Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

thetimes.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 205 posts

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#31

Post by rasz »

IgorPartola wrote: post #10

As a Ukrainian, good! This war should have a long cost to Russia. They are certainly causing long term damage to Ukraine by destroying Ukrainian culture where they can, using rape as a widespread war tactic, and relocating Ukrainian children to Russia “for their own good” (see any recent ISW report for details). Having said that, the real thing that appears to have happened in this war is that Putin is a KGB stooge,…

>they are the only ones who genuinely are pushing for annexing what they call “so called ‘ukraine’” due to their strong nationalist beliefs. Basically they are the most ideologically aligned with Putin but also the most critical of his failures.

The only loud protest voices coming out of russia seem to be complaining about loses, poor soldier conditions, not killing Ukrainians fast enough etc. Even so called ru opposition turned out to be all in on helping russian soldiers (TV Rain). No anti war/regime protests to speak off, plenty anti mobilization ones tho.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#32

Post by dr-detroit »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26
keewee7 wrote: post #11

One reason that sanctions haven't had an apparent immediate effect is that the Russian economy was already in a slow downward spiral. The Russian economy peaked in 2013 and has been going down hill since then. The Russian society has already been hardened by these 9 years of "hard times" and not to forget the much harder times in the 1990s. Another reason is that Western companies stopped their sales in Russia while…

It would be so fun to be in IT in Russia right now. Software and film piracy is now completely legal because, if they aren’t selling it, it’s not theft. I could put pirated Windows on every workstation with no fear…

No post body was provided.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#33

Post by rasz »

greggarious wrote: post #9

They're running out of things like missles and bombs though IIRC? Why don't we honor the Budapest agreement and let the Ukrainians finish off Putin's regime with US made weapons if we are going to play word games about the difference between NATO and a firm and unambiguous promise to defend a nation if they give up their nuclear weapons? The people of Russia don't seem to want this war, they are conscripted. (From wh…

>The people of Russia don't seem to want this war, they are conscripted. (From what I've read from afar.)

People in russia want the war, want to win and conquer Ukraine, they just dont want to be conscripted personally.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#34

Post by rosnd »

jafarlihi wrote: post #29
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be so fun to be in IT in Russia right now. Software and film piracy is now completely legal because, if they aren’t selling it, it’s not theft. I could put pirated Windows on every workstation with no fear…

Except for the fact that most pirated copies out there contain rootkits.

This isn't true.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#35

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26
keewee7 wrote: post #11

One reason that sanctions haven't had an apparent immediate effect is that the Russian economy was already in a slow downward spiral. The Russian economy peaked in 2013 and has been going down hill since then. The Russian society has already been hardened by these 9 years of "hard times" and not to forget the much harder times in the 1990s. Another reason is that Western companies stopped their sales in Russia while…

It would be so fun to be in IT in Russia right now. Software and film piracy is now completely legal because, if they aren’t selling it, it’s not theft. I could put pirated Windows on every workstation with no fear…

>It would be so fun to be in IT in Russia right now. Software and film piracy is now completely legal because

I'm in EU, not in Russia and still pirate stuff. Granted, it's all for private use.

I think what you mean is that now companies in Russia are free to pirate everything for professional/corporate use as well.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#36

Post by baybal2 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26
keewee7 wrote: post #11

One reason that sanctions haven't had an apparent immediate effect is that the Russian economy was already in a slow downward spiral. The Russian economy peaked in 2013 and has been going down hill since then. The Russian society has already been hardened by these 9 years of "hard times" and not to forget the much harder times in the 1990s. Another reason is that Western companies stopped their sales in Russia while…

It would be so fun to be in IT in Russia right now. Software and film piracy is now completely legal because, if they aren’t selling it, it’s not theft. I could put pirated Windows on every workstation with no fear…

An unfortunate Russian citizen here. I left Russia in 2006, but the passport is still like an iron beam on my neck.

And you would also get the exit ban. FYI, people who worked for Russian biggest banks are now banned from leaving the country, and that is not only IT, real bankers are banned from leaving as well.

Owners of biggest commercial enterprises, and their children were also forbidden from leaving.

Russian FOREX, and crossborder transactions are nominally still open, but any outgoing transaction over $10,000 triggers an automatic account freeze.

People are also unable to sell their property. There is no official ban, but the necessary paperwork for property sale is impossible to do now.

Stock market is bust, but brokerages are also effectively shut down without declaring it publicly. Dividends are frozen because the electronic system controlling dividend transactions simply been physically switched off for months.

Russian customs enforcement always been draconian, but now it went into total overdrive, with Russia-Kazakhstan border seeing kilometres long queues because now 100% of all cars, and cargo goes through full search. People been trying to save their last money by trying to get it over the border as gold bars, only to have them seized with zero paperwork.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#37

Post by adamsmith143 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #25
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A disorderly failure of the Russian state is pretty much one of the nightmare scenarios.

Depends to whom. To countries far away, but wary of, dunno, nukes going into the hands of terrorists, sure. To countries bordering Russia who are intimidated and threatened (or invaded!) on a continuous basis, this is a definite improvement.

Not so sure about this. That a handful of aggressive and hungry Russo-Warlords with Nukes is any improvement over Putin.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#38

Post by xtian »

greggarious wrote: post #9

They're running out of things like missles and bombs though IIRC? Why don't we honor the Budapest agreement and let the Ukrainians finish off Putin's regime with US made weapons if we are going to play word games about the difference between NATO and a firm and unambiguous promise to defend a nation if they give up their nuclear weapons? The people of Russia don't seem to want this war, they are conscripted. (From wh…

> They're running out of things like missles and bombs though IIRC?

No they aren’t.

New York Times on 12/5: “Russian Cruise Missiles Were Made Just Months Ago Despite Sanctions”

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#39

Post by avn2109 »

olabyne wrote: post #23
Kukumber wrote: post #20

Quoted post unavailable.

As a european, I think both of your "sources" seems dodgy and very US-libertarian biased (should I say Kremlin biased ?)

I'm not the GP and don't have a horse in this race, but is English Wikipedia widely considered "Kremlin biased?" That seems far fetched.

Re: Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash

#40

Post by vlovich123 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #25
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A disorderly failure of the Russian state is pretty much one of the nightmare scenarios.

Depends to whom. To countries far away, but wary of, dunno, nukes going into the hands of terrorists, sure. To countries bordering Russia who are intimidated and threatened (or invaded!) on a continuous basis, this is a definite improvement.

I doubt that countries bordering Russia are keen to have failed chaotic states with economic problems on their borders. The refugee situation that will create is pretty intense.
Post reply on HN