This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Russia Just Pulled Itself Out Of The Petrodollar
Back in November, before most grasped just how serious the collapse in crude was (and would become, as well as its massive implications), we wrote "How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed", because for the first time in almost two decades, energy-exporting countries would pull their "petrodollars" out of world markets in 2015.
This empirical death of Petrodollar followed years of windfalls for oil exporters such as Russia, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Much of that money found its way into financial markets, helping to boost asset prices and keep the cost of borrowing down, through so-called petrodollar recycling.
We added that in 2014 "the oil producers will effectively import capital amounting to $7.6 billion. By comparison, they exported $60 billion in 2013 and $248 billion in 2012, according to the following graphic based on BNP Paribas calculations."
The problem was compounded by its own positive feedback loop: as the last few weeks vividly demonstrated, plunging oil would lead to a further liquidation in foreign reserves for the oil exporters who rushed to preserve their currencies, leading to even greater drops in oil as the viable producers rushed to pump out as much crude out of the ground as possible in a scramble to put the weakest producers out of business, and to crush marginal production. Call it Game Theory gone mad and on steroids.
Ironically, when the price of crude started its self-reinforcing plunge, such a death would happen whether the petrodollar participants wanted it, or, as the case may be, were dragged into the abattoir kicking and screaming.
It is the latter that seems to have taken place with the one country that many though initially would do everything in its power to have an amicable departure from the Petrodollar and yet whose divorce from the USD has quickly become a very messy affair, with lots of screaming and the occasional artillery shell.
As Bloomberg reports Russia "may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into rubles, the latest government effort to prop up an economy veering into its worst slump since 2009."
These are dollars which Russia would have otherwise recycled into US denominated assets. Instead, Russia will purchase even more Rubles and use the proceeds for FX and economic stabilization purposes.
"Together with the central bank, we are selling a part of our foreign-currency reserves,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in Moscow today. “We’ll get rubles and place them in deposits for banks, giving liquidity to the economy."
Call it less than amicable divorce, call it what you will: what it is, is Russia violently leaving the ranks of countries that exchange crude for US paper.
More:
Russia may convert as much as 500 billion rubles from one of the government’s two sovereign wealth funds to support the national currency, Siluanov said, calling the ruble “undervalued.” The Finance Ministry last month started selling foreign currency remaining on the Treasury’s accounts.
The entire 500 billion rubles or part of the amount will be converted in January-February through the central bank, according to Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev. The Bank of Russia will determine the timing and method of the operation.
The ruble, the world’s second-worst performing currency last year, weakened for a fourth day, losing 1.3 percent to 66.0775 against the dollar by 3:21 p.m. in Moscow. It trimmed a drop of as much as 2 percent after Siluanov’s comments. The ruble’s continued slump this year underscores the fragility of coordinated measures by Russia’s government and central bank that steered the ruble’s rebound from a record-low intraday level of 80.10 on Dec. 16. OAO Gazprom and four other state-controlled exporters were ordered last month to cut foreign-currency holdings by March 1 to levels no higher than they were on Oct. 1. The central bank sought to make it easier for banks to access dollars and euros while raising its key rate to 17 percent, the emergency level it introduced last month to arrest the ruble collapse.
Today’s announcement “looks ruble-supportive, as together with state-driven selling from exporters it would support FX supply on the market,” Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States at ING Groep NV in Moscow, said by e-mail. “Also, it will be helpful for banks, while there might be some negative effects related to extra money supply and risks of using some of the money on the FX market for short-term speculations.
Bloomberg's dready summary of the US economy is generally spot on, and is to be expected when any nation finally leaves, voluntarily or otherwise, the stranglehold of a global reserve currency. What Bloomberg failed to account for is what happens to the remainder of the Petrodollar world. Here is what we said last time:
Outside from the domestic economic impact within EMs due to the downward oil price shock, we believe that the implications for financial market liquidity via the reduced recycling of petrodollars should not be underestimated. Because energy exporters do not fully invest their export receipts and effectively ‘save’ a considerable portion of their income, these surplus funds find their way back into bank deposits (fuelling the loan market) as well as into financial markets and other assets. This capital has helped fund debt among importers, helping to boost overall growth as well as other financial markets liquidity conditions.
...
