The Fascist Dictatorship called Russia under Dictator for Life Putin

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

6 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-thrived-as-it-integrated-with-the-westa-new-cold-war-is-unraveling-that-11644415200

Russia Thrived as It Integrated With the West—a New Cold War Is Unraveling That

A Ukraine invasion would trigger sweeping sanctions that cripple Russia’s few knowledge industries and push it closer to China

 

 

Wishful thinking. In all actuality, did sanctions utterly crush the previously very strong comprador fraction within the Russian elites, who advocated concentrating on selling oil and gas and buying everything else in the West. As a result, are Russian knowledge industries booming, loaded with "import substitution" work.

A secondary blow were hapless attempts to sanction the alleged Russian "oligarchs" across the board (presumably, using the Forbes list as reference) Ultimately, this caused them to choose between the virtual assets in the West (like exchange listings and accounts in Western banks) and physical assets (actual bread-winning business in Russia) Physical assets won, hand down. See the Deribaska/RUSAL story for example. All that US achieved is that the company is no longer incorporated in Jersey and no longer listed on the London exchange. It still exists and produces a lot more aluminum than US' own ALCOA (which is what it was really about, as Derbaska was never that close a friend of the Kremlin's) This pretty much stopped the Russian capital and asset flight committed by major Russian business across the board, and started a movement to redomicile the corporate assets from the murky offshores. Once the guys realized how little protection the offshores offer against expropriation by major Western governments, the cat was out of the bag. The Russian businessmen are quick learners.

Now, why would you hurt the group that was not very loyal to Russia to start with and was doing good works for you? There is only one thing they could not do - rebel and somehow overthrow Putin for you. Because Russia is no Ukraine and no USA, where oligarchic groups still rule, The alleged oligarchs have no political power left. Putin cut them down to size long ago, and now nobody tells the Kremlin what to do. Thus, does Russia arguably have no oligarchs anymore, but merely regular billionaires. (this per very definition of oligarchy)

Ergo, the Evil Empire shoots itself in the foot twice, yet again. Soon enough, will  you have no feet left to stand on.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 2/15/2022 at 10:09 PM, ronwagn said:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/15/architectural-treasures-of-moscow-the-kharitonenko-mansion-a76370

The relationship of Belarus and Russia. This is after Belarus put down a massive peaceful movement against their own dictator Lukashenko. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–2021_Belarusian_protests

Where Does Belarus Stand in the Russia-West Standoff?

Belarusian territory has simply become a staging area for the Russian army.

By Artyom Shraibman

13 hours ago

There were initially peaceful protests against Lukashenko, which very gradually taken over by violent foreign agents fighting integration with Russia, following the scheme we've seen on Ukrainian Maidan. This forced Lukashenko to (temporarily?) stop trying to sit on all the chairs at once and turn towards Russia for support. He is no real ally of Russia's either, and now will likely have to live out his natural lifespan for anything in Belarus to change. Alas, there are no Jrs and IIIs in (Belo)Russian political tradition, and no chance for Lukashenko (or Putin, for that matter) to form an effective hereditary ruling caste as we know it from the American political regime.

American double standards ought to be apparent for anyone in the world now that everybody has seen how you treat the peaceful protests at home. I mean, neither the Capitol protests, nor the Freedom Convoy now ongoing in Canada are even remotely as violent as protests in Belarus, not to speak of Ukrainian Maidan, yet are being crushed with an iron fist ASAP. So much for your lip service for allowing peaceful protests.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 2/16/2022 at 12:39 AM, notsonice said:

Based on market exchange rates, the Russian currency should be worth three times more against the U.S. dollar — 24 rubles per $1, rather than the 73.8 the currency was trading at Wednesday???? Should be is meaningless when you go to the bank with pile of Rubles. The Ruble is worthless to every one else in the world because of Putin. Even in China. Would I move to Russia to get a cheap big mac??? ha ha ha. Would you????

The whole purpose of the Big Mac index is to measure the difference between the bank exchange rate and the actual purchasing power of the currency at home. (Obviously, everything in Russia is sold for rubles, not dollars)

Note that the artificially low exchange of the ruble hurts Russian imports, but benefits Russian exports. Russia is mostly an exporter, running a trade surplus with most countries it trades with. Think of some Russian oil and gas company, which sells for dollars but pays salaries and other expenses in Russia in rubles. Arguably, it is also a driver for substitution of imported Western goods by domestic products, a booming area.

Ruble is not worthless in China. In fact, is most of the Russia-China trade conducted in terms of ruble-yuan FX pair these days. As any FX trader will tell you, are currency pairs a lot more efficient than any individual currency on its own, including the dollar, because there is zero effective spread between bid and ask.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 2/16/2022 at 12:06 AM, notsonice said:

not much left of the good old USSR. Putin is desperate for people. Now one has to ask, does anyone try to cross the Russian border illegally ever trying to get into Russia? The simple answer is no one has ever tried to get into Russia. His Ukraine strategy is a last attempt at recreating the USSR. Never works out when you have guns pointed at those you want to join up with.

You obviously have no clue. There is massive immigration into Russia from all over ex-USSR, including those who cross the border illegally. (To an extent that this even makes sense, because citizens of CIS / EAC member states may enter Russia and sometimes even work in Russia entirely legally) Alas, there is not really a proper border between Russia and other ex-USSR states, except in the Caucasus, where overpasses/tunnels are few.

There are several millions of refuges out of Ukraine alone working in Russia right now. Alas, they do not need a visa / special permission to enter Russia, just their regular ID.

