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Why Russia’s Unfazed By Falling Oil Prices
Submitted by Marin Katusa via Casey Research,
Oil is not quite as powerful a weapon against modern-day Russia as one might think.
By arguing that the slump in oil prices will finish off Russia just like it did the Soviet Union, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing in the Daily Telegraph, is forgetting how far Russia has come since those dark days.
It is true that the USSR couldn’t cope with falling oil revenues and that Saudi Arabia is credited with helping to break up the former empire by dramatically increasing oil production from 2 million to 10 million barrels per day in 1985.
And sanctions could make it harder for Russian firms to access Western know-how, and ultimately affect Russia’s oil output.
But that’s only if they drag on for years—which is doubtful, given the price the EU is already paying. A cut in global oil supply—and stronger global growth—will likely rebalance the oil market in the meantime.
A measure of Russia’s improved prospects is that the population is growing again for the first time since 1992. In fact, sanctions notwithstanding, Russia’s finances look pretty stable for now.
Russia has only about $678 billion in foreign debt, which it’s been vigorously paying down from the high of $732 billion reached at the end of 2013. (The US debt to foreigners has passed $6 trillion, and it’s growing.) It’s running a record-high budget surplus and a positive balance of payments. And it’s circumventing the dollar through trade deals. Even after spending $60 billion propping up companies starved of dollar liquidity, Russia has nearly $375 billion of foreign reserves.
Although GDP growth has slowed from 2012’s torrid 4.25% pace, it’s still projected to come in at 1%, no worse than 2013.
Furious about being locked out of SWIFT—the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which helps facilitate international financial transactions—Putin has also ordered the Russian central bank to proceed with building its own national payment settlement system as an alternative.
Then there’s “Project Double Eagle,” which will enable trade partners to price oil in gold. That will allow users to move away from the dollar (and the euro), and conduct their business in something physical and more substantial than fiat money—and Russia’s fellow BRICS nations (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) are cheering it on.
So, perhaps there’s method in Putin’s madness. Russia has not only substantially increased gold production but is stockpiling the stuff, doubling its reserves between 2008 and 2014.
It’s true that the country’s budget was based on oil prices of $96 per barrel. With oil sinking below $70, that hurts for certain. But Russia will survive. It will do some belt-tightening. And it gets a boost from the falling ruble—which is down 25% against the dollar just since the end of September—because that helps to offset losses from cheaper oil.
Russian oil companies earn dollars abroad for their exports, but spend rubles domestically. That means that their extraction budgets remain unaffected and, additionally, it ensures that government tax receipts won’t drop precipitously. Production actually rose to 10.6 million barrels per day in September, close to the highest monthly figure since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia’s 8 million barrels of daily export account for 15% of the total oil moving in world markets.
Ironically, Obama’s sanctions could have worse consequences for the US. If Russia ramps up production in order to raise revenues, that will lead to an even bigger fall in oil prices. And one of the primary victims will be US shale production. US fracking operations—which are more costly than conventional Russian (or Saudi) drilling—begin to get uneconomical below $70 per barrel. If the price drops to $60, many US unconventional wells will have to shut down and imports will rise once again.
Thus, the slide in oil prices threatens American energy independence and emboldens rather than weakens Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia forges ahead with exploration and infrastructure development. Putin just inked a 25-year oil deal with China that includes the construction of a brand new 3,000-mile pipeline. And he’s sending fleets of nuclear-powered icebreakers into the Arctic to stake out more reserves, along with troops to protect them.
While Americans are counting the few dollars they’ll save on gasoline now and spend on gifts this Christmas, Putin is counting all the billions he’ll make when oil rebounds.
Russia may or may not be losing the current battle. But no matter what Evans-Pritchard may think, Putin has no intention of losing the war—in fact, he’s the only one who really understands what the ultimate prize for winning it is.
As my new book, The Colder War, makes clear, the geopolitics of energy—especially the struggle between Russia and the US—is the single most important force in the world today.
Putin’s not going to spare any effort to come out on top, and the smart money isn’t betting against him. This would not mark the first time he has been wounded and come back stronger.
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When will your pathetic times be over?
Tis a consumation devoutely to be wished.
To cut. To paste
Perchance to get more upvotes than downers.
Ay, there's the rub.
Trying to parlay his amazing copy-and-paste talent into a potato.
AP, I suspect that the Tylers appreciate your wit and brilliant insight, and all the votes your blogs are generating for their site. [chuckle]
MOSCOW — As the falling ruble and depressed oil prices push Russia’s once-booming economy into the red, ordinary Russians are doing everything they can to lighten the mood – with black humor.
Dark humor is as much a Russian specialty as fine caviar, perfected during the more difficult years of the Soviet Union and over centuries of bleak, sunless winters. Russians routinely reach their peak joking creativity when times are their worst – and the current ruble-and-oil-and-sanctions-driven economic crisis is proving the ideal muse to inspire such irreverent expression.
“What do Russian President Vladimir Putin, the price of oil, and the ruble's value against the dollar have in common," opens one pithy wisecrack that recently made it from behind closed doors into a Bloomberg news story. “They’ll all hit 63 next year.”
In general, the classic style of joking in Russia relies less on one-liners than it does on cheeky rhymed couplets and sardonic allegory immediately recognizable to locals.
“Autumn has flown away/Winter has come too/The Euro is 64/And the dollar, 52,” Andrei Bystrov, an opposition activist, tweeted last week – a verse Russia’s independent television channel Dozhd named one of the crisis’ funniest quips. (We added a word to make it rhyme in English.) The ruble has even less buying power now: Today, one dollar is worth almost 54 rubles, and one euro is worth more than 66 rubles.
“The punishers of Kiev crucified the ruble in front of its mother! Beasts!” read another of Dozhd’s featured tweets – a reference to one of the more scandalous moments of the Ukraine crisis, when Russian state-owned TV made the unsubstantiated claim this summer that the Ukrainian army had crucified a 3-year-old from the rebel-claimed part of the country – that was widely dismissed as propaganda gone too far.
Many of the jokes need some historical context to fully grasp, because Russians often measure the severity of the current crisis against difficult Soviet and post-Soviet transition years. “We are not rich enough to buy cheap things,” was a very popular adage during hard times. Cue the following joke from influential blogger Rustem Adagamov: “We’re not rich enough to buy.” “Cheap things?” “To buy” -- in general.
But other jokes – especially those that appear in video form – hardly need any translation at all.