[T]his year, we expect that incremental liquidity typically provided by such recycled flows will be markedly reduced, estimating that direct and other capital outflows from energy exporters will have declined by USD253bn YoY. Of course, these economies also receive inward capital, so on a net basis, the additional capital provided externally is much lower. This year, we expect that net capital flows will be negative for EM, representing the first net inflow of capital (USD8bn) for the first time in eighteen years. This compares with USD60bn last year, which itself was down from USD248bn in 2012. At its peak, recycled EM petro dollars amounted to USD511bn back in 2006. The declines seen since 2006 not only reflect the changed global environment, but also the propensity of underlying exporters to begin investing the money domestically rather than save. The implications for financial markets liquidity - not to mention related downward pressure on US Treasury yields – is negative.
Considering the wildly violent moves we have seen so far in the market confirming just how little liquidity is left in the market, and of course, the absolutely collapse in Treasury yields, with the 30 Year just hitting a record low, this prediction has been borne out precisely as expected.
And now, we await to see which other country will follow Russia out of the Petrodollar next, and what impact that will have not only on the world's reserve currency, on US Treasury rates, and on the most financialized commodity as this chart demonstrates...
... but on what is most important to developed world central planners everywhere: asset prices levels, and specifically what happens when the sellers emerge into what is rapidly shaping up as the most illiquid market in history.
»
- 166405 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Check Mate...
KING DOLLAR!
I am almost finished reading this book on the Battle for Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor. Glad I did it while it is cold outside.
It has given me some perspective on the wisdom of going to war with Russia.
finally a move from the russian on the chess board (loooong due )
Check mate bitchez
So, Europe is going to need Rubles to buy Russian oil and gas.
Can't Draghi just print Rubles?
Hitler was smart to go after the Russian oil fields in the Caucuses. He was just stupid in how he went about it.
Maybe Draghi can print yuan. Russia likes those notes.
This isn't Chess, that's a Persian game, this is global trade war, and China, with a massive workforce, murderous political mentality, and daisy-chains to the Anglo banking structure, is indeed winning.
Why is the chart of world oil production intentionally scaled so that we cannot see any activity? Shoddy reporting.
Obama and Hitler are and were both supremely confident.
Will it turn out differently this time for the Western aggressors, or the same?
We have ak-47 now, so it's different, but mb you will see a trophy M16
This is huge!
Usually, it takes a couple of billions a pop here and there to support the Ruble, but $88 Billion at once?
This is beyond playing chess, this is a hitting-your-opponent-over-the-head-with-the-chessboard kinda move ;-)
Looney
"Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and then struts around like it won the game." - Vladimir Putin
Like a typical inner city thug or pro athlete in the end zone.
Next step, sell oil and gas for Rubles and Yuan ONLY.
hmmm, and then see where the price goes. whole lotta oil for dolla? and what is that dolla worth? very interesting move. more sanctions? bullies are predictable.
ukraine stand off next(bay of pigs redux).
If Putin really wanted to lob a grenade into the western financial bunker he would set a discount price for oil paid for in gold like at post WWII / pre-Bretton Woods prices.. approximately 12-15 Barrels per ounce.
Just think about what that would do to the bank’s price suppression schemes and for Russian gold reserves.
Have the nukes started to fly yet? The owners of the world might just burn it all down.
As a staunch liberal, I strongly believe Russia contributes greatly to global warming and therefore must be taxed.
Why dont they, the Russians, just PRINT DOLLARS? I mean if its the reserve Currency everyone should be able to PRINT IT.
^ Calling Kim Jung-Un, we need a few tonnes of greenbacks to rectify the balance of trade...
It appears the western cabal has realized the error in their ways with the rebound in WTI / Brent... You can't strangle your enemies if it kills your allies too... Too little, too late as the wheels of progress are already in motion... De-dollarization to continue, despite the bleating of western sheep...
The Russians are deoffshorizing (how is it correctly spelled) their economy and the side effect will be a stronger Ruble.
Less known fact due high interest rate lot of Russian companies became offshore companies because the foreign debts were cheaper. In this scheme the foreign reserves are gonna be used for paying back these loans, of course not for free, these companies will have to take a loan from the Russian STATE.
At least 2 things are helping:
-the amnesty for oligarchs: "bring back your fortune into Russian jurisdiction, no question will be asked";
-the risks of bail-ins, after Cyprus not even the Russian 5th column should fully trust their bosses.
Ho Hum.