EAC is an economic free trade agreement that is entirely hands-off in terms of political integration. It makes perfect sense for all the countries of ex-USSR, restoring customer-supplier relationships cut by the break off. The EU association Ukraine chose instead is a relatively bum deal in comparison.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

On 2/16/2022 at 12:12 AM, Tomasz said:

HeadHunter: 32% of Russians receive 50-100 thousand rubles a month

The monthly income of 32% of working Russians ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles, according to a study by the HeadHunter website. 29% of respondents receive from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles, 19% - more than 100 thousand rubles. per month. Most of the money is received by those working in top management, construction and in the IT field. High income is more common among men (18%) than among women (8%).

The study involved 3299 people. The dates of the survey are unknown, its results are cited by RIA Novosti .

As HeadHunter found out, less than 10 thousand rubles. students (64%) and those who did not work and did not study (36%) more often receive a month. Income of 30 thousand usually have novice specialists (74%), education and science workers (56%) and administrative staff (50%).

Russians with an income of up to 30 thousand are more common in the Altai Territory, Bashkortostan, Volgograd and Tyumen regions. From 100 thousand rubles. respondents earn in Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Tyumen regions.

45% of survey participants said they save "a certain amount", after which they spend the remaining money, 32% do the opposite. 20% of respondents said that they could not save for something.

In the event of unforeseen expenses, 58% of respondents prefer to reduce current expenses. 40% start spending their savings, 18% take out a loan or use a credit card, 14% borrow money from relatives or friends.

Over the past year, 51% of respondents have saved money to a bank account or deposit, 25% keep savings at home in the form of cash, 19% bought securities, 8% opened time deposits. 9% used other options, such as buying real estate. 19% did not save money.

According to Rosstat, the income of Russians in 2021 rose to a maximum in eight years. A survey by Rosgosstrakh Zhizn and Otkritie Bank showed that most citizens will only have enough savings for three months.

 

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5215806

To add my $0.02, the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate

is headed by the former Eastern Block countries, including Russia. All courtesy of the evil Commies, of course. This tends to be already paid off, not a mortgage, which surely contributes to lesser cost of living.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

9 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

To add my $0.02, the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate

is headed by the former Eastern Block countries, including Russia. All courtesy of the evil Commies, of course. This tends to be already paid off, not a mortgage, which surely contributes to lesser cost of living.

Here is how the average Russian lives. https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/329033-what-does-typical-russian-home-like

It could be worse but they live a very cramped life whether in apartments or small houses. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

10 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

Wishful thinking. In all actuality, did sanctions utterly crush the previously very strong comprador fraction within the Russian elites, who advocated concentrating on selling oil and gas and buying everything else in the West. As a result, are Russian knowledge industries booming, loaded with "import substitution" work.

A secondary blow were hapless attempts to sanction the alleged Russian "oligarchs" across the board (presumably, using the Forbes list as reference) Ultimately, this caused them to choose between the virtual assets in the West (like exchange listings and accounts in Western banks) and physical assets (actual bread-winning business in Russia) Physical assets won, hand down. See the Deribaska/RUSAL story for example. All that US achieved is that the company is no longer incorporated in Jersey and no longer listed on the London exchange. It still exists and produces a lot more aluminum than US' own ALCOA (which is what it was really about, as Derbaska was never that close a friend of the Kremlin's) This pretty much stopped the Russian capital and asset flight committed by major Russian business across the board, and started a movement to redomicile the corporate assets from the murky offshores. Once the guys realized how little protection the offshores offer against expropriation by major Western governments, the cat was out of the bag. The Russian businessmen are quick learners.

Now, why would you hurt the group that was not very loyal to Russia to start with and was doing good works for you? There is only one thing they could not do - rebel and somehow overthrow Putin for you. Because Russia is no Ukraine and no USA, where oligarchic groups still rule, The alleged oligarchs have no political power left. Putin cut them down to size long ago, and now nobody tells the Kremlin what to do. Thus, does Russia arguably have no oligarchs anymore, but merely regular billionaires. (this per very definition of oligarchy)

Ergo, the Evil Empire shoots itself in the foot twice, yet again. Soon enough, will  you have no feet left to stand on.

So, he is just a plain dictator now then. I hate dictators. Everybody that has any love of freedom hates dictators. Some people do love to be subservient or to consider themselves tiny dictators working for the powerful as a little cog in the machine. Our Democrats are mostly like that. They are would be dictators who want total control and to ignore our noble constitution. Even your Russian constitution is good, but it is totally ignored. Our Democrats do not want to honor ours either. 

I consider nearly every country in the world to be fascist to some extent. The so called communists of China are actually fascists still. North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela etc. are just plain communist failures with people who live in deep poverty and little freedom. The European Union is controlled by layer upon layer of bureaucracy and is also controlling its people far more than ever. America is fighting for freedom and its constitution. Things will look better in another year. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/18/east-ukraine-separatist-regions-to-evacuate-civilians-to-russia-a76452

East Ukraine Separatist Regions to Evacuate Civilians to Russia

 

 

Updated: 11 hours ago

    

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/18/us-bares-intel-on-russia-in-risky-strategy-to-prevent-ukraine-invasion-a76444

U.S. Bares Intel on Russia in Risky Strategy to Prevent Ukraine Invasion

 

By Sylvie Lanteaume for AFP

21 hours ago

    

[surrept33 + 609]

16 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

The alleged oligarchs have no political power left. Putin cut them down to size long ago, and now nobody tells the Kremlin what to do. Thus, does Russia arguably have no oligarchs anymore, but merely regular billionaires. (this per very definition of oligarchy)

The Putin clique are just the securocrats. The securocrats are the new oligarchs. 