Egor Zhgun released a wildly popular animated clip last week depicting a Titanic-style romance between a Russian ruble and an oil barrel (complete with Celine Dion soundtrack), doomed when their ship hits an iceberg in the shape of Crimea -- the territory Russia annexed from Ukraine in the spring, sparking sanctions from the West.
And the stand-up comics at the long-running Russian show "Comedy Club" gave their take on the economic crisis by acting out a salary negotiation at a job interview, in which a new hire bargains for the staggering starting salary of $6 a year – in rubles. The sight gag of the office workers then dumping successive plastic tubs full of rubles on the new employee as they race against the tanking exchange rate on his smartphone app works in any language.
As in all crises, there is a serious side to this. For every jokester on Twitter, there are myriad more users expressing grave concerns, and even Russia’s top politicians are making a point of addressing Russia’s present situation by trying to boost morale.
“The difficulties we are facing today also create new opportunities for us,” Putin said as he closed his annual state of the union-style address last week. “We are ready to take up any challenge, and win.”
But it only took a few hours for someone to set those thoughts to an animated video. In it, the president’s podium is precariously balanced on a ruble floating at sea – an apparent reference to the free float policy that Russia’s Central Bank recently adopted to reduce external shocks and speculation. When Putin is done talking, it sinks.
Was this funny? Please someone let me know.
He's trolling for friends
Yes, it is funny. You see, before we had smart phones and LOL's, we had something called "wit". The Russians still practice it.
Hmmm, I got the impression that all criticisms of the russkie government were censored by the evil Putin regime. Gotta rethink...
WTF with you cheerleaders? Both power structures suck.
Putin and his oligarchs are not going to suffer during this crisis.
TPTB in the west are not going to suffer during this crisis.
They both have played a dangerous game that is going to screw the rest of the human population of the earth dearly for, effectively, ever.
Stop trying to prove this side or that side is doing better. The only sides are mine (yours) and theirs. Don't come back until you figure this out.
Ah, let me clue you in to what's happening, Replacement, this happens to zh servers all the time now, there's a recurring snaffu in blog comment processing where the poster comments from another cosmos start to continually post their comments into our cosmos's version of zh blog threads. But the source alternate universe for all these dippy comments is the one-eyed dopey-partisan hack cosmos, where objective review and a capacity for examination and reflection of all facts has not yet been developed - and apparently may never.
Consequently, you, and I, apparently, keep getting confronted with zipper head comments from fools who don't seem to realize the difference between the pricks in Moscow, and the pricks in Washington, is effectively nada.
I realized this was occurring sometime ago, that I was continually getting the wrong cosmos's comment section posts. I know that's what's been occurring because the zh I know is not actually full of dopey partisan idiots.
But once you start getting the comments from the alternate dumb cosmos, you seem to be stuck with receiving solely comments from the dumbass cosmological version of zerohedge.
Just look up and down the thread, it's plain as day once it's been pointed out.
Proly it's the NSA fucking with us. They spy on all cosmos's, simultaneously, especially allied ones, so they could easily swap the smart cosmos comments section for the super-dumb partisan nitwit version of zerohedge, so suddenly zh seems to have transformed into a bewilderingly, staggeringly off-the-scale-dumb blog, instead of an off-the-scale-smart blog, which it once was, many, many moons ago.
evil bastards, eh?
AP, and how about the 'booming' (pun intended) economy in Ukraine, and their rock-solid currency?
How are those faring in the FX games? Getting monkey-hammered or getting special protection from the Usual Suspects?
"boost from the falling ruble"
Boost bitchez!!! ......or Booze? :)
EU sanctions have along with falling ruble has put a huge dent in imports into Russia. Counter sanctions have cut deeply into food flowing into Russia, a nation with plenty of good agricultural land. Result is a sudden spurt in Russian industrial and food production. The domestic producers were held in a vice grip by imports, land lay fallow, factories shut. This is changing as Russian business rushes to begin to replace the imports. Will this be quick and easy? No, of course not, but it has already started. Food from the EU is under counter sanction, and any farmer and industrial scale farmer in RUssia is rushing to cash in on demand, demand for food. Since European imports are now expensive, it makes every sense to rush to produce and fill consumer demand. The result in more jobs, more money staying in Russia, and more opportunity for any Russian business who wants to expand. "Fuck the EU". Indeed! Let's both "Fuck the EU".
There are down sides and up sides to all that is happening. One up side is domestic producers now have a clear playing field. And the Soviet Union is dead, capitalism prevails, and that means industry and agricultural producers don't need Soviet Commissars approval to raise capital and expand, hire workers and keep unions out. Sounds like capitalism is alive and well. The market is working, as markets always do, Russian has market capitalism, so it is adjusting very quickly. Can the EU say the same? Brussels is one vast Soviet of Commissars, ruling all with an iron fist of taxes and regulations and laws and more taxes and demands fro open borders. The EU is fucked, maybe much more than RUssia is.
EU sanctions have along with falling ruble has put a huge dent in imports into Russia. Counter sanctions have cut deeply into food flowing into Russia, a nation with plenty of good agricultural land. Result is a sudden spurt in Russian industrial and food production. The domestic producers were held in a vice grip by imports, land lay fallow, factories shut. This is changing as Russian business rushes to begin to replace the imports. Will this be quick and easy? No, of course not, but it has already started. Food from the EU is under counter sanction, and any farmer and industrial scale farmer in RUssia is rushing to cash in on demand, demand for food. Since European imports are now expensive, it makes every sense to rush to produce and fill consumer demand. The result in more jobs, more money staying in Russia, and more opportunity for any Russian business who wants to expand. "Fuck the EU". Indeed! Let's both "Fuck the EU".
There are down sides and up sides to all that is happening. One up side is domestic producers now have a clear playing field. And the Soviet Union is dead, capitalism prevails, and that means industry and agricultural producers don't need Soviet Commissars approval to raise capital and expand, hire workers and keep unions out. Sounds like capitalism is alive and well. The market is working, as markets always do, Russian has market capitalism, so it is adjusting very quickly. Can the EU say the same? Brussels is one vast Soviet of Commissars, ruling all with an iron fist of taxes and regulations and laws and more taxes and demands fro open borders. The EU is fucked, maybe much more than RUssia is.