Russia's GDP (pre oil crash) was about the same as California's -- 2T.
Besides oil, natgas & cute blonde chicks, what does Russia have to sell?
Weapons? Got em. Dont' need theirs.
Vodka? $5 a liter around here. They need the Stoli for those car crash videos on YouTube.
Other than a few extra weapons laying around, Russia is very ignorable.
How far from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok??? Well, its 6 hrs by plane, so you figure it out. Where is Norilsk?
How large is the area, encompassed by Kazakhstan, Xinjiang and Mongolia (some of the least explored/pipelined areas of the world)?
Ask China,India,PakistanIranTurkyBrazil,SouthAfrica,Bahrain,Argentina,Finland, to name but a few. What does the US have to sell? Bombs by the plane load.
Contrary to popular belief, the US is not the center of the universe... I bet you're one of those Merkans that has never been more than 250 miles from home and doesn't own a passport...
Well, theres always rocket engines - http://www.space.com/26551-us-military-launches-russian-rocket-engines.h...
The irony of all ironies, would be America struggling to figure out what we're going to sell to Russia and China so we can get money to buy oil.
FYI...since all my income sources are in US Dollars, this is not a scenario I'm praying for like some "prepper i can't wait for doomsday" dude. I'm smart enough to know...the coming doomsday may actually hurt.
The pain of what's coming will potentially be decreased if that "doomsday" comes sooner, rather than later. Or not. We may simply be fucked. At the risk of sounding repetitive, we have 407 operating nuclear reactors around the world, and every one of them is oil-dependent. The idiots in power, as far as I know, are completely oblivious to this. That might want to ask TEPCO what happens when the diesel generators go offline, which, in our just-in-time-inventory systems, is bound to happen when global supply disruptions delay, re-direct or terminate deliveries.
You die, she dies, everbody dies.
Do we really "need" to buy anything from either? So the petrodollar is dethroned, meaning the domestic dollar goes down, hence the relative price of oil becomes more dear, and voila! the N. American frackers and Canadian tar sanders are economical again. No Saudi oil, Russian oil, or Chinese plastic gimracks required. Think of this event as the arrow of time flowing backwards, to what existed before the U.S. conventional supply went south in the 60's and 70's causing Nixon to ditch gold as a result. As economic time reverses, autarky, nationalism, and maybe even political incorrectness, un-Howard Beale like, become respectable again.
The only damage I see being done is to those subterraneans who dreamt of financially consolidating the global economy by manipulating one sovereign's paper to serve as their proxy. Those are they that are going to have to re-scheme their schemas. The world as yet is still too big for even their long fingers.
.
If Putin said this he is so right. That is exactly what Obama is like.
If he didn't say it, he should have.
Of course this will impact the value of GOLD & SILVER in a way most in the WEST are unprepared. With the sales of 2015 Silver Eagles finally out, we may see another RECORD YEAR:
U.S. MINT 2015 SILVER EAGLE SALES: Start Off Stronghttp://srsroccoreport.com/2015-silver-eagle-sales-start-off-strong/2015-silver-eagle-sales-start-off-strong/
The spread between gold coins being bought and sold by dealers is widening: from 2% (in the past), to 4-5% now.
Perhaps the bigger question, at least in my mind, is will it really affect the price that much. One would think so, but then I'm just a stupid serf.
Silver Eagles have been a falling knife in the 2010s decade.
Have fun catching that.
The 2010 decade is not even half way through. Tell me about it 5 years from now.
Kill that Babushka ya.. yah... ya.. ya..before it returns to Washington!
And while you're at it...
round up Madame Soros and Ensign Biden while you're at it!
Things didn't turn out so well for hiwis like Hunter Biden that found themselves trapped in the kessel.
The Nazis missed their chance when they got within sight of Moscow but too late in the winter and not equipped to weather the temperatures. Dudes running around in cotton jackets and leather boots. I live in a place that's regularily -20 celsius and the thought of trying to survive in what they were dressed in is amazing they even made it through most nights. Diverting an army to the south to attack Stalingrad was the beginning of the end. The ruskies are a foul criminal breed but they know their shit when it comes to controlling their fate within their own borders.
MBB, even if they took Moscow the Russians were still in the game, they would of lost regardless. Napoleon took Moscow and lost. Russia was too vast, the weather too hostile, and the Russian spirit too strong to be broken. Germany lost the war the moment they crossed the eastern border.