[notsonice + 1,255]

18 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

The whole purpose of the Big Mac index is to measure the difference between the bank exchange rate and the actual purchasing power of the currency at home. (Obviously, everything in Russia is sold for rubles, not dollars)

Note that the artificially low exchange of the ruble hurts Russian imports, but benefits Russian exports. Russia is mostly an exporter, running a trade surplus with most countries it trades with. Think of some Russian oil and gas company, which sells for dollars but pays salaries and other expenses in Russia in rubles. Arguably, it is also a driver for substitution of imported Western goods by domestic products, a booming area.

Ruble is not worthless in China. In fact, is most of the Russia-China trade conducted in terms of ruble-yuan FX pair these days. As any FX trader will tell you, are currency pairs a lot more efficient than any individual currency on its own, including the dollar, because there is zero effective spread between bid and ask.

Ruble compared to the Yuan has crashed over time....... this is just the last 5 years My book never hold the Ruble or anything in Russia as it falls falls falls and in the currency trade a horrible bet to go with the Ruble

Ask your Forex trade if he holds Rubles....ha ha ha 

The Ruble is the currency of Rubes

 

Putin is the prime cause... If he invades the Ukraine it will drop by 50 percent in 1 day and never recover....Talk about destroying ones own country ........Are all Russians idiots like Putin????? as he sure has creamed his own currency

 

You pay the price for living in great locations........It is why it is cheap to live in Russia when you compare it to the US......Why ....because no one wants to live in Russia...The Ruble sucks......Betting on Russia is a suckers bet ...

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by notsonice

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

49 minutes ago, notsonice said:

Ruble compared to the Yuan has crashed over time....... this is just the last 5 years My book never hold the Ruble or anything in Russia as it falls falls falls and in the currency trade a horrible bet to go with the Ruble

Ask your Forex trade if he holds Rubles....ha ha ha 

The Ruble is the currency of Rubes

 

Putin is the prime cause... If he invades the Ukraine it will drop by 50 percent in 1 day and never recover....Talk about destroying ones own country ........Are all Russians idiots like Putin????? as he sure has creamed his own currency

 

You pay the price for living in great locations........It is why it is cheap to live in Russia when you compare it to the US......Why ....because no one wants to live in Russia...The Ruble sucks......Betting on Russia is a suckers bet ...

 

If you were really trading in forex, you would not hold a position in a currency, but in a currency pair. Which might as well be fully hedged - that is, your margin remains constant regardless of how the members of the pair move, because your long position on one is counteracted by a short position on another and visa versa.

If you were somehow odd enough to simply keep rubles, you would make up what you lost in 2014 eventually, because the official inflation in Russia, the central bank interest rate and interest rates current accounts in regular banks collect are all in the region of 7% pa. If you keep your money in an USD account, you effectively are losing it, because you aren't even making 1%, which is obviously way below of where your inflation is.

Not that I recommend holding cash rubles. Russian stocks are a much safer bet. Major Russian stocks have seen nothing but gain during the same period. Could be because they pay significant dividends, something hardly any US stock does anymore?

I am not sure how to read your odd chart. Russian ruble to yuan exchange crashed today, just in time for our conversation, or what? This what I found

 

Which is really the same dynamics you can observe on the dollar chart. There was a singular loss of half the FX value, but otherwise, nothing much going on.

How would you know what the life in Russia is like if you've never been? There is only one place in all of US that I might prefer to Moscow, which is San Francisco. (Though a more appropriate comparison would be NYC, which I don't much like. It is a giant metropolis which never ever sleeps kind of thing. I go fully nocturnal when I am there)

 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

3 hours ago, surrept33 said:

The Putin clique are just the securocrats. The securocrats are the new oligarchs. 

That's exactly right. Though is Russian silovik a much snappier term and is in a much more common use. I've seen another semi-contrived word that was potently better, but cannot even find it anymore. I'll tell you if you do. It was something like Kremlegarch and used to describe the state of being half-way fatcat corporate CEO and half-way government minister, like Igor Sechin. Putin also just resurrected the Hero of (Socialist) Labor title and gave one to Gazprom's Miller. I could not believe my eyes. Next thing, they'll start to kiss each other on the dentures like the old Leonid?

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

5 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/18/us-bares-intel-on-russia-in-risky-strategy-to-prevent-ukraine-invasion-a76444

U.S. Bares Intel on Russia in Risky Strategy to Prevent Ukraine Invasion

 

By Sylvie Lanteaume for AFP

21 hours ago

    

How is this any different from what they've been doing for the last month, anyway?

IMHO, does none of this absolutely anything meaningful without spilling the beans on Ukraine also, which is also massing troops.

All the mass graves have already been found, the rest of the scenarios seem quite half-backed. If anything blows up, they'll blame it on the Chechens first, then investigate. Mind you, does the Ukrainian central government blow up stuff in LDNR and has people assassinated, but not in Russia proper. Neither do LDNR reciprocate so far. (The best known victim was Zacharchenko, a very charismatic elected DNR chieftain (whatever his actual title was))

Edited February 19, 2022 by Andrei Moutchkine

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

9 hours ago, ronwagn said:

So, he is just a plain dictator now then. I hate dictators. Everybody that has any love of freedom hates dictators. Some people do love to be subservient or to consider themselves tiny dictators working for the powerful as a little cog in the machine. Our Democrats are mostly like that. They are would be dictators who want total control and to ignore our noble constitution. Even your Russian constitution is good, but it is totally ignored. Our Democrats do not want to honor ours either. 