Speaking of producing food in a pinch, I watched a show produced by the BBC called "Wartime Farm". A couple of anthropologists and an historian work a small British farm as it would have been worked during WWII, when Britain was suffering from lack of imports due to German U-boats. Impressive effort to increase domestic production. Involved a lot of gov controls that would have pissed me off had I been a farmer there during that time. I found it very interesting.
Wartime Farm Part 1 of 8: http://youtu.be/CUsU5s0ofYo
not just U-boats but a lack of Forex
Mainly the latter. U-boats sunk just a few percentage points of total shipping tonnage.
Great you jumped in with some intelligence, Jack.
Me, I really would not fuck around with guys who beat Napoleon and the Wehrmacht.
Just a thought.
Is Karin Matusa Marin Katusa's sister?
Putin’s Ruble Troubles Are Starting To Hit Russia's Neighbors
The combination of plummeting oil prices and international sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over the summer has done significant damage to the Russian economy in recent months.
Now, it looks as though the problems in Moscow are migrating across national borders.
The Russian ruble has lost a third of its value against international benchmark currencies this year, and the Russian central bank has found it difficult or impossible to access international capital markets at rates it finds acceptable. Indeed, the central bank is forecasting a recession next year.
Until recently, though, Russia’s economic troubles have, at least, not had an obvious impact on its neighbors. Unfortunately for a handful of former Soviet states that border Russia, things are starting to change.
Why this matters
The struggles of the Russian economy are not, right now, a major issue for U.S. consumers. But as the problems facing Moscow grow, there is a possibility that the contagion could spread into Europe, which would have a more direct effect on U.S. businesses that trade with European countries.
Georgia’s national currency, the lari, tumbled 10 percent last week to 2.04 per U.S. dollar, the lowest it has been for more than a decade. The country’s central bank said that it is prepared to intervene in the currency markets if necessary, though experts suggest that its ability to do so to any great effect is limited.
In neighboring Armenia, the national currency, known as the dram, has fallen in value against global benchmarks for six straight weeks and is now trading near an eight-year low.
According to analyst Timothy Ash of Standard Bank, while both countries are in a relatively good position in terms of their internal fiscal situation, a dependence on the continued strength of the Russian economy is punishing both right now.
“Russia is an important trading partner for both, as they have both benefitted from worker remittances, which are likely stalling now with weak growth in Russia, and lower oil prices,” Ash wrote in a research note last week. “Exports to Russia have also been quite significant for both - Georgia has tried to refocus on Russian markets as relations warmed a bit following the departure of President Saakashvilli. Russian tourism has been a new "boon" for Georgia in recent years - a rediscovery for many Russians from the Soviet era. These are obviously lagging now.”
Ash observed that both countries’ economies rely on “significant” agricultural exports to Russia. At first, the imposition of sanctions by many Western European countries had appeared to hold promise for the former Soviet satellites increasing their trade with their larger neighbor. However, Ash said, “Massive Russian devaluation is clearly threatening this trade. So these managed currency weakenings are only to be expected.”
Across the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan has been more protective of its national currency, but international securities markets are demanding higher premiums for the nation’s debt offerings. The Kazakhs also depend on the Russian economy, both for income from exports and for remittances by workers who have crossed the border to find work.
The big question facing the rest of Eastern Europe right now is just how quickly, and how far, the contagion from the Russian economy will spread. In a speech to the legislature last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the ruble’s slide as the result of a U.S.-led conspiracy aimed at “containment” of his nation. He also pledged to take “harsh” measures against the currency speculators who, he said, are contributing to the devaluation of the ruble.
In the same speech, Putin appealed to Russians with assets overseas to bring them home, making clear that his government would be willing to overlook such things as the source of the assets in question or the methods by which they were obtained. He specifically promised, more than once, that criminal prosecution was out of the question.
The country’s desperation when it comes to retaining capital has caused increasing concern among international investors. Although the Russian government has repeatedly denied it, analysts are concerned that Moscow might institute capital controls, measure that prevent individuals and companies from moving assets out of the national currency. Some have suggested that recent pressure on major exporters to convert income to rubles amounts to a kind of shadow capital control regime.
Again, the Russian government has consistently promised that capital controls are not on the horizon. But that said, by their very nature, they aren’t the sort of thing you want to advertise in advance.
bored
December has been a brutal month for the Russian economy. On Dec. 1, the value of the ruble, already at a historic low, experienced its steepest one-day drop since the 1998 financial crisis. The exchange rate with the dollar remains high, and there are no signs of improvement in a slide that has seen the Russian currency lose over 40 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. On the same day, the Ministry of Economic Development announced that Russia would be in recession through at least 2015; quickly chastised by the Kremlin, the ministry removed the offending figures from its website. And earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the cancellation of the South Stream pipeline, a long-planned multibillion-dollar project to bring Russian gas to Southern Europe and augment the influence Russia wields over Europe through energy.
While the immediate cause of Russia’s economic troubles is the rapidly falling price of oil, Russia’s ability to respond has been handicapped by Western sanctions punishing Moscow for its annexation of Crimea and ongoing military intervention in Ukraine. In Ukraine, Putin gambled that the political benefits of a belligerent foreign policy would outweigh the economic costs. But he now appears to have gotten that gamble very wrong, and both Russia and his regime are weaker as a result. ...
Who's manning Vlad's suicide watch tonight?
You are, you fucking troll.
Sorry Bob, we need a Lee Harvey Oswald on the watch. That'd be you.
You think just because you call yourself a "patriot" that it makes you so? No, it makes you a douche bag of the highest order, much like when someone gives themself a nickname like "nitro" or "ace".
basically you're just a fucking dick.
Bob, go apologize to your mother - it's her computer, after all - that someone dared to tell you the truth and it made you furious.
After that, get your butt over to Western Union and send Vlad some of those desperately needed dollars!
For what it's worth, he's too stupid to be an American as well.
He's either a butthurt ukie or a Latvian potato troll.
It’s true that the country’s budget was based on oil prices of $96 per barrel.
---------------------
Incredible how people just repeated what heard on media and no thinking. Look, true russian budget are settled on $96 for barrel but on 35 ruble for one dollar. If ruble go down than oil price can go down and you have same effect.
Don't' believe:
96x35=3360 rubles for barrel of oil
60 dollars for barrels x 55 ruble value for dollar=3300 ruble for barrel of oil
This fall on ruble have negative effect on inflation, like i said, and positive on cure russian economy from Dutch disease. But budget will be very little affected.
Sorry Saudi Arabia you can't do that because inflation in food, which SA import all, will caused rioting population. So you defend riyal with bunch od money.