They gave land for time and it worked and most of Russia is vast at least 11 time zones. How can an invading army or force manage to keep their logistics and supplies going further they went into Russia. And the weather, the weather so many armies are never ready for in Russia.
it's all conjecture now but I've alwyas wondered if the Nazis had of captured the Command and Control Centre of the political party running the army if it would not have just collpased. Stalin had already long purged his free thinking Generals and its quite possible the entire Red army would have collapsed with the capture of Stalin?
The 2 greatest Russian Generals: General Snow and General Mud. Land Wars in Asia are not for the faint of heart.
"Oh, you want to steal our land do you?" I think Russian's have a deep seated Schadenfruede for idiots who try to invade them. Like a cat playing with a mouse and not letting it die. You can check in but you can't check out. Good luck Seal Team 7 have fun storming the castle!
Your dead on, dead on. Russia can't be held and they trade land for time and makes their enemies spread out to protect from a potential attack. Everyone checks in and they have to drag themselves out dying slowly on the run from Russia, it has happened every time. Russia is going to d things to hurt us and they aren't dumb. They know our weaknesses and our strengths both militarily and financially and even socially. They know that the petrodollar aka the dollar is the key ot our hegemony and by taking that out we can't not only afford to keep this extended empire hell we wil have trouble trying to keep the 50 states together and we won't.
“The 2 greatest Russian Generals”
I thought there was a third.. Generalnyy Freezedoylintutarski
Another impotent leader who is married, but prefers the backdoor Microsoft metrosexual lifestyle, clicking on squares. Longhorn has been rebranded and still alive today.
Your correct, but Russia plays a very methodical way and that why is like you trying to stop a glacier. They move slowly and don't tell what they are doing. They don't get moved from what they are doing and don't care what the politics are just that the politics fit t he action. I think the US really over played it's hand and we are going to pay for it.
This is a understatement!!! When Russia cut off 60% of it's natural gas to Europe they are going to bankrupt the remaining oil pillar in North America - Tar Sands.
How? Their plants extract a heavy tar - can't run a steam boiler and the furnaces off that - to do that you need a shit ton of Natural gas! The price of Natural gas just exploded higher and in the face of through the floor oil prices this is a steel bar sandwich to the oil companies bottom lines.. Emergency measures will have to be activated IMMEDIATELY to rush natural gas to Europe before 300 million people run out of heat in two months when their meager stockpile runs out.
This is a New World Order way of laying medievel siege to the entire continent of Europe.
indian. not persian.
This is but one shoe to fall. Expect other also in the coming months, before the Spring Offensive is started by Kiev.
As I said yesterday (Tue, 01/13/2015 - 17:21 | 5657429 new noben)...
Right now the weather is Russia's friend. Soon it won't be. Duh!
That's why you use Full-Spectrum Domination of the Kiev's junta's FINANCE & ECONOMY:
1. Stop shipping coal,
2. call in their debt, and
3. accept payment only in Gold.
Then wait for and fan the 2nd Maidan revolution.
Junta are your Moscow rulers (all are military Soviet KGB people). Ukraine is now holding off separatists and regular ruSSian army and sending back to ruSSia hundreds of corpses a day. Ukraine has the ability to defend now and support from the West, it doesn't need 88$ bln to be saved, tiny 13-15 bln and balance sheet is corrected. Russia faces banking system run on soon and this bold but last resort moved will only speed up the deterioration of Gold&Currence Reserves and by fall there will be a totally different bold game in geopolitics. Putin will be on the knees (if not thrown away by his encirclement) asking forgiveness.
You are delusional. Hundred of russian corpses a day? You are probably getting your information from the same reliable source that disclosed tactical nuclear weapons use by vicked Moscow not that long ago. Run fast to your basement because radiactive cloud is rapidly spreading in your direction!
Office Jackoff...let me help you... HuffPo.com there
The Ukraine is a THROW AWAY COUNTRY to both Russia AND America.
By the time these two juggernauts stop playing cheese and start playing hulk smash! Ukraine will become the first country since Japan to experience first tactical nukes then depopulating MIRVs at this rate.
I only have four words for anyone in the Ukraine - RUN FOR YOU LIFE! and if you can't get on your knees..
He was stupid for invading Russia to begin with. Trying to drop the hammer on Stalingrad was even dumber.
