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

US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 427 posts

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#261

Post by cpursley »

snemvalts wrote: post #156
dxhdr wrote: post #62

Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.

> Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years Is that meant to demonstrate economic strength? * Russians have massive amount of brain drain. Most of tech employees have left, leaving only people extracting oil, people who turn it into fertilizer and gasoline and supporting roles. * They can't build military tech because of sanctions. Starting to use 1950s and 1960s tanks. * They've privatized and violate…

> They can't build military tech because of sanctions.

Russia is ahead of the west both in ballistics & air defense using mostly off the shelf consumer chips that are very easy to smuggle in via 3rd parties.

> Starting to use 1950s and 1960s tanks.

Retrofitted tanks that get the job done. These are being sent to the rear for policing (occupying) operations as well as given to the Donbas separatists.

> Renault gave away 68% of car manufacturer Avtovaz to the state

Pretty sure that was on Renaults own volition. The Chinese are more than glad to take up the slack.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#262

Post by tomp »

labrador wrote: post #133
dxhdr wrote: post #62

Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.

> At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional What would you suggest as an alternative? Continue doing business as usual as if they're not murdering women and children?

If they're gonna be murdering women and children regardless, we might as well not crash our economies...

I wonder, how many people will die because of Russia (war) vs. because of Western sanctions (famine+energy crisis). So far Russia is "winning" but let's wait until the winter...

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#263

Post by labrador »

FpUser wrote: post #199
labrador wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional What would you suggest as an alternative? Continue doing business as usual as if they're not murdering women and children?

>"Continue doing business as usual as if they're not murdering women and children?" No we should do everything possible to stop it. There is a problem though - when "murdering women and children" is done by approved country "Continue doing business as usual" is pretty much what the West does. And I am not aware of any real repercussions for the crimes committed.

You have to pick your battles and fact is, the American public wants to stop Russian atrocities in Ukraine. They don't want to do anything about Yemen or Syria. I'm sure many books have been written about how and why people get involved to help strangers.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#264

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

tomp wrote: post #253
snemvalts wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years Is that meant to demonstrate economic strength? * Russians have massive amount of brain drain. Most of tech employees have left, leaving only people extracting oil, people who turn it into fertilizer and gasoline and supporting roles. * They can't build military tech because of sanctions. Starting to use 1950s and 1960s tanks. * They've privatized and violate…

> Russians have massive amount of brain drain. Most of tech employees have left I doubt this will continue. The West has clearly demonstrated that their sanction and Russo-phobia will target not just politicians and oligarch, but normal people as well. Students being expelled, employees and artists fired, hospitals not treating them, etc. Ordinary Russians aren't safe/welcome in the West, and they know it. Going home…

This is an active topic in the Russian community: which countries are the most Russia-friendly. In general, the countries the closest to Russia and most likely to be invaded next are the most hostile (Baltics, Romania etc.). However, the countries further away care less, and in non-Western countries practically nobody cares. You will be just labeled "white" an that's all.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#266

Post by cpursley »

jacobolus wrote: post #257
lawxls wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Those who left have already returned, my coworkers never left, nor will I in near future. * Electronics can be imported via China and Kazakhstan. Thousands of kilometers of line of contact, plenty of T62's in good condition, why not give them to separatists? It is not as if Ukraine has anything better to offer. Cruise, ballistic missiles on the conveyor and in the air. Every day and night. * So? You are not plannin…

> It is not as if Ukraine has anything better to offer. They have 260+ captured Russian tanks, for one thing. Ukraine has asked supporting countries to instead send howitzers, anti-air guns/missiles, and multiple-launch rockets. By the end of this war Ukraine might end up with the largest tank army in Europe. https://oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenti... By most reports Ukraine (and Russia for that…

Oh really?

Sounds like they're already on the outskirts of Moscow and don't actually need the $40 billion.

Maybe we can get some of that back?

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#267

Post by klibertp »

InefficientRed wrote: post #78
tenpies wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to understand the utter diplomatic and geopolitical incompetence of the current US adminsitration. You're talking about the same administration that literally admitted in the open to be executing cyber attacks on Russia[1]. The fact that they haven't made most of North America glow in the dark is an utter miracle. And to make my point clear, the issue isn't that they're conducting cyber attacks - that's a gi…

You think that Russia would "make North America glow in the dark" because the US disclosed cyberattacks that were obviously attributable to the US? Like, literally, bringing on nuclear Armageddon over some computer hacking and internet trolling? Actually not even computer hacking and internet trolling, just public acknowledgment about coputer hacking and internet trolling? I judge middle school debate and this still…

> over some computer hacking and internet trolling?

No, no, "some computer hacking" (because who would worry about not being able to watch funny cat videos for a while? it's not like people do anything important using computers...) won't do much. But the next Stuxnet targeted at Russian infrastructure could well spell the end of us all. Honestly, I'd be quite content in that situation - witnessing, for however short before dying to radiation, the literal end of history (instead of the pseudo-one from the '90s) could be strangely rewarding.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#268

Post by realcertify »

klibertp wrote: post #229
somenameforme wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This [1] is a 1.5 minute video of NATO expansion since 1949. It was well understood that eastern expansion would, sooner or later, result in conflict with Russia (or the Soviet Union prior). We decided to not just poke the bear but to go cover our arse in honey and twerk in front of it with Aqua's Barbie Girl pumped up to 11. And of course it sounds nice to say sovereign nations ought be able to choose their own alli…

You're brave. I tried giving a more balanced perspective on this war in the comments here 3 times, and I was called a Russian troll in the first attempt, flagged in the next one, and I lost a lot of karma in the third. You're going to be - at least - downvoted a lot, so I thought I'll join and will get downvoted with you. The more the merrier, right.

Bad diplomacy in recent times has the same roots - a lot of people stopped accepting balanced views. They think that solely their own opinion is correct, and they start calling names (racist, sexist, troll, etc), downvoting whenever someone expresses a different point of view. Being good diplomat requires very mature and balanced behavior, which a lot of modern politicians lack.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#269

Post by labrador »

tomp wrote: post #262
labrador wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional What would you suggest as an alternative? Continue doing business as usual as if they're not murdering women and children?

If they're gonna be murdering women and children regardless, we might as well not crash our economies... I wonder, how many people will die because of Russia (war) vs. because of Western sanctions (famine+energy crisis). So far Russia is "winning" but let's wait until the winter...

The world economy was experiencing severe problems due to the pandemic. Russia's attempt to secure Ukraine for itself may have pushed it over the edge, but it didn't cause the collapse.

Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis

#270

Post by notyourday »

coryrc wrote: post #52
nathanaldensr wrote: post #2

So "quiet" that Bloomberg's reporting on it? If you're a farmer, you're going to buy fertilizer from wherever and whomever unless prevented legally from doing so--and I, as a citizen of the US dependent on others growing this food on behalf of me, appreciate it.

I, as a citizen of the US dependent on others growing this food on behalf of me, am fine with reduced yields and higher meat prices, to put more pressure on Russia. I also wish we'd send in the big guns to put a lot more pressure in focused places.

> I, as a citizen of the US dependent on others growing this food on behalf of me, am fine with reduced yields and higher meat prices, to put more pressure on Russia.

You are missing a critical piece of information here: what is your yearly income and what is your family size?

Post reply on HN