Maybe Russia is hurting, but their base numbers are way more healthy than ours. They don't have an 18 trillion check (invoice, actually) just dropped on the table like the US does.
Russia has less debt than America, but not by choice. It has less debt because, (a) it defaulted on its obligations in the 90s; and (b) debt buyers understand that Russia is a poor credit risk, having defaulted overtly on its debt numerous times and relatively recently, and they charge Russia exorbitant yields when Russia issues debt. Russia is currently able to issue sovereign debt only with yields exceeding 9% or so.
Putin did not sell out the Russians tonight like the GOP, Democrats and Obama did. The USA is dead now.
The UK news outlet ITN did a propaganda piece on Russia in deep trouble but failed to mention any other countries which are in a similar situation.
Pfft.
What if....???
The US, EU, Japan do not accept gold and do not sell gold as money anymore?
They will pay either in their own currencies, or barter in trade for Russia's oil and gas?
They impose an embargo against goods going into Russia and boycott against all Russian goods going out?
They won't allow Russians to directly invest in their countries nor withdraw money from their countries?
Every one of these hypotheticals is an act of war. Everyone of these is currently being applied to Iran. Russia can survive; but it could end up as the vassal of China instead of the USA. If the West won't break down beforehand, Russia could be faced with a dilemma similar to the one faced by the Japanese in 1941: surender or fight.
russia and china have a very long and complicated history. i highly doubt russia will become a vassal of china. stalin and mao played cat and mouse for years. stalin outwitted mao over korea, i'm sure neither have forgotten. i don't believe russia will become anyone's house mistress. they have starved before. they are not afraid. china has problems looming. russia will exercise patience and act knowingly. the games are just beginning.
The ruble's almost 56/dollar and oil's at 59.
Where's the party tonight?
are you paid overtime?
I'm not paid at all, Bob. My sole remuneration is the satisfaction of countering the constant lies of the pro-Soviet/ant-American viewpoint.
"Pro-Soviet": Am not sure if you've been clued in but the Soviet Union was dissolved some time ago.
"Ant-American": Is this some new minority group I've not been made aware of? Like, "equal rights for ants, flies and other small species"?
Vlad's doing his damndest to resurrect the SU, Bob, starting with SU borders.
That's why he has a habit of making statements like "The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century was the breakup of the Soviet Union."
He did not say that in fact. You should ignore John Bolton
Putin said: "Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself."
It is true, it was disastrous for people living there just as the collapse of the Germany was 1918, the collapse of the Weimar Republic was, the collapse of Germany in 1945, the Partition of India 1947, the collapse of Austria-Hungary
You are just so fucked its very entertaining. Please continue.
Soviet is defunct.
Get over it...
otherwise, your postings continue build more negative of your
know nothing, all-in mental obsession about Russia subject.
Please try not to be incoherent, Bob. It makes it harder to respond to your apparently pro-Soviet drivel.
The Soviets or Bolsheviks were dual citizen non-Christians like the ones who now control the USA, EU, UK and the Ukraine. I hope the Russian people realize that the same evil vermin who murdered millions of innocent Russians are the people against Putin and Russia now. They want to control you again. Never let them get their foot in again.
Putin told that evil vermin - take the money you stole and leave now.
The same vermin sold out America tonight in Congress.
.
Fixed it for you.
I agree. I get sick of it, too.
Ruble at 56/USD and oil at 59 USD = oil at 3304 ruble per barrel.
quote of previous poster Nex
Do the maths, there not much difference in it is there ?
No party.. is normal:
Smile of Lady making table full
Fresh organic bread from neighbors bakery is $0.30 near half kg loaf, Potatoes $.20 kg
Fresh Organic Raw milk, eggs, cheeses, from our friend Ophelia and family.
Rest garden and easy fish.
I will not tell low cost of Rodnik.. is 7 km from brewery..
House on best lake, No debt and neighbors dependable, all work. Low taxes, much holidays and long vacations.
mountains across Volga, nice snow, awd diesel toyota van is ready. Maserati in garage for awhile.
See Samara embankment, one of two best of world....other is Austria
Best ever
no one from Russia would describe anything they eat by preceding it with the term "organic"... because no one I know from Russia speaks that way... the food they eat is just that, the food they eat, nothing more
admit it, if anything around here is fake as fuck, it's you isn't it?
lol a bunch of down votes and no counter... figures, I knew he was fake as fuck
We all lament the fate of the post turtle and just so you know, I'm pretty sure Volkodavs' first language is not English.
So, you can lol all you want.
What you need to do is ignore them turtles, and the people who put them there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8
It's the Rolling fucking Stones- Sympathy for the Devil.
Obama is a post turtle, so are Boehner, Pelosi and the whole fuckin' crowd in dc. And you wanna save that?
Where it always is. In your pants.
in sholomo's deli-extra special pastrami,double portion matzo ball soup.
The party is on Capitol Hill and the White House. Assuming you are an American, which I doubt, you got sold out tonight.
Project Double Eagle ..... hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... maybe now is a good time to go short Paper Gold?.
Another advantage Russia has is an informed populace who understand the stakes, what is happening on the global stage, and can endure hardship like no other culture on the planet, unlike the US whose general populace are ignorant, fat, have no understanding of geo-political politics, and have no concept of true hardship (like being slaughtered by the millions).
The unknown factor is if NATO will create a situation which forces Putin to go to war, which is the only out for the West.
Hi! I'm new here.
Drop and give us fifty. Then another fifty.
man up fag
You are new? That means you have to fight then. If you really are new you need to know the rules around here. It likely won't be me fighting with you but that is not to say I won't. This is not a ladies aid convention like HuffPo or FaceFuck is.
Russia has women, food and vodka. Argument closed.
Amerika has King Obama, Boehner, Pelosi and other traitors working for Soros and other oligarchs.
The USA is a lot like the Ukraine now. Totally broke and totally corrupt with dual citizens in charge.
I'm telling you that the Saudis and the Russians are in cahoots on this global oil price crash.
[horsehead]Kerry goes to the Saudis in August to tell them to join a scheme to crash Russia by crashing the oil price.
The Saudis listen and nod their heads.
As soon as [horsehead]Kerry leaves, they call the Russians in for highest-level meetings.
The two agree to do as [horses ass]Kerry suggested - except the target is U.S. shale, not Russia.