His pride killed him, like it kills all. Didn't listen to his generals.
I don't think that he trusted his generals either.
You two should read the book. I think you will enjoy it.
He didn't trust his generals (as meglomaniacs are wont to do).
He invaded too late in the year (June).
He divided his forces (against his generals wishes).
He underestimated the length of time it would take to conquer -call it hubris (and thus got caught in the Russian winter -unprepared for it.
He thought that the sub-human Russians couldn't fight and were't willing to die by the millions (they were).
If *anyone* thinks they are going to invade Russia it'd be about impossible. You simply cannot cover that expanse of ground in time before winter sets in, and your supply lines become to thin.. To do so you have to be able to forward base your entire army (and it's factory systems) 300 miles inland and hope to do so quicker than they can do their side.
You'd need to have millions of transport trucks with stock piled food prebuilt and winter clothing and insulated
Anecdote of the day:
Obama asked the fortune-teller: What will happen in the future?
Fortune Teller replied: I see a great war between Russia and America.
Obama says: Well, a big war between Russia and America, I already know. We are working on it now in Ukraine. Tell me the best part is that I do not know. For example, how much will cost Big Mac in New York, after this big war?
Fortune Teller thought for a moment and replied: Four rubles!
He had no choice, his time was running out, he can't wait.
What VERY few people know, is that Hitler was being prescribed Meth by his doctor. Mind you, it was a milder and less pure form of the Meth you get today, but it was not unheard of for this to be given to some leaders and some troops.
The problem with the High, was the ensuing LOW, and the change in personality, into a less stable personality.
It will be debated and speculated if this was accidental and nobody (besides his doctor) really knew this, or if this was something that was deliberate (deep PsyOp) --- to turn him into a more volatile and self-destructive leader.
Had his faculties been more rational, he would have honored his Treaty with Stalin (in splitting and sharing Poland), and would have gone after England, rather than Russia. Had he done so, we'd all be speaking German today.
Funny how hubris (or some personality disorder) leads to the leaders and empires becoming over-extended, and thus bring about their downfall.
You wouldn't be referring to the incompetent divisive corrupt narcissistic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim sociopathic pathological liar in chief fudgepacker would you?
Obama admin is a muslim communist sleeper cell.
... Hitler was being prescribed Meth [sic] by his doctor. Mind you, it was a milder and less pure form of the Meth [sic] you get today ..
You obviously mean to say he was prescribed methamphetamine (tradename Desoxyn), or maybe not, because you might be trying to say Hitler was prescribed a less potent stimulant such as dextroamphetamine sulphate (tradename Dexedrine). Never mind, because it's totally irrelevant.
Soldiers being given methamphetamines? Where/when have I heard of that before? *cough drone operators cough*
Ha! you almost got me to spit my coffee onto the screen!
I took the Dexedrine - the stuff is invincible focus power pills - till it doesn't work so good. After 3-4 months after it wears off it's more like 'look at the pigeon... before crawling into a ball and crying for half an hour..
So nope.. not for me!
Hmm, thing is he was Anglophile, and frankly there wasn't much between the German ruling party and many in the British government. I think there'd have been some form of accord between Germany and Britain that left Germany with it's Lebensraum and Britain with it's Empire. Would be a distinctly different world now, if that had happened.
Had his faculties been more rational, he would have honored his Treaty with Stalin (in splitting and sharing Poland), and would have gone after England, rather than Russia. Had he done so, we'd all be speaking German today...
No.
First of all, even if Hitler did that and won Europe he'd be unable to prosectue a transatlantic invasion for years, allowing America to arm herself.
Secondly, Stalin's big secret plan was to let the the European powers fight themselves to exhaustion then sweep West and take the entire continent.
This is why his military was staged on the border. This is why his airfields were within 6 kilometers of the border; you place airfields so close when you expect the border to move violently, quickly to the West.
I suspect the reason Stalin's response to the German invasion was so muted and delayed was his anus puckered shut when he realized Hitler had beaten him to the punch, and a large portion of his Military was now overrun, destroyed, or in German hands.
Hitler was backed but western Nazi's and Royal families to destroy communist Russia, he was always going to roll at Russia first because as you said, stop "Russians having the heads of all the Royal Families in their hands".
The Royals and the ruling elite where scared shitless.. And rightly soo.. They are are still emitting the same smell today hence the massive MSM propaganda machine running 24/7..