I consider nearly every country in the world to be fascist to some extent. The so called communists of China are actually fascists still. North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela etc. are just plain communist failures with people who live in deep poverty and little freedom. The European Union is controlled by layer upon layer of bureaucracy and is also controlling its people far more than ever. America is fighting for freedom and its constitution. Things will look better in another year. 

What exactly makes Putin a bad dictator? I am not sure whether there is a sophisticated argument behind your claim because I don't quite follow how it follows from anything I said. Are you expressing remorse at the inability of the oligarchic interests to remove Putin from his office? Why should they be able to? With oligarchy being just about the least democratic form of governance imaginable, if that's so important to you. Incidentally, it is quite strong in US. Witness a collection of media-related oligarchs like Bezos and Zuckerberg effectively removing a US President, in the shapely form of our own agent Donnie.

Your noble constitution is a historical document which contains nothing much of practical relevance anymore. It better be ignored. Try to interpret it in the spirit of the intent behind the whole thing, rather than the letter thereof? Because your Founding Fathers, however smart-ass, were something not dissimilar to the Puritan Taliban.

Hey, that's what the big governments are there for - fascism. The Far Eastern peoples of slant eyed persuasion are particularly predisposed to some kind of fascism. Sometimes with elements of living God Emperor cult. There is no difference between the governance style of DPRK, Japan or Thailand, up to a spin. They've an officially designated demiurge who is the living personification of the country, totally infallible and his farts don't smell. What is the principal difference between Chubby Kim, his Majesty King Rama the Xth of Thailand and The Emperor Naruhito, reigning in his own calendar era of Reiwa? Up to a spin, I mentioned before. And if you thought that Kim was funny, wait till you see Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan do his works. I bet you cannot even pronounce Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow if your life depended on it. Thus, it is also very inconvenient for your propaganda media to render him as your enemy, you must bomb out ASAP. Pretty clever, eh? Much better if you stick to shorter names for the main enemies of the state. Xi, Kim or Putin will do, but please no longer than this. Erdogan is thus borderline, one of the good guys. As good as theory of how you pick your enemies as any other, methinks? The extent to which Cuba and Venezuela are really failures remains to be seen. Remove your economic blockade and stop trying to wreck their economy, then we see.

Out of all the places I am personally familiar with, the US is the one actually experiencing the least personal freedoms and most fascism. You live in permanent terror of everything and don't even notice it. The Western side of EU is a bit better than this, with the Brussels malice compensated by a corresponding amount of ineptitude. Russians are the ones actually experiencing the least oppression / most personal freedoms of all. Can you give me one example of Putin infringing on freedoms of regular Russians? Even assuming that he's got a shortlist of special dissidents, who he got to have poisoned by the previously unseen variant of Novichok lest they get more than a few percent of electoral support. How many of them on such shortlist? 20? A 100? How does this affect the personal lives of regular Russians, who honestly do not harbor any plots of overthrowing Putin's regime with foreign aid? They wouldn't even know where to start (and why)

Otherwise, consult the

https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/

Or, more exhaustively

https://www.levada.ru/en/ratings/

Which ought to show how Putin is by far the most popular institution in the country, which is also fairly invariant to external political factors. (Note the generally positive attitude towards the US and EU switched to the diametrically opposed in 2014) So, why shouldn't Russians elect Putin again and again, if they like him so much and don't like you at all anymore? You do know of the Roman dictator originally being an elected official for a specific case, do you? You can see Putin as being exactly that.

 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

5 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/18/east-ukraine-separatist-regions-to-evacuate-civilians-to-russia-a76452

East Ukraine Separatist Regions to Evacuate Civilians to Russia

 

 

Updated: 11 hours ago

    

This should fit the Kiev regime just fine - fewer bodies for them to bury.

They are not exactly looking forward to re-aquring a couple of mils of additional electorate entirely out of line with the official ideology of the newly hatched Ukronazi state. Better get rid of them by any means and just keep the lands.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

6 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

That's exactly right. Though is Russian silovik a much snappier term and is in a much more common use. I've seen another semi-contrived word that was potently better, but cannot even find it anymore. I'll tell you if you do. It was something like Kremlegarch and used to describe the state of being half-way fatcat corporate CEO and half-way government minister, like Igor Sechin. Putin also just resurrected the Hero of (Socialist) Labor title and gave one to Gazprom's Miller. I could not believe my eyes. Next thing, they'll start to kiss each other on the dentures like the old Leonid?

I am glad you see the range of fascism from crony capitalism to nationalist or other plain greedy cronies. I think it is a healthy way to look at the realities of where world governments are headed. That includes America. All you have to do is look at the wealth of the most prominent politicians in America, Russia, and around the world. 

I am definitely not anti-Russian. I am anti-totalitarian and all other types of dictatorship. I see it coming to all countries. Especially as a "soft" dictatorship of the elites in all countries and coming downhill from the wealthiest capitalists whether they be called communists or capitalists. The original name for this type of leadership was technocracy but it quickly became just elitism. Thus we now have Global Warming AKA Climate Change, Green Parties, and etc. Putin saw through all this and promoted it to some extent through his long invisible fingers. The West was willingly blind to it and sucked it up. People like George Soros, Scholz, and many others are enjoying trying to control all the puppet strings around the world. Meanwhile the average free person is bewildered by what is going on in his own life.