See, the Saudis are extremely disappointed in the U.S. - they feel cheated on the grand petrodollar deal because the Saudis have kept their side of the bargain, but the U.S. has reneged. They haven't blown Iran and Syria, the Saudis bitterest enemies, off the map as they promised to do.
So to hell with the Americans - Russia and China will become the Saudis protectors, and as soon as U.S. shale is turned to shit once and for all (1-2 years) the Saudis will abandon the petrodollar and join the anti-petrodollar axis. That will break the dike and down will come the dollar with a huge crash.
"They haven't blown Iran and Syria, the Saudis bitterest enemies, off the map as they promised to do."
And so Saudi is going to jump into bed with Russia, who is nothing if not Syria's and Iran's benefactor, out of spite? That doesn't add up.
Saudi is not a country, it is a family estate. The Family will do what it takes to survive.
Exactly. And they've been so intertwined with the US for so long that any overt move towards the East I think results in the US doing it what it does best when it comes to out of favor regimes. I don't doubt KSA ultimately realigns with Russia and China, but I disagree with the commenter's premise that it is driven by some sense of betrayal by the US.
Jim Willie or someone else said the Saudis might pivot to China. I don't think it was Pepe Escobar. The Suaids are pissed with the USA. They need to get in line.
It doesn't. But look at it another way and it makes sense. Russia standing by its allies through thick and thin is what makes Russia a reliable ally than someone who flips and flops as the weather changes. I doubt the Sauds care about what regimes are in place in Syria and Iran. They have been doing Washington's bidding and suddenly Washington changes its tune leaving them in a highly embarassing position. Its not good for their longevity.
Check the 15 first minutes of the Keiser Report and what Stacy Herbert has to say about Russia economy.
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/213255-episode-max-keiser-691/
I would suggest the second half of the program is more interesting.
I agree that all the noise from people claiming Russia and Putin are being crushed is more wishful thinking than fact. As time goes by Putin continues to rack up more points in the Ukraine as the conflict drags on. Things appear to have quieted down to many as the eyes of the world have moved to more pressing issues, but the war continues and Putin is playing the long game by grinding away at the resolve of both bankrupt Kiev and the EU. A recently signed deal for gas supplies to Ukraine was a sign of hope to many, but it only highlights the devil of any agreement is in the details.
The Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said any resumed supplies could be halted again on Jan. 1 if Ukraine doesn’t pay $3.1 billion in debt prepay for future deliveries. It appears this deal is tenuous and the guarantees of it being fulfilled are weak. Don't hold your breath for Putin to back-off or back-down, he has put down his marker and is now playing both Obama and Kerry for fools. If Putin doesn't get his way next week he will next month or next year at the latest. The article below delves into why this conflict won't be over until Putin says its over.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/11/putin-scores-more-points-in-ukraine.html
I hope you are paying Tylers for all your advertising.
It's time to bring back those kick ass images of huge fleets of 747s and 18 wheelers stuffed with pallets of 100 dollar bills.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the leader of the free world, precisely because he didn't want to be. Smoke on that for a minute.
Yes
I have same thought often
It did not have to be that way
It is certain VV Putin did not wish it
Russia wish is to be left alone.
"Give Russian twenty years without inside and outside interferences and you will not know her"
-Stolypin-
You see him meeting with Yeltsin and he does not really want it. He has done an incredible job and he is a patriot.
Tonight - the American people were sold out by the Democrats, Republicans and Obama. They hate the American poeple. I hope the Russian people understand the evil they are up againt and stand with Putin for Russia and people around the world who do not want to controlled by the NWO.
Freddie...if you have not, read Chris Hutchins "Putin"
Volkodav, the people of the Caucasus have more intestinal fortitude than any other people on this earth. Greeks may disagree, but Russians reject all comers, every time.
This thread's a few days old, so I don't expect you'll see this. I just needed to say it.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/10/silk-railway-freight-tra...
What a crock of shit this article is. Is that why the Russian CB is having to step in and defend the ruble nearly every day. The Russians themselves admitted at $75 a barrel that it was likely costing them $150 billion. Billions actually mean something to them
I guess that makes them pikers compared to the US, which prints trillions and it don't mean a thang...
Well at least the Russian people are not getting sold out tonight like the Americans just did with the GOP, Democrats and Obama selling them out.
sold out is understatment...
Certainly no one with half a brain takes seriously writers like Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Daily Telegraph and Jonathan Marcus, diplomatic correspondant of the BBC.
Here's what Marcus wrote in BBC online today in an article entitled "
Russia's 'close military encounters' with Europe documented.
Mr Marcus has no problem writing whatever he is told to write. Like any good jingoist for the Londonisch Beobachter would.
He neglects to tell us that Moscow broke the story when they announced they had apprehended an Estonian agent on the Russian side of the border.
Indignant, Tallinn countered that an Estonian citizen, an employee of the Tartu Department of Estonian Security Police, Eston Kohver was abducted on the Estonian side of the border.
Although Mr Marcus certainly was not anywhere close to the place of the apprehension/abduction, he is willing to put his meagre reputation on the line and deliver to his readers what he has been told to say by government officials.
Marcus resists the opportunity to be objective and acknowledge that the Estonian version could only be a cover story that every spy begins his assignment memorizing.
If doomsday is near, it will have been the Josef Goebbels-ization of the Western media that greased the skids for its arrival.
Rule #1
"Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion."
A quote from AEP. I wonder if he would repeat it today.
"The worst sin a journalist can commit is serving as the instrument of coercive power, and too many in the American media seem content to do just that." --Ambrose Evans- Pritchard
+1
For well deserved skepticism.
A lie is most easily digested when sandwiched between two truths.
"Russia is never as strong as it appears to be, and never as weak as it appears to be". The Americans were outplayed in the foreign affairs arena, and since they cannot effectively project force in Russia's backyard, they have retreated to using the one weapon that should be the trump card for a free enterprise and open market society - economics and finance. Unfortunatly, we do not live in a free enterprise and open market society, and thus the Americans are increasingly finding that this weapon either does not have a round chambered, or it misfires completely. Additionally, after the Russian default in the 90's, Russia has bolstered its defences against economic and financial pressures. I believe that the Russians have been hurt, but that the worst damage has been done, and further action is only galvanizing the Russian people to rally around their nation - just as any country under attack would. Even those who hated Bush junior rallied around him in the aftermath of 911; why would we expect the Russians to be any different.