Are you sure it;s not Xtacy ???
Meth is a hell of a drug.
Invading Russia doesn't seem that daunting. Trying to conquer the entire country seems like mission impossible. If you need the oil take the oil. Why worry about a point of pride namesake like Stalingrad or Leningrad? Just take the oil and blockade the ports.
At 1:66 to the USD, and at 17% interest, very little government debt and huge reserves, that's a buy.
Reserves not huge, need for capital is about 700 bil this year with only 350 bil reserves (but noone knows what are these resrved composed off) russians are crooked they would steal from their own coffins easily, i wouldnt be surprised if the real reserves are hald of whats reported
Being uneducated and illiterate, Hitler unfortunately, has made too many very stupid mistakes.
Specifically,
- Hitler's pathological desire to be a partner with the Britain Empire at any cost and, at the same time, kicking Jews out off Germany when the same Jewish bankers were controlling British economy and politics.
- Hitler took a direct command of German military operations. However, his military experience and expertise were based exclusively on his WW1 experience being a private.
IMHO, Hitler was just a great preacher. Hitler never wrote "Mein Kampf". He never gave any written orders since he was almost illiterate.
He accomplished the impossible several times over. Seems literacy and education are overrated and really has no correlation with stupid mistakes.
Regarding his initial "soft spot" for England, I would add that many of his Generals were old school Aristocrats, who themselves had a soft spot for their English cousins.
This was something that the Brits exploited, to BUY TIME for themselves. Clearly it worked.
Never, ever, never underestimate the deviousness, guile and PsyOps skills of the British Elite. Whatever else they or their country may have lacked at the time (or now), these skills of Craft was not it. Of course, they also had the benefit of being able to tap into these same traits held by their City Bankers (and true Masters) -- who had many, many centuries of such experience and a private, global network of contacts and allies.
Russia is just a ittle bit bigger than yemen
and I hear their weapons are too
and unlike 1989, only dumbfucks think they are the focus of evil today
Actually, if Hitler had just secured the Caucuses (sic) oil fields first, instead of dividing his Army in three groups (North, Central and South groups) he probably would have won the war.
Why print any paper coupons? Ukraine alone owes Russian gas producers something in the order of $5 billion. What would happen to the gold price if they insist on payment in precious metal – Cold or Gold? Comex would be instantly drained.
They paid $3B of that in Nov/Dec last year
They've been making moves. This isn't the first time of recent they sold dollars and bought rubles. A lot of oil producing nations have been selling dollars to support their economies. Russia has also by passed the dollar via trade with China and other nation-states, and this is really what will kill the dollar.
The future of the dollar has always been in its ability to act as a payment of trade, not as a store of wealth. A store of wealth in fiat terms is always short lived because inflation eats away its purchasing power. The dollar needs swift movement or it dies.
You NAILED it with your last sentence.
"The dollar needs swift movement or it dies."
That is already taken care of. Mastercard has signed on to Russia's alternative to SWIFT. Drip, drip.
Soul Glow
A store of wealth in fiat terms is always short lived because inflation eats away its purchasing power.
If your claim was true, the value of gold in the world would be greater than the value of currencies and govt. bonds.
Just because it isn't now doesn't mean it won't be soon. Gold was the standard of money until 40 years ago, so your theory has been short lived to boot.
This move was in the works. Reading Russian sources it was clear over a month ago that this buying of rubels was the logical result of FX market forces.
fx intervention is always an exercise in futility.
so russia has to sell a few ust or gold bars. does anyone give a rat's testicle? just more evidence (if any were needed) of putin losing his grip.
Gold, Bitchez!
And the planet you are living on is where precisely?
He's just a stupid troll, with a stupid cat avatar. Give him the red arrow he begs for so hard, and ignore him...
It's not the cat's fault.
some cat planet...
Are you suggesting that the remainder of the worlds powers that be won't be watching the outcome of this with full attention? This is a BIG step in an inevtiable progression, the timing and full outcome of which are of global significance. Think or study before vomiting on your keyboard.
righto you trade that big step. i trade it for the insignificant event that it is.
Read This One ...
International Observer
The New Ukraine Is Run by Rogues, Sexpots, Warlords, Lunatics and Oligarchs
Prominent Ukrainian MP denounces Obama's weakness, calls him a 'shot-down pilot'
http://observer.com/2015/01/the-new-ukraine-is-run-by-rogues-sexpots-war...