The aware populace is growing though, anti-maskers, parents who see their children being taught to be transsexual, being taught climate change, masked, given inappropriate vaccinations, anti-white nonsense etc. Not being taught how to read, write, arithmetic, or how to think and analyze anything. Instead being propagandized to believe in one world authority that is in agreement with whatever comes down from the perverted leaders above them. 

[notsonice + 1,255]

On 2/18/2022 at 6:01 AM, Andrei Moutchkine said:

You obviously have no clue. There is massive immigration into Russia from all over ex-USSR, including those who cross the border illegally. (To an extent that this even makes sense, because citizens of CIS / EAC member states may enter Russia and sometimes even work in Russia entirely legally) Alas, there is not really a proper border between Russia and other ex-USSR states, except in the Caucasus, where overpasses/tunnels are few.

There are several millions of refuges out of Ukraine alone working in Russia right now. Alas, they do not need a visa / special permission to enter Russia, just their regular ID.

EAC is an economic free trade agreement that is entirely hands-off in terms of political integration. It makes perfect sense for all the countries of ex-USSR, restoring customer-supplier relationships cut by the break off. The EU association Ukraine chose instead is a relatively bum deal in comparison.

You obviously are a paid troll working for Putin...

There is massive immigration into Russia from all over ex-USSR??? yes however those leaving Russia permanently and death/birth rate exceed the immigration rate.....This is why there are less people in Russia today than the 90's. As a whole Putin has failed and the Ruble keeps failing.....

[notsonice + 1,255]

8 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

If you were really trading in forex, you would not hold a position in a currency, but in a currency pair. Which might as well be fully hedged - that is, your margin remains constant regardless of how the members of the pair move, because your long position on one is counteracted by a short position on another and visa versa.

If you were somehow odd enough to simply keep rubles, you would make up what you lost in 2014 eventually, because the official inflation in Russia, the central bank interest rate and interest rates current accounts in regular banks collect are all in the region of 7% pa. If you keep your money in an USD account, you effectively are losing it, because you aren't even making 1%, which is obviously way below of where your inflation is.

Not that I recommend holding cash rubles. Russian stocks are a much safer bet. Major Russian stocks have seen nothing but gain during the same period. Could be because they pay significant dividends, something hardly any US stock does anymore?

I am not sure how to read your odd chart. Russian ruble to yuan exchange crashed today, just in time for our conversation, or what? This what I found

 

Which is really the same dynamics you can observe on the dollar chart. There was a singular loss of half the FX value, but otherwise, nothing much going on.

How would you know what the life in Russia is like if you've never been? There is only one place in all of US that I might prefer to Moscow, which is San Francisco. (Though a more appropriate comparison would be NYC, which I don't much like. It is a giant metropolis which never ever sleeps kind of thing. I go fully nocturnal when I am there)

 

 

You cannot read a FOREX chart?????? Clueless Russian

Love your charts....The Ruble has consistently falling against the Yuan and Dollar and all other currencies....Which means if you invest in Russia...your investment tomorrow, next week , next month, next year etc.... if you want to cash out will be worth less than today and this is consistent over the long run. 65 Rubles to the dollar today when it was 4 to the dollar in 1998... Same goes for the Yuan , the Ruble has lost 80 percent of its value against the Yuan in 14 years . Yep Russia is a Fucking Joke and Putin is responsible. Please keep trying to spin it ....eat all the big macs at $1.50 that you can on your $500 a month typical salary. If you eat a Big Mac every day it eats up 10 percent of your salary. In the US it would eat up less than 3 percent of your salary ($150 a month out of a typical $5000 a month salary) Yes this is the truth a typical Russian cannot afford to eat a Big Mac every day. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by notsonice

[Starschy + 211]

8 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

 Putin also just resurrected the Hero of (Socialist) Labor title and gave one to Gazprom's Miller. I could not believe my eyes. Next thing, they'll start to kiss each other on the dentures like the old Leonid?

Sergey Miller deserves that Title. If he would live in the US he would be Manager of the year 5 times in a row. He‘s by far better as Bill Gates or the Ego Shooter from Oracle.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

11 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Here is how the average Russian lives. https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/329033-what-does-typical-russian-home-like

It could be worse but they live a very cramped life whether in apartments or small houses. 

This is largely right. Hey, this stuff was free, Look at the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate

the godless Commies led the world in home ownership rates. Fully paid off, too, as the godless Commies had no concept of mortgage financing.

You could usually get more space if you were able to make an extra lump sum down payment. This was called something like the condominium or co-op. My parents were sorta yuppies and actually made one, so we had a 2-bedroom (3 total) apartment in a newly built Soviet style high rise on the outskirts of Moscow (which is almost a central location today) 3 rooms for a family of 4 is borderline OK even by reputable country standards.

Incidentally, the Commies running Vienna independently discovered the same motivational schematic. You could choose an entirely down-payment free apartment managed by the city (like the nominal projects for you) or one of those condominiums (managed by a non-profit corporation owned by the city) Where I make a lump prepayment that is still orders of magnitude less than the book value of the property and get dubious extra perks, like the ability to designate the successor tenant and sometimes the ability to buy the place out for good. Which I would never use even if I could, because that book value is significantly inflated by like almost 2x and is getting financed at a much higher rate than one would expect from a municipal-owned entity with collateral up the wazoo. So, appears to be some kind of deliberate setup by the municipal/state government? (both of them Vienna, like in Washington DC) to sink the excessive profits to avoid confiscation and redistribution by the Feds? From where I sit, this be insufficiently distinct from an actual ownership of the place, except for the upper cap of for the place I may get through the scheme, (I about max it out at 64m^2 just for myself) There is also not necessarily any quality difference between the projects and not quite projects as described above.