On another note, I believe that we, Americans launched the oil deflation weapon, but have since lost control of it to Saudi Arabia, and if we are not careful, this weapon may go full Australian aboriginal and cause the first world much more damage than it it causing the Russians.
Any American domb enough to go fight for Obama, the Democrats or sellout amnesty Republicans is a fool.
Especially if they want to go fight the Russians. Go luck with that. They will give you a dog when your legs are blown off.
The real question is how long Russia can tolerate low prices. It's a race, basically -- can the US/EU/SA break Russia financially and economically before we break ourselves, and before the BRICS can establish a viable alternative international financial regime to the petro-dollar. It's a war, albeit financial and economic, with all that that implies, including an unpredicable outcome...
Another thing to love about the Russian Federation is a FLAT 13% INCOME TAX...Grok that you mighty minds of ZH. Can you imagine that kind prog-capitalist outlook in the USSA? If the oil price collapse is indeed engineered to bitch slap Putin, its backfiring on the DC mandarins severly. No more US nat gas to europe, as the entire fracking house of cards is collapsing. Back to peak oil reality, bitchez.....
"Russia's Flat Tax Miracle" The Heritage Foundation
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2003/03/russias-flat-tax-miracle
I'm allowed to pay 40%.
To the Reciever General...
And yeah pay a price for that with Russian infrastructure disintegrating throough out most of the country with the exceptions of a few of the large metro areas in the Western part of the country and a health care system in stambles. No of thee Russian elite in St. Peterburg/Moscow stay in Russia for treatment of serious ailments. Numbers coming to the US have lessened a bit from what I have seen but they just have picked up in Europe instead.
"Munchkins, all these sanctions will backfire on the US."
"Exactly, Reggie! Forward!"
I don't know why everyone assumes all Russians will suffer from lower prices. All Russians are not in the oil business, but DO buy gas and other petroleum based products. They've got to be seeing some welcome price relief in certain items.
When the soviets collapsed it was not just low oil that did it, it was the combination of low oil prices chronically draining State income, combined with the notorious inefficiency of Russian agriculture to grow enough wheat to feed the peasants, necessitating the (and increasing over many years) bulk purchase of imported wheat from the evil West.
When the coffers where finally empty the bakeries and shop shelves also almost immediately became empty as well. So Moscow was forced to apply for and obtain loans from the West to buy wheat to feed itself. Then when Moscow needed even more loans from western banks to buy even more western wheat, due to the continually increasing shortfalls in Russian production, the loans were eventually denied.
With no wheat the bakeries literally had no bread at all, and Russia was literally unable to feed itself any more. Which occurred at the very same time as everyone in the USSR was of the opinion that the Russian Commie empire totally sucked arse.
So there was no solution to the completely inefficient out-moded systems of a Russian super-state which had no international support, so it necessarily imploded. Consequently a steep fall in oil alone is not enough to topple their economy and finances - quickly - it takes time and corroborating circumstances, and a lack of recourse to outside trade and money. Collapse the currency and they'll need the financing to trade, as well. Chronic inflation and shortages will do the rest.
Soviet USSR, not Russia do not conflate these
until know the distinction, you don't know anything
"Russian Commie empire" statement prove ignorance
Soviet USSR was never a Russian construct
Solzhenitzyn told exactly who are the communists
You're seriously coming in here and claiming the predominant state of the USSR was not Russia? That the political capital was not Moscow? That the Kremlin was not the core political power center of the USSR?
*** A N D ***
Then claiming that the USSR and Russia in particular was not widely described for decades and known all over the rest of the world as the core part of "The Communist Block"?
One wonders just who the fuck do you think Kennedy was going to nuke in, Nov 1962, if not Russia, and all of its cities, and especially its capital, Moscow?
You may want to read some of your cited source's critics as Solzhenitsyn was a fictional novel writer and not an Historian. But it seems the discomforture of stark reality is the one thing you're least capable of coping with, let alone facing.
Toker, Leona (2000), "The Gulag Archipelago and The Gulag Fiction of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn", Return from the Archipelago: Narrative of Gulag Survivors, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 101–21, 188–209
You're either;
a) the most dismal and dopiest Russian troll ever to appear on zh, or;
b) the best argument ever put forward for the reinstatement of the captcha anti-retard login tripwire, or;
c) all of the above!
been there
useless
like masha gessen
Element --
You're out of your element. Volkodav is exactly right. Can't go into chapter and verse about the ways in which Russia was utterly different from the USSR. Suffice it to say they have even LESS in common than Wilhelmine Germant had with Hitlerite Germany, and LESS in common than the quaint, commercial, non-interventionist Republic of George Washington had with the overbearing, extra-constitutional Federal leviathan of Lincoln, TR, Wilson and FDR.
As Volkodav always says -- better we should worry about our own country.
Absolute blather.
You don't get to weasel out of your own history. It's the same country and the same people in the same geography. It is the history of that people there today, and it's the history of their funking parents!
I lived through the latter half of the cold war, I am not ignorant of Russia being the indisputable core of the USSR, and so did more than half the people alive in Russia today, who were the communist comrades of the USSR Soviet super-state.
They are the same human beings they are the same country, the same capital, the same Kremlin, the same buildings even! The same Vladimir Putin which served both Russian political States! All such laughable warped denial of the obvious (which frankly is nuts in the extreme) does not change one bit of Russia's history.
What you are trying to pass off and deny is completely fucking ridiculous, if Russia was not the core of the USSR for most of the last century, then where was Russia during this time? Did it get teliported to Alpha Centaui perhaps? Can you please supply the libraries that document a unique and separate history of Russia from 1917 to 1992, in which Russia was not situated where Russia is now, and where Russia and the Russian people were not the core geo-political actors in the global communist revolution promoting activities of the USSR?
I'd like to study this history which you imagine and assert exists! And please, don't likewise quote a fiction novel author, it's rather bad form when discussing things with people who can think.
The Russia people were not transplanted into Russia from a black-hole in late Jan 1992, they are the exact same people who were born into Russia, grew up in the heart of the Soviet Union, and physically constituted, served and then finally politically dissolved (voluntarily) the constitution of the Soviet State empire, which was produced by Russians and which utilised that model, 'economically', and also globally spread and promoted the political ideology of Communism, and of a global communist revolution to make the entire planet communist.
Such bizarre farcical attempts of 'modern' pro-Russian ultra-nationalist morons and history re-writers, to completely deny their own clear-as-day known history, and the known total failure of the Russian USSR super-state which expanded out of the ashes of WWII, is a testament to how totally warped and mentally and ideologically unstable such Russians are today.