A shot-down pilot? That's giving him too much credit. That guy can't even drive his own golf cart.
Thank you for that link. I have been amazed at how our so called "press" has missed the action in Kiev! I follow it closely, daily. It is beyond insane, the deluded fascists and criminals hold key government positions, and private armies prevail across the country side. Crime is rampant. The military draft is carried out by gangs who enter a home and present draft notice to the man, and then offer them a chance to pay 1,000 dollars for them to tear up the draft notice and leave. Oddly, many men find the 1,000 dollars and pay it. Other's without money, are taken away at once! These are facts, found right in the Ukrainian press itself. So just think what else is going on. Bodies are being found now, in many places where young women disappear, their bodies are found a few months later in shallow graves, vivtims of the same gangs who bring the draft notices. Once again, this is from Kiev Media, not rebels.
US liberation at it's best.
Kiev has been the most amazing media blackout. And in an era of USPravda, it's hard to make the top of the heap. You would think NeoNazis, jackboot thugs, mass graves and gang rapes would get someone talking.
Well, Preezy does share some common ground with McCain . . . Both have their engines shot out . . . but their lights are on . . . and nobody is home.
The New US is run by Rogues, Sexpots, Warlords, Lunatics and Oligarchs.
The New UK the same
The New EU the same
Funny that.
This is certainly true of the UK, where the politixcal classes are desperately trying to bury child sex abuse scandals and murders going back at least as far as the 60's - and all the political parrties are involved. In case y;'all missed it London is bumfuck capital opf the world. What with this and the fucking banksters still roaming free, we're going to need a few good hangings to sort out good ole UK.
Prince Andrew - Je suis Charlie le Phew!
Yes. And a good old fashioned pogrom against the Muslims and South Asians will also help I'm thinking.
Some traditions exist for good reasons even if we descendents cannot don't understand them. We will in due time I believe.
The story failed to mention neo-nazi Banderists!
"Prominent Ukrainian MP denounces Obama's weakness, calls him a 'shot-down pilot' "
Are you sure he's not confusing him with McShame?
This time we'll make it. Promise.
Hitler was stupid splitting his force. But that's about the best a drugged corporal can do.
Indeed. Invading the Soviet Union while Britain remained as an air craft carrier in the North Sea was a major screw up. Never turn to face one enemy when the other one at your back will then have time to rearm, find new allies and prepare to stab you in the back. A rill of the dice, Hitler meant to smash to USSR in one short summer campaign. It didn't work. See the defense of Donetsk today to see why Hitler failed.
A 2,000 year old accepted military tactic is to ALWAYS attack first, when you know you are going to be attacked anyway, without exception.
IF the attack was not carried-out and the war was lost anyway, everyone would be saying "Why did he ignore a 2,000 year old military tradition and not attack?"
Hindsight is 20/20
And what about forts and walls? Have fun storming the castle.
I used to beleive that, but having read 'Icebreaker' by Suvorov I am now skeptical. At this point I'm conviced that Hitler didn't have much choice, he probably knew that the game was over.
What I dont uderstand is why Hitler thought he could reach an accomodation with England.
He didn't anticipate Churchhill being even a bigger warmongerung cunt than he was.
Churchhill had two opportunities to end the war -- one in 1941 and one in 1943. He said no thanks, he wants total surrender or nothing at all.
... and locked up Rudolf Hess in solitary for life so he couldn't talk.
Not just that, it was too early to stop the war, much tooooo much money to be made by our banksters forfathers.
Hitler saw the English as Anglo-Saxons and hence as a fellow Germanic people (read: Aryan), and because of that, saw them as salvagable.
What Suvorov is pleading is that Stalin was preparing to invade Europe. And he eventually did. But not Stalin was who breached the peace between USSR and the Reich.
Suvorov doesn't lie but he sells wrong implications.
He had to split up his forces, because his Italian allies couldn't approach into south-east Europe as planned.