The points that those guys missed are as follows.

a) The sound insulation did not suck. This probably refers to some historical/communal  situation. The late Soviet prefab blocks of reinforced concrete were built like tanks. Incidentally, did you know that the notoriously brutal and drab look of the Eastern European housing was initially on purpose, inspired by one of the most influential exercises in architectural brutalism called

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Voisin

by the punk Swiss/French architect and urban planner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier

It involved raising the historical center of Paris to the ground and repopulating it with affordable housing projects, ugly like the world has never seen before.

The USSR's architectural community was instantly in love with the bloke and commissioned a lot of other works from him. (Also, Mussolini's Italy)

Anyhow, the externals finish is subject to reskinning. They are building some amount of Soviet style prefab highrises with external mirror finish, to imitate some kind of Manhattan skyline and positioned as premium. Not sure if that part works, but they are still some of the quickest ways to build and are still being built.

The alternative practiced in the West, apparently called the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_forming

is also very quick, but not as buff. Witness the local Viennese project to produce an experimental housing project of overwhelming Asiatic-like density:

http://architectuul.com/architecture/wohnpark-alt-erlaa

See, they had to cheat to make the foundation Egyptian pyramid-like wide at the base.? That is because this slip forming stuff necessitates most of the load bearing structure to be in the horizontal floors, not the vertical walls.

The combined bath and toilet didn't really happen in any recent apartments, AFAIK. The entrance to either was actually where the said entresole shelf thing was located, because the ceiling was barely taller than the door in that place. Probably reasoning that there is not really a reason for anyone to hang out there. (You could tell whether the toilet door or bathroom floor opened from far away by seeing whether the door interrupted the light from a light fixture on the wall in between. Clever stuff.

This was part of some standardization procedure called "extended layout" as in how can they built as many identical apartments as possible with as little common complaints as possible. Other parts of it were for example not having any walls meet at a non-straight angle (high on compatibility with rectangular furniture) or not having any rooms connect through another functional room, only a shared corridor/hallway (in case there is a stampede, perhaps?)

Houses over nine stories always had at least a balcony or a loggia. The five-story ones never had anything, not sure about the go-betweens.

Lots of interesting features I just got to appreciate now that got uprooted for no good reason or lay dormant. Not sure if you are interested, but here is one. The Soviet "wired radio"

https://russlang.as.cornell.edu/komm/cfm/essays.cfm?ClipID=340&TourID=910

For the perfect reception of public service announcements about us getting nuked? Otherwise, where you're only capable to connect an official government radio, which could only tune to the three official propaganda channels. Which nobody really listened to, but people tended to have this strange widget at home nonetheless. Well, my high school associate Georgy did actually figure out how to use the network on input, using a regular stereo deck with a phone pre-amp, so he could tell me what to do over the government radio. Too bad, we've only had one stereo deck with a mike input (a very rare item in USSR) and couldn't build a bidirectional link. I am still trying to figure out how it worked and how it got to be so efficient. Voiceband transmission in 15 minutes walking distance from home stereo pre-amp is like better than any T3 I've ever seen. A regular cableco would need an amplifier the size of a car trunk. Georgy as a grown up has no clue. He never understood any electronics. What he understood very well is that the Soviet government was mean and trying to get in a way of our fun. Therefore, he can improve everything by simply removing the unnecessary bits which get in a way of fun. Still have no idea how he did it. I sorta might know how to do it by adding parts, like a balun transformer. Not sure. My level of electronics transcendence is only sufficient to improve the products of the murky German genius by absolving them of unnecessary parts. But they've got lots.

So, if what the Cornell link above is saying is true, there is potentially the world's largest and most efficient sorta wired cableco network out there, which seems to be nobody's in particular? They say, all the Soviet buildings from mid 60-ties to 1991 may be on the same broadcast net. The Russian peasants heard about the miraculous simplicity and speed of fiber and just skipped to that. Every old Soviet building in Moscow is connected by at least two fiber optic trunks, and even the old grandmas know how to fail over to the other providers' (Ether) socket when (IP)TV is broke. In the process of skipping the coax cable, the Russian (and most European) peasants missed out on a lot. Whether coax or fiber is more fast in the end, very much depends.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

7 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I am glad you see the range of fascism from crony capitalism to nationalist or other plain greedy cronies. I think it is a healthy way to look at the realities of where world governments are headed. That includes America. All you have to do is look at the wealth of the most prominent politicians in America, Russia, and around the world. 

I am definitely not anti-Russian. I am anti-totalitarian and all other types of dictatorship. I see it coming to all countries. Especially as a "soft" dictatorship of the elites in all countries and coming downhill from the wealthiest capitalists whether they be called communists or capitalists. The original name for this type of leadership was technocracy but it quickly became just elitism. Thus we now have Global Warming AKA Climate Change, Green Parties, and etc. Putin saw through all this and promoted it to some extent through his long invisible fingers. The West was willingly blind to it and sucked it up. People like George Soros, Scholz, and many others are enjoying trying to control all the puppet strings around the world. Meanwhile the average free person is bewildered by what is going on in his own life.