A mentally healthy people and culture would ever try to avoid or deny what they've been for the best part of a century.
How does the core state and core people of the USSR even begin to pretend not to be the very same people which constituted and also dissolved and replaced the former USSR? You think because it had a different Constitution and flag, and ruled with an iron-fist the Warsaw Pact countries of eastern Europe, and shot anyone who tried to escape from the clutches of the State security apparatus that this makes it not Russia, eh? Do you really propose to try and tell the world, just 22 years after the dissolution of that Russian constitution, which literally billions of people in the West ad elsewhere still remember in detail, what Russia was then? That this rank denial of Russia's past makes it any less the indelible history of the Russian people?
You really think you can re-write history and we all just go, ah, OK, if you like , ah-huh. Well if that's what you want, why should the known historical evidence matter? Right?
Wrong. Not going to work you idiots.
It ism and it was Russia, you lunatics, and if you want to deny Russia's key and predominant role in the USSR then this implies some extraordinary level of deep shame for the past of the Russian people, and its actions and globally observed and documented gross failure.
The USSR period is forever intertwined with the history of the Russian people, in exactly the same way that the Wiemar Republic and Nazi Party are forever intertwined with the history of the German people.
Are you simply too ashamed of what Russia was, and are too screwed in the head to face it honestly, now? Does it mess with and spoil your ultra-nationalist rhetoric and narratives too much? I'd accept it's not such a good look for the imaginary 2014 neo-Russian superman of you furtive ultra-nationalist imagination. Look in the bottom of your vodka bottle, maybe your addled brain's neo-super-duper-man is in there?
We also see the example above of how much a Russian ultra-nationalist prefers a fiction writer to an actual history. The Hitler's Brown Shirt ultra-nationalists also revelled in remarkably similar promotions of pure rhetorical fictions and lies, and also exhibited a similar total disdain for what they really are. Book-burning, history re-writing arseholes trying to hide from and deny what they are.
At least the Germans had the balls after the war to honesty to face up to what they'd been and change through an open review of the known facts, and not to attempt to just morph into yet another dark and warped path, via the blatant denial and disowning of what Russia is now and has been for most of the past century.
I can at least respect the Germans today for that much, but at the moment I'm find it quite impossible to see anything worthy of respect in Russia, since its actions in Ukraine (including Crimea) and the endless warped stupidity coming from Russian ultra-nationalists. And the more this bizarre re-write of what Russia continues, it is confirmation to the rest of the world that Russia has become a sick, dishonest and warped culture, and a country which can not be trusted to tell the truth - even to itself!
And that also powerfully contributes to the existing physical very good reasons to not allow Russia's ultra-nationalist dominated culture to get away with it.
You can threaten those who resist your nationalist extremism all you want, your pro-Russian ultra-nationalists can bloviate as you wish about how tough you think you are, how you'll triumph to the 'Final Victory' la-la land against the foreign blah-blahs. We've seen it and heard this same Russian horseshit for almost all of the past 70 years. You can give yourselves thrilling little rhetorical blow-jobs as you fluff yourselves with further threats of armed action.
But your nationalist denial and bullshit-making will not actually get you off the hook. The more you indulge in that, the more and more firmly you'll be dealt with.
USSR started unravelling once Israel was created in 1947
Oh really?
First off, Israel became an independent State in mid May 1948, not during 1947.
So if this marked the demise of the USSR, you better explain why the following occurred in 1949, and why the USSR was not dissolved until 1992, after finally beginning to fall apart in the late 1980s.
So guess who smuggled the Russian's the A-bomb plans, to build an A-bomb that fast, just 4 years after the US tested one?
It was Jewish scientists who passed the details to them of the US bomb design and fissile materials production, and how to build it.
By 1986 the USSR had built and had in service ~40,000 nuclear weapons, about 8,000 more than the US topped out with, in the late 1960s.
Only then in 1986 did the USSR finally go broke and also ceased all further production of nukes during that year.
Which was a full 39 years after 1947.
So if you're going to try and inform me what's what, first, try to develop even just a meargre base of knowledge concerning the topic. Warped creative fact-making just makes you look and sound like an ignorant uneducated fool.
Next you'll be saying the Soviet backed North Vietnamese did not totally thrash the USA during the period 1962 to 1975. The USA left South Vietnam under heavy fire just hours before the fall of Saigon on 30th of April, 1975, i.e., the Russians (and Chinese) won that vicious protracted proxy war against the USA. Which was pretty good going for a country that allegedly fell apart from 1947, ... somehow due to Israel.
One final point, when George Orwell wrote about the re-writing of history and the destruction of knowledge, in his classic book, 1984, he was referring to a net effect of all the ignoramuses like you, who make up or else adopt any old shit as historical truth, which you prefer to be 'the truth', and in all honesty, you wouldn't even know the difference, would you?
LukOil is so freaking cheap.
he be a real G
The scary part of this new cold war is that no one can win. If the Russian people are cold and hungry their government will blame the US sanctions. And if the petro-dollar tanks and the sheeple (yes they probably out number us free thinkers 10 to 1) will want someone to blame also, the basic rule of bullies is to blame the next biggest guy in the school yard – Russia or China… Both have nukes and we only just scraped through the last one (Cuba) by sheer luck.
The Chinese after having their butts kicked by Japan vowed never to let it happen again, as the Ruskies collapse in the 90’s won’t forget either and fight to the last breath. I just hope Obomya knows this.
I know we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for the economic tsunami, but it could be a lot worse than we think.
Russians are by far much tougher than those fat liberal Americans.
Firstly, Russian mentality is significantly different from that of the West. There is not and has never been much importance attached to the material aspect of life. Spiritual, moral and existential aspects have always prevailed. People in general and intellectuals in particular are more concerned with such questions as the meaning of life, mission of men, justice than personal well-being. So playing the economic card against the Russians is very unlikely to have any effect. The Russkies are used to hardships and suffering like no-one else on this planet. And since they believe, and not without a reason, that the hardships are caused by the fact that they are treated injustly that makes them extremely angry. And you must never ever make the Russkies angry. Becuase then the boiling point is reached they fight, fight with such frenzy and self-sacrifice that will never be embraced by the mind of the westerner. They fight until their enemy is fully destroyed and trust me they won't stop fighting until either complete victory is reached or each and everyone of them is killed.