At this point in time he should have stopped his invasion, as suggested by his generals, but he didn't.
yea people said the same thing about the u.s. going into afghanistan that they said about russia.
it didn't really work out that way. drones , gps, and advanced sattelite imagery have changed everything about war , forever.
and when it comes to full scale war as happened in the battle for stalingrad, there are now nukes and drones.
the past does not repeat itself , it rhymes. the myth of a frozen fortress russia is nonsense when it comes to modern warefare of full annihilation.
mankind still has yet to realize the next step to world war 3. it might not happen for 100 years. but it will most certainly happen unless something even worse happens.
there is no escaping the eventual return of a full scale war, unles of course some other set of events permanently eliminates the current technological capabilities of our present civilization.
you've been reading to much dmitri orlov half truths. you should educate yourself about modern warfare since the 50's. hey, it' sbeen 70 years since the last major conflict------but that is what modern is all about!
Us isnt the only nation who modernised their milt. .
Ah, but US is only nation to spend one trillion dollars to lose war in Afghanistan.
Ha!!!
Lose? Lose?!? Heroin production is up 12,000 percent!
Victory is often in how you define it; sadly Boobus Amerikanus doesn't have the intellect or knowledge to even ask the right questions.
damn were good
isn't it a hoot that the very nation we're taking on now lost its shorts in Afghanistan
Yeah, the advanced satellite imagery can watch surface to air missiles take out the drones. They are really effective against undefended weddings and coffee shops.
Can't see missiles or SU25's (delete to taste) taking out a Boeing.
I'm just finishing (for the 3rd time) The 900 Days-The Siege of Leningrad. Hard to believe you can make it on 300 calories a day.
That is because you cannot. Only the dystopics ate like that. The non-dystopics ate better or got out of Dodge. Some animals are more equal than others. Pictures from then and there clearly document some people were starved while others ate well.
And then there were the cannibals...
True, many did not. Cannibalism, of course. Kind of tough on the family pets also. My point was that Russians trapped in Leningrad in 1941-44 not only survived with little food or fuel, but fought as well. I like to believe that Americans in the same circumstances in 1941-44 would have done so well. Today, they would not last 900 hours.
Some Americans have the fat reserves to last 900 days.
Cut off internet access and capitulation will be emminent.
One of the best books on the siege of Stalingrad is not Beevors book, but 'Enemy at the Gates by an American who spent several years interviewing evryone from Field Marshalls down to ordinary grunts from both sides. It is by turns horrendous and hilarious. William Crag 1973 or thereabouts. Anyone who has read this book will realise that the idea of NATO, the US or UK taking on the Russians will need to make arrangements with their underrtaker before leaving home. These guys are the toughest mofo's on the planet, with the possible exception of the Chinese
....then that makes the Mongolians the toughest. Didn't the Chinese Dynasty finally give up and marry in because they could not defeat them on horseback?
http://youtu.be/8Z4aQTZC4H4
Next read his Berlin
The revenge of Stalingrad was rape
A staggering number of German women were raped by Russian soldiers in the aftermath of the war.
"Historians estimate that at least 2 million German women were raped at the end of World War II. That figure is based on German hospital and abortion clinic records.
Many women, like Schumacher, were raped multiple times. Courts-martial and other records show that there were several hundred documented rapes by U.S. and French soldiers in 1945, but the vast majority of the rapes were carried out by Soviet soldiers in the eastern part of Germany.
Dr. Phillip Kuwert, a senior physician at the University of Greifswald's department of psychotherapy and psychiatry, estimates that about 200,000 children were conceived by native German women raped by Russian soldiers."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768
Somebody should have paid price for > 20mil Soviet Civilians killed by Germans,
at least German women were not eaten alive as it was some Australian women captured by and eaten by Japanese.
Japanese were absolute monsters, even before WW2. Look what they did to China in the late 30s.
Stalin wound up killing 30 million of his own people when all was said and done, Germans had nothing on him.
Not his people.....he was Georgian...not Russian...savvy.
Parley?
@Buckaroo Banzai
http://www.germanophobia.net/
That site elaborates more on your post.
Interesting. ..
VOUZ
Amazing..... the battles on the Eastern front WWII....todays piddly little police action...LICs ..low intensity conflicts are so much dust blowing in the wind insofar as death and destruction....however today,they have a huge propaganda effect on hundreds of million.....call it social media leverage.....or Clauswitz meets Sun Tzu....war is an extension of politics and if you have to fight a lengthy war you have alreay lost....Iraq,Afghanistan....no more....hybrid warfare...asymmetrical warfare superpower style ......is the now and future way of war....
'war is the continuation of policy by other means' . Carl Von Clausewitz
"Yo, cap dem niggas asses."
Dr. Dre