The aware populace is growing though, anti-maskers, parents who see their children being taught to be transsexual, being taught climate change, masked, given inappropriate vaccinations, anti-white nonsense etc. Not being taught how to read, write, arithmetic, or how to think and analyze anything. Instead being propagandized to believe in one world authority that is in agreement with whatever comes down from the perverted leaders above them. 

Russia's only got a couple of truly wealthy politicians left, and they were all self-made before becoming politicians. Incidentally, including the Communist candidate who came second to Putin, Grudinin. He's an agriculture magnate in the berry growing trade somehow.

OK, let's do a formal look, shall we? The little pink map widget in the top right is more important than text, because it is updated from the paper trail index that is way too large to micromanage. Still trying (and admitted it) Don't say who they caught in US, but judging by the flurry of legislative activity, somebody in Senate and Congress. Probably Clinton, too.

Now, you watch this space. They'll have to let the Big Bro do its thing. No micromanaging will save the case. See, Russia, DPRK, Syria or Cuba should not be on this list. Because circumventing the US sanctions using offshore is not an international financial crime. No US laws have any validly outside of US, so the criminals are really more likely you.

Also busted the British royals, former PM Cameron and everybody else in UK. All the Maidan revolutionaries in Ukraine. See any other reason for Russia to be on the list?

Interestingly enough, US beats up the rest of OECD to sign up to some common reporting requirements, but refuses to do the same. Basically, others offshore may no longer keep secrets on American taxpayers, but Uncle Sam gets to keep his own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers

Next one. Everybody else in UK, including the former PM Blair. Maidan revolutionaries in Ukraine, again. More heads of state. Russia is completely clean! Not tracking the US sanctions running this time? It is, indeed, not really enforceable. Without the sanctioned entity qualifier, when you are assumed guilty no matter what you do.  However, for US they caught one Wilbur Ross, Trump's former head of Commerce. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it the office tasked with dispensing the US sanctions as such? Poetic fucking justice, don't you think?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_Papers

And finally, a clusterfuck to put the pink widget up. 35 heads of state. $32 trillion! nicked. I wonder if any country is spotless. Russia is doing not too bad. They only caught one legislator, for using an offshore to obfuscate ownership of a posh property in UK. More of an issue at home than abroad.

For comic relief, add Mr. Ze to the Maidan revolutionaries this time. (he was late for the original Maidan, entertaining somebody in Russia) Trivial amount of money laundering, setup before he became someone. Used to launder the proceeds from his shows, including "Servant of the People" in Russia. Still producing more. In Russian. Because, as usual, does everybody in Ukraine know Russian anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers

Now, if you want to see a tyrant as petty as they come, this is your guy. Accuses his primary opposition of high treason, puts them under house arrest. Chickens out and lets Poroshenko go. As if Poroshenko still got any friends in the West left? Amazing, if true.

Forgive me, but Putin's cronies look like some of the least corrupt elites around. It is now illegal for Russian politicians (or high executive officials) to have other citizenship and permanent residency permits, as well as any accounts with foreign banks, be it offshore or on. Any other significant foreign assets or other involvements are merely frowned upon, for now. Nothing valuable you could hold for ransom anymore. Right on.

Yes, you are an anti-Russian. Must be the legacy of the Cold War. No big deal. You've got to understand how the worst form of totalitarianism is actually the democracy, not personified dictatorship. It removes all personal responsibility for the decisions of the majority mob, The Age of the French Enlightenment started with the invention of the guillotine, as the essence of keeping up with the Joneses (Jacques?) So, please, spare me the signature American cheerleading routine for democracy and freedom? It is either one or the other, not reconcilable at all. The highest form of justice is correctness. Hence, the Big Bro. Think, the guillotine 2.0. Now, will also work for the minority cause, should they happen to be correct. I think you are experiencing some experimental attempts to ride the trend of some very minor special interests being a lot more special than your majority democratic ones. Based on premonition of some kind? Amazing, if true. Alas, this in not how the Big Bro works. You better believe in one universal authority being able to decide everything. Isn't it a Christian thing to do? For all practical purposes, Big Bro is not going to be distinguishable from God.

Not seeing any connection between Putin's fingers and climate change. Care to elaborate? He remains aloof yet, but most likely is a skeptic, given that most of his advisors are. However, the new PM, Mishustin, otherwise a very somber induhvidiual appears to be a believer in climate change. So, Putin gave him a whole island of Sakhalin to try to turn into a carbon-neutral paradise by 2025

https://www.upstreamonline.com/energy-transition/gazprom-and-rosatom-announce-blue-hydrogen-project-for-sakhalin/2-1-1063311

Also potentially participating are Exxon, Novatek and Rosatom. Blue is steam reforming methane with carbon capture, it seems?

If I were to make any sense of it, I'd maybe try making acetylene C2H2 + H2 out of it?

Pro: Acetylene is close to the most powerful hydrocarbon fuel you may get.

Con: Dangerous as fuck. Possibly it may get more benign if liquefied? -80C is much easier than LNG

Pro: generates a lot of useless fine soot (lamp soot) which may count for carbon sequestration?

At the end of the day, I've invented some kind of "acetylene economy" instead of hydrogen one. Still no idea why I made the H2 part? Not very amenable to compression, pipeline transport or liquefaction, best made in situ. I am not sure the Eurofags have a plan beyond imitating some kind of progress till it is time to retire and make way for the new Comission, whose problem it will be then?