In Zen it is a well-known fact that a warrier who is prepared to die has an overwhelming advantage over his foe who is not. So before you pick a fight with the Russkies ask yourself if you are ready to die. Because they ARE.
"The Russkies are used to hardships and suffering like no-one else on this planet."
This is quite an overstatement - there are also people living in countries that were invaded, pillaged and left destroyed by the Russkies and they beg to disagree.
Soviet USSR
do not conflate with Russia
Soviet was never a Russian construct
From 1917 thru Stalin was never Russians in control
Even Kruschev and Breznev were Ukraine nationals
and Gorby half Ukrainian
Russians suffered more than any
LOL. Do you truly believe what you write?
Volkodav is right. USSR was scarecly Russian. The USSR was the ideology and the ideology -- the One, True Doctrine of Marxism-Leninism -- was not Russian in the least.
Prior to the Soviet Union, can you name a European country the Russians ever invaded or tried to invade or had any kind of designs on?
Yes, the Russian army chased Napoleon back to Paris, but Russia made no effort to occuply France of any other European country. It promptly withdrew to Russia.
Yes, Russia did particpate in various partitions of Poland (along with Prussia and Austria) beginning in 1772, but this was in some measure payback for Poland having invaded Russia in 1612.
Its a tired and unconvincing cliche to portray Russia as the epitome of evil and backwardness, and the West as the embodiment of light and virtue -- never more so than now in the wake of the US's destructive and immoral Ukraine policy and subsequent efforts to destroy Russia economically.
Volkodav is right -- better we should worry about our own country.
This article motivates me to set up business In Russia building import export with Chinese manufacturing using dollars and get more for my money bringing American modernization into Russia because all of America's modern manufacturing is in China anyway.
I used to respect Ambrose Evans Prichard but not now. Like the BBC once you have been caught in a lie, MH17, everything you say becomes suspect
I often read his articles on the EUR, and I'm usually not particularly impressed by them. When it comes to the EUR, he often becomes quite... casual about facts
Putin disguised as clever strategist. Is running dog lackey of fascist imperialist insect. Or is that Obama? Is Step-and-Fetchit for financial ruling class, porch monkey for banksters. Or is that Abe? Most honorable ruler, Land of Setting Sun. Ah, yes. Yens justifies the means. All well in world. I sleep now, dream of deep fried pols. So good with sauce of elitists. Shall call this NWO fricassee.
interesting article, I have one caveat, though
"Putin’s not going to spare any effort to come out on top, and the smart money isn’t betting against him."
Agree with the first part, but the second part?
Note that Putin himself warns in public Russian "smart money" not to bet against the Ruble. Fact is that Russia has not only oligarchs, it has also a very big "upper middle class" which is naturally exposed to the Rouble's vagaries
Sure, a big chunk of this class is composed of (sadly, quite corrupted) state employees, and Putin himself explained to them that banking offshore in Cyprus was "a bad idea, and something they brought on themselves". Sure, he wants them to bring their "stashes" back, and is offering them a very extensive tax amnesty. He built Sochi so that they can have their winter vacations in Russia, and he annexed Crimea so that they can have their summer vacations in Russia
Do you see the pattern? Putin wants them to work for Russia, bank in Russia, stay in Russia, stay in Rubles or gold, and spend 'em in Russia
Meanwhile, they are the local "smart money", and they are terribly exposed to a Ruble on which international markets place their bets, heavily
(As a reminder of a different view, when international markets starts to bet on something, "fundamentals" can become quite irrelevant. It's a question of size, that of the bets versus the real thing. If the "casino" is one hundred times bigger then the real market... well, how can the tail shake the dog?)
No big deal Putin only has to educate the Russian middle classes to the way the global bankers through the world reserve currency is operating and the situation could change radically against the USA,UK and EU.
Try these ...
1.) By manipulating the global reserve currency and the rouble being linked to the fiat dollar as the dollar is manipulated to create global growth you being locked into position YOUR RUSSIAN LIFE WILL IS DESTROYED.
2.) As they operate global commodities as a cartel you can pay over the odds if you just create the value generating the increased inflation that will steal RUSSIAN WEALTH.
Free trade does not work if one nation has the abilitiy to do this and the USA using the global reserve currency has been doing this with impunity. This actually affects every human being on the planet and if you work in some 3rd world country for penny wage you have no way to better your position because you have no excess to put into the system to hedge against your devaluation.
The dollar should be observed by the global population as a WMD if there are no international rules on how it can AND WILL BE USED.
With Russia's cost of productions amongst the lowest in the world , Gazprom will always make a profit . The producers who are hurt by the low prices of petrol are the ones with high cost of production such as shale !
Frightening how liberals thought a dumb black muslim could improve Amerika
VERY well said.
I am glad you agree with me.
And if McCain or Romney were president, the USA would be a utopian state. What pure unadulterated stupidity. What is it that keeps sheep like you so blinded? There is no functional difference in the two parties. None. Until you realize that fact, you are part of the problem. Good job sheep boy.
For some "Patriot" out there.
Russian Ruble crashing: bad.
Japanese Yen crashing: good.
Go figure.
ZH nailed it:
Russia has $678 billion in foreign debt and only $375 billion of foreign reserves
You have $1 milliion dollars that must be gambled on in a casino playing poker. Who would you pick:
1) Putin
2) Obama
Need I say more.
3) the person with the brains to not be gambling at a casino.
The concern the British Military felt about future Soviet intentions emerges clearly from a top-secret report on The Security of India and the Indian Ocean, prepared by Post-Hostilities Planning Staff of the War Cabinet on Churchill’s orders. This report states ‘The USSR is the only major power that would be capable of seriously threatening our interests in India and the Indian Ocean by 1955-1960?. The report also points out ‘It is of paramount importance that India should not secede from the Empire or remain neutral in War’. ‘We must ensure that whatever constitutional changes occur, we retain the right to station Military Reserves in India… There might be political objections to stationing the strategic reserve in India proper after she has been granted Dominion Status… Central Headquarters India have suggested Baluchistan as an alternative to India proper, on the grounds that it may be relatively easy to exclude this territory from the Dominion of India”. “In the event of Soviet Aggression, early support from the US is essential to the security of our interests”.
Indo US Relations & The Russian BogeyThis time they will start WW3 with Russia/China to pull the economy full speed ahead. Before they can do that, first they need people suffer big time so that the war can be easily sold to sheeple.
Russian increase in population is because annexation ...