111–120 of 204 posts
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They can impose their own sanctions preventing the fuel from being resold, or even better, cut a deal that by reselling the fuel the revenue still goes to Russia.
India wouldn't accept that. They don't have any leverage, they played their hand.
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Ukraine was preparing a war to take back donbas, and there was no "calming down". The problem is, that the media changed their stories after the start of war. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/osce-reports-surge-numb... > MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Two regions in eastern Ukraine where government and separatist forces have been fighting since 2014 were hit by more than 1,400 explosions on Friday, monitors for the O…
> MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Two regions in eastern Ukraine where government and separatist forces have been fighting since 2014 were hit by more than 1,400 explosions on Friday How convenient. Russia had been moving soldiers and military equipment for months into position, scheduled a joint exercise with Belarus placing their soldiers in spitting distance of Kyiv, and then suddenly there are explosions "forcing" Rus…
Belarus, the country, is "within spitting distance" of Kiev. There has always been tight integration between their armies, as well as open borders. There have Always been Russian soldiers close to Kiev, because that's where the city is geographically. What you are doing is putting a conspiracy-spin on something that is a common occurrence.
To put this in other terms, here's what you stated: "A large number of armed Republicans have been found in the city of Crofton around Jan 6, spitting distance from the white house." Reality: The statement is true. It omits the inconvenient fact that for the last 50 year it's been a republican county with high gun ownership, and that's where they live.
There is an immense amount of propaganda from Ukraine. Ukraine is an extremely corrupt country. They are trying to clean it up, but that's not a viable task at scale. We shipped $25bil in cash there last year - much of that, went into someone's pocket. I read Ukrainian news, in Ukrainian. They constantly announce people getting arrested with millions of fresh dollars in cash. They arrested a government official who stole 18 train cars worth of humanitarian aid, and sold it at his chain of stores. Their banks officially steal money from foreigners and locals under a new asset-forfeture type of law.
Personal story: I have some friends there and a baby who is my goddaughter. Their city got leveled, they escaped westward and now live close to Poland. The government won't let men out of the country, despite my friend having a sick wife, and a 2yo baby. I've wired about $50k over there last year, and continue to send about 1/3 of my salary this year. He rents an apartment. The cities in the west, which are fairly safe - the locals escaped to Poland, Germany, and Canada, and are collecting welfare checks triple the size of their pre-war salaries. They then rent out their apartments to refugees from the east. Rent prices are 5x what they used to be, and they're making bank on their fellow nationals who can't leave. The reason they can't leave, despite a law like that being against the constitution there? Zelensky keeps holding popular votes, and everyone votes to force men to stay in the country. Because they're making bank on the rent.
Recently, a new regulation passed, allowing the national bank to take money out of people's accounts, if they receive over $11k in a 30 day period. I wired $15k to my friend for the next 3 months of living expenses. The national bank confiscated the wire transfer, asking my friend for proof of where it came from. I had my bank send a letter saying it came from my direct-deposited salary (in America), and wrote a letter myself saying this is financial aid for my goddaughter's family. The bank refused to deposit the funds into my friend's account, and refused the request from Wells Fargo to reverse the wire. I then tried to send using paypal-xoom as it's still free for now. They're blocking transfers to Ukraine, because apparently many of their customers have had the funds confiscated, and never returned to the sender.
From what you wrote, you're on a dopamine rush, and the Ukrainians are infallible heroes. I've lived in Moscow for 4 years for work, I've lived in Ukraine for almost two. I have professional contacts and friends in both places. The only difference between the people in charge of Ukraine, and the people in charge of Russia, is Ukraine doesn't have the military to go threaten the world - and if they did, they would. And yes, there are lots of nazis there, and they do celebrate nazis on public media. Less than we do stateside, but that's a stretch of truth, not a lie from Putler. Step back, analyze the situation with logic, and don't let your feelings guide your beliefs. Otherwise, you're the same as the nutjob republicans, just have different opinions.
EU continues to important Russian oil, it has just been refined and rebadged by India, Saudi Arabia, China and others, so that a statement like this could be made. EU is basically paying a premium in order to stake a claim to moral high ground they don't hold
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India wouldn't accept that. They don't have any leverage, they played their hand.
I know nothing of this. If Russia decided to add a "fee" for reselling, does India have an alternative supply to pull from?
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> MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Two regions in eastern Ukraine where government and separatist forces have been fighting since 2014 were hit by more than 1,400 explosions on Friday How convenient. Russia had been moving soldiers and military equipment for months into position, scheduled a joint exercise with Belarus placing their soldiers in spitting distance of Kyiv, and then suddenly there are explosions "forcing" Rus…
I say this as an anti-GOP American who has lived a year an a half in Ukraine, has friends I currently financially support in Ukraine, and thinks Russia should be economically turned into North Korea: Belarus, the country, is "within spitting distance" of Kiev. There has always been tight integration between their armies, as well as open borders. There have Always been Russian soldiers close to Kiev, because that's wh…
You've written a large wall of text to debate something that was already settled as fact in February 2022. Did you actually forget that this wasn't a "common occurence?" Russia literally did invade Kyiv from Belarus. I've watched the Russian preparations for war unfold since October 2021.[0][1] The Belarusian military exercises were a pretext for military invasion, indisputable after-the-fact now. They shipped their heavy materiel to the border, held some exercises, and then immediately after invaded from Belarusian territory. Please point me to your public explanation of the issues back then.
Every country has corruption. Ukraine certainly does, just many countries with weaker institutions the world over: India, Hungary, Serbia, Brazil, Turkey, etc. It is not an excuse for invasion and the slaughter of tens of thousands of humans.
You're also tangentially inserting a debate about the validity of martial law requiring men to stay to defend their country from invasion, missiles, and slaughter, which most countries and countrymen would support. (horrendously suggesting the reason is rents??)
Lastly, let me remind you that yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Russia keeps marching onto new Ukrainian cities, destroying infrastructure and human beings with artillery and missiles, shooting people that resist a Russian army come to take over their land. And it keeps happening because enough people like you carry water for their garbage excuses.
[0] https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1473362460673515527
[1] https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1491636736291655682
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Your explanation of the situation sounds like the Byzantine corporate structures that multinationals use to evade taxes. I assume the goal is the same - to hoodwink and exploit the populace. Morally speaking, I’d expect to have zero imports of Russian fuel to declare “independence”.
The goal is to keep the gas supply relatively stable, while reducing Russia's share of the profits. It's a kind of price-fixing-in-reverse. And you don't need zero imports to declare independence. You just need them low enough that Russia will gain no political leverage over you by threatening to shut down the supply to your region.
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I know nothing of this. If Russia decided to add a "fee" for reselling, does India have an alternative supply to pull from?
If India doesn't buy Russia's oil to resell to Europe, Russia ends up with even less money than they have now. If they want to bite yet another hand that is feeding them, they are welcome to continue being their own worst enemy.
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Sure, but before that gas was funding a self professed foe. It's much better to not fund your enemies.
That logic only works if Europe was the only trading partner available to Russia. What happened in practice is that Russia simply redirected trade to other countries while Europe now pays a huge markup buying from resellers.
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If India doesn't buy Russia's oil to resell to Europe, Russia ends up with even less money than they have now. If they want to bite yet another hand that is feeding them, they are welcome to continue being their own worst enemy.
Does this mean that the EU could easily lower its demand?
EU continues to important Russian oil, it has just been refined and rebadged by India, Saudi Arabia, China and others, so that a statement like this could be made. EU is basically paying a premium in order to stake a claim to moral high ground they don't hold
What country are you from?