Nether is Putin seemingly convinced. The decarbonization goal for mainland Russia is 2060, which seems like after you, esteemed European colleagues. Will probably use whatever tech there is to avoid having any exports carbon-taxed, that's all.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

9 hours ago, notsonice said:

 

You cannot read a FOREX chart?????? Clueless Russian

Love your charts....The Ruble has consistently falling against the Yuan and Dollar and all other currencies....Which means if you invest in Russia...your investment tomorrow, next week , next month, next year etc.... if you want to cash out will be worth less than today and this is consistent over the long run. 65 Rubles to the dollar today when it was 4 to the dollar in 1998... Same goes for the Yuan , the Ruble has lost 80 percent of its value against the Yuan in 14 years . Yep Russia is a Fucking Joke and Putin is responsible. Please keep trying to spin it ....eat all the big macs at $1.50 that you can on your $500 a month typical salary. If you eat a Big Mac every day it eats up 10 percent of your salary. In the US it would eat up less than 3 percent of your salary ($150 a month out of a typical $5000 a month salary) Yes this is the truth a typical Russian cannot afford to eat a Big Mac every day. 

Possibly because your chart is bunk? The ruble has obviously not lost near half its value against the yuan in the last year alone. It lost some, but so did the dollar. Which is the same as saying that yuan has gained against all the other currencies in the last year?

In 1998, Russia defaulted, with the ruble consequently debased by a factor of 1000. It technically not even the same currency code. One is RUR, another RUB. The two are often conflated in today's use. It is not that bad now.

Your calculation entirely ignores the interest. Ruble deposits in Russian banks  pay interest. To recoup the loss of half its value at a conservative rate of 7%, I need about 10 years time. Meaning 2024. Why should I cash out into a currency that is effectively depreciating. Because I am pretty sure that your current account in dollars pays close to 0% interest. Meaning, every 10 years, my amount of rubles is double what it was. Your amount of dollars stays the same. See

Ditto for your yuan example. 14 years ago, the Russian interest rates were even higher than now. Let's say, 12% At that rate, you would only need 6 years to double / add 100%. I am too lazy to derive an exact number for a variable rate which has been reducing since, but we can surmise that my rubles grew by a factor of between 2x-3x, plenty to compensate for alleged 80% loss.

Now, on to burgers. Checked your data. You gave me gross monthly income, not net. Should be more like $175 / $2700 which is the net income. First, you pay the good Uncle, than MickeyD. Got your priorities straight? OK. This gives us some 6.5% which means that yes, indeed, you can afford more burgers from your income. Also the largest bucket of Coke with the most ice. Most everything, in fact. Russian ruble average salary trend is set to outperform though:

Now, pretty much everything you've seen so far just about compensates for an official inflation of some 7%. Which is also how much you also officially got these days. But, at 0%, it is effectively -7%. Can I persuade you to get rich quick off the Russian stocks? Your cash dollars are obviously burning up. See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTS_Index

Google gives me RTS 5 year gain as 262%. It is already in USD. The Nasdaq Composite gained "only" 131% in the same time, exactly half. There are also better dividends?

So, you better get used to it, buddy. Russia is a booming economy. Which is obfuscated by the fact that it is not even Top10 most booming. But considering how hard you tried to break it during this time, it will have to do.

As far as yourself, you are already being punished as we speak. Your dollars are no longer currency as such, because you choose to arbitrarily recall them according to ad hoc rules. This violates the fundamental property of cash of being non-negotiable. Your latest stunt.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/biden-executive-order-afghanistan-assets/

So, Biden just took half of Afghan national reserve and reassigned them to some victims of 9/11.  What would be the legal basis for this stunt, may I ask?

I checked and the median age of an Afghan happens to be 18.4 years. This means, they have not even been alive in 2001 yet! Does this count as

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_punishment

Crime against humanity in violation of a bunch of articles of Geneva convention.

Now, whether you want it or not, you are already paying for your vicious crimes. Take Basel III I told you so much about. Under Basel III are all the central banks allowed to report their gold reserves as liquid cash in the currency of their choosing at the current market price. Also, USD. Can you confiscate those remotely? Are those more like your dollars today or maybe more like pre-Nixon dollar gold or something else altogether?  If any of the latter, what is there to prevent say Russia, or China or anybody else who's been hording gold bullion of late to issue better USD than the paper or electronic ones your Fed's been "printing" of late. Mind you, being a Central Bank (sorta) like signatory of the Basel III, it very much does accept USD denominated gold bullion, i.e. gold dollars issued by a foreign state, or what?

 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

13 hours ago, Starschy said:

Sergey Miller deserves that Title. If he would live in the US he would be Manager of the year 5 times in a row. He‘s by far better as Bill Gates or the Ego Shooter from Oracle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Milner is perhaps the one you want to compare to Ellison or Gates?

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

13 hours ago, notsonice said:

You obviously are a paid troll working for Putin...

There is massive immigration into Russia from all over ex-USSR??? yes however those leaving Russia permanently and death/birth rate exceed the immigration rate.....This is why there are less people in Russia today than the 90's. As a whole Putin has failed and the Ruble keeps failing.....

Why are there never any volunteer trolls?

Russia's net migration rate is significantly positive. Your net migration is even more positive, but your fertility rate is slightly less of late. Both are lightly negative. Basically, we are comparing two countries of actually quite similar population dynamics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia

shows about breakeven since the 90-ties. Would you stop making stuff up?