March 25, 20223 yr 7 minutes ago, paco said: When that happens, that's when the fun beings. Will be interesting to see how the world puts the Russian baby in the corner. "It was the plan all along to make a little show of force and eradicate the not-zees. The mission is, shall we say, accomplished eh comrade?" -Abra in a couple months
March 25, 20223 yr 3 minutes ago, mayanh8 said: This is what Putin wanted, you're just too simple-minded to truly understand his motivations.
March 25, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Paul852 said: Wow. I still don't understand how Putin gets through this still in charge. Red Square. By the Balls.
March 25, 20223 yr Piling on to Putin and his sycophants aside, I'm curious though how they freeze gold reserves. Gold reserves are usually a kind of hedge / emergency escape hatch for an economy like Russia I figure. The challenge is that gold requires a buyer ... usually not incredibly challenging but there are more logistical challenges than just executing an exchange. Vikas can probably inject real knowledge, but from what I've read about Russia's situation the gold reserves were among the hardest to really try to sanction but also challenging to do much with. The only real way to sanction would be to have everybody agree not to buy gold from Russia, and that would have to include the half dozen "friendly" nations of Russia.
March 25, 20223 yr 51 minutes ago, mayanh8 said: 37 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: Piling on to Putin and his sycophants aside, I'm curious though how they freeze gold reserves. Gold reserves are usually a kind of hedge / emergency escape hatch for an economy like Russia I figure. The challenge is that gold requires a buyer ... usually not incredibly challenging but there are more logistical challenges than just executing an exchange. Vikas can probably inject real knowledge, but from what I've read about Russia's situation the gold reserves were among the hardest to really try to sanction but also challenging to do much with. The only real way to sanction would be to have everybody agree not to buy gold from Russia, and that would have to include the half dozen "friendly" nations of Russia. It’s a freeze on US nationals and institutions, essentially. No American (or member of the G7) is allowed to transact with Russian institutions concerning their gold. The secondary issue is that a lot of countries keep their sovereign gold reserves stored in the US (which gets back to your question about logistical challenges — you can simply sell the serial numbers of the bars without moving them to avoid logistical and security concerns). Applying these sort of sanctions is making the implicit risk more explicit: essentially that the US could seize your sovereign gold. A lot of countries have already repatriated significant portions of their gold starting in the housing crash; I’d look for that to increase.
March 25, 20223 yr Quote President Biden told US troops in Poland Friday that they will witness the bravery of Ukrainians fighting off Russia’s invasion "when you’re there” — making a significant gaffe after he previously said the US must stay out of the European conflict to avoid triggering "World War III.” Biden made the remark while addressing members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division after lunching on pizza and posing for selfies with dozens of paratroopers at a mess hall in Rzeszow, southeastern Poland. "You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see — you’re gonna see women, young people standing in the middle in front of a damned tank just saying, ‘I’m not leaving, I’m holding my ground,’” Biden said. A White House official quickly clarified that Biden wasn’t changing his stance on deploying the military into Ukraine. "The president has been clear we are not sending US troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,” a Biden spokesman told The Post.
March 25, 20223 yr The most clear indication so far of the shift in Russian prioritization of the war. A month ago they were saying the "special operation" was the de-nazification of Ukraine and the removal of the Zelensky regime. Now they're saying that was never the intention and that they only wanted to liberate the Donbas region and are basically all but signaling they are abandoning the 10k+ troops now isolated (and by some account surrounded) near Kyiv. A complete and total disaster.
March 25, 20223 yr 6 hours ago, Abracadabra said: Now we know what Not-Z Nuland meant by "dangerous material" falling into Russian hands. Im assuming that you do you not care about all the notzees in Ukraine anymore and have decided that it’s just about liberating the Donbas region? In fact, the whole thing about notzees was just a clever ploy by Putin (and indeed yourself) to trick us all. I feel so small in the presence of your superior strategic intelligence.
March 25, 20223 yr 10 minutes ago, mayanh8 said: The most clear indication so far of the shift in Russian prioritization of the war. A month ago they were saying the "special operation" was the de-nazification of Ukraine and the removal of the Zelensky regime. Now they're saying that was never the intention and that they only wanted to liberate the Donbas region and are basically all but signaling they are abandoning the 10k+ troops now isolated (and by some account surrounded) near Kyiv. A complete and total disaster. A "distraction" that might have cost them 15,000 soldiers. And if Russia decides that they wanna pull back and call little slices of the east a "victory," who sweeps in to help rebuild the rest of Ukraine but Westerners with our money and political interests? Which would put the west directly on Russia's doorstep. Well played.
March 25, 20223 yr 47 minutes ago, Lloyd said: And if Russia decides that they wanna pull back and call little slices of the east a "victory," who sweeps in to help rebuild the rest of Ukraine but Westerners with our money and political interests? Which would put the west directly on Russia's doorstep. Well played. That's the ultimate miscalculation. Russia went for the jugular in a bid to put a "DMZ" between it and NATO (I guess?). Instead they faceplanted and now are faced with sharing a border with one of NATO's seemingly strongest allies.
March 25, 20223 yr The Ukraine needs to consider going with the status quo and keep going until Russia leaves altogether
March 25, 20223 yr 54 minutes ago, lynched1 said: The Ukraine needs to consider going with the status quo and keep going until Russia leaves altogether The status quo was that Russian backed separatists were already in control of Donbas, right? So Russia retreating back to that territory and saying it's theirs would geopolitically be turning the clock back 1 month. The only difference would be Ukraine would never give the land back and there'd be no official "end" to the war. The way I see it Russia will end up annexing land they mostly already had control of but at the cost of their economy, billions in military losses, and about 20,000 lives. Am I missing something else here?
March 25, 20223 yr 42 minutes ago, mayanh8 said: The status quo was that Russian backed separatists were already in control of Donbas, right? So Russia retreating back to that territory and saying it's theirs would geopolitically be turning the clock back 1 month. The only difference would be Ukraine would never give the land back and there'd be no official "end" to the war. The way I see it Russia will end up annexing land they mostly already had control of but at the cost of their economy, billions in military losses, and about 20,000 lives. Am I missing something else here? By status quo I meant continuing to fight. Stifle them enough and Russia will eventually overstep. That's certain escalation but I'm of the mind it's eventual at one point regardless
March 25, 20223 yr Has putin ever been weaker or more vulnerable than now? I cant think of any time…cripple him
March 25, 20223 yr 4 hours ago, TEW said: It’s a freeze on US nationals and institutions, essentially. No American (or member of the G7) is allowed to transact with Russian institutions concerning their gold. The secondary issue is that a lot of countries keep their sovereign gold reserves stored in the US (which gets back to your question about logistical challenges — you can simply sell the serial numbers of the bars without moving them to avoid logistical and security concerns). Applying these sort of sanctions is making the implicit risk more explicit: essentially that the US could seize your sovereign gold. A lot of countries have already repatriated significant portions of their gold starting in the housing crash; I’d look for that to increase. So basically the exact opposite will happen. Noted.
Create an account or sign in to comment