those years.

You mean they weren't literally at war, so they didn't take up as much of the spotlight?

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