Ukraine: No gas? No votes.

[50 shades of black + 254]

The average monthly wage in Ukraine has dropped the equivalent of almost $80 since 2013 and Ukrainians need more than three times as many local hryvnia to buy a dollar as they did then. Inflation peaked at 43 percent in 2015 and the price of a cubic meter of gas is almost 12 times what it was in 2013. Living standards, however, have continued to decline.  Ukrainian pensioner Nadiya Ignatiy says she has had the plum and cherry trees in her garden cut down for firewood since the government.  In next month’s election, she will vote against President Petro Poroshenko in favour of an opponent who has pledged to restore the gas subsidies that were scaled back to secure an international bailout. “We cleared the garden,” she said in her house in the village of Skryhalivka, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Kiev. “Not just me, other people are doing it now... previously you could heat with gas but now it’s a problem.” Such frustrations could tip the balance in the March 31 election against Poroshenko, whose market-oriented reforms have helped stabilise a country battling Russian-backed separatism and encouraged Western investors wary of pervasive corruption. Poroshenko was elected in 2014 after protests ousted a Kremlin-friendly president and sent the government and the West on a collision course with Russia: Russia annexed Crimea and supported the overthrow of government rule in eastern Ukraine. An influential businessman who had made a fortune from confectionery, he pledged to take the ex-Soviet country out of Russia’s orbit and restore control over the east in a matter of weeks. The latter has not happened, but he has overseen an uneasy stalemate with separatist-held regions and ended a steep recession, with around 3.4 percent growth last year. 

[damirUSBiH + 327]

The International Monetary Fund has set a condition for Ukraine: to raise gas prices by 20 times. And the impoverished population of Ukraine is crying ... and does not pay. So, the reform process doesn't help, indeed everything about Ukraine is only hypocrisy of Western Countries and allies..
 

[Pavel + 384]

I see Putin:

 

[pinto + 293]

Since the revolution, things are going down and nothing has changed. Revolution is eating own kids..

[rainman + 263]

7 minutes ago, damirUSBiH said:

The International Monetary Fund has set a condition for Ukraine: to raise gas prices by 20 times. And the impoverished population of Ukraine is crying ... and does not pay. So, the reform process doesn't help, indeed everything about Ukraine is only hypocrisy of Western Countries and allies..
 

I know it sounds like a cliché, but IMF cares about macro-economic stability, not politics.

[Enlightened Blue + 2]

The EU is rich. It can either demonstrate good faith and the success of Western democratic capitalism by subsidizing Ukraine or watch it fall irrevsersably into Putin's iron grasp. Wanna bet which they choose?

[Pavel + 384]

Russian boot on the Crimea and "betrayal" of the EU will will back Ukraine in the period before the revolution. It means - nowhere...

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Putin does what he does in order to keep Ukraine destabilized, with internal turmoil.  Putin was a former KGB spook and is skilled in the art of crafting "plausible deniability" as to what he has done, but he is fooling no one.  The entire planet knows that he sent in the Wagner Brigade, a mercenary unit, to invade the Donbass.  Everyone knows that his take-over of Crimea was done by brute force, at gunpoint.  Putin calculated that the West, and especially Obama, would do nothing.  He guessed correctly.  Obama did nothing. 

One technical problem for the USA is an antique Treaty governing the movement of warships through the Dardanelles.  There is a tonnage limit to aircraft carriers; no more than 15,000 tons.  As the current US aircraft carriers are in excess of 100,000 tons, the Treaty prevents their transit into the Baltic.  Of course, nothing to stop the US Navy from barging their way in, Treaty or no Treaty, but those Pentagon people tend to be all "legalistic".  Meanwhile, Russia perpetually keeps a heavy cruiser in the Dardanelles so that, under Treaty rules, no other Navy make make a transit - only one gunboat at a time!

Putin has stationed several Divisions of troops, including heavy-armor brigades, just on the Russian side of the Ukrainian Frontier, in the area of Kharkov.  The city of Kharkov is but a few scant miles from that Border.  Putin thus intimidates the residents, and by extension the government in Kiev, simply by keeping lots of troops  (possibly 75,000) and tanks right on the river banks. Putin also engages in disinformation campaigns and pays fifth-columnists to destabilize the regions with both propaganda and acts of sabotage and aggression. 

Putin is engaging in economic warfare in order to collapse the Ukrainian economy.  The entire exercise of spending some 13 Billion on a Baltic Sea gas pipeline is to deprive Ukraine of gas transit fees through the existing pipeline.  What I find amazing is how utterly stupid and vapid the Merkel government is and has been about that pipeline.  Even more amazing is that German banks are in on the deal, providing the capital. Say what you want about Putin, he sure is smart. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

7 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Putin does what he does in order to keep Ukraine destabilized, with internal turmoil.  Putin was a former KGB spook and is skilled in the art of crafting "plausible deniability" as to what he has done, but he is fooling no one.  The entire planet knows that he sent in the Wagner Brigade, a mercenary unit, to invade the Donbass.  Everyone knows that his take-over of Crimea was done by brute force, at gunpoint.  Putin calculated that the West, and especially Obama, would do nothing.  He guessed correctly.  Obama did nothing. 

One technical problem for the USA is an antique Treaty governing the movement of warships through the Dardanelles.  There is a tonnage limit to aircraft carriers; no more than 15,000 tons.  As the current US aircraft carriers are in excess of 100,000 tons, the Treaty prevents their transit into the Baltic.  Of course, nothing to stop the US Navy from barging their way in, Treaty or no Treaty, but those Pentagon people tend to be all "legalistic".  Meanwhile, Russia perpetually keeps a heavy cruiser in the Dardanelles so that, under Treaty rules, no other Navy make make a transit - only one gunboat at a time!

Putin has stationed several Divisions of troops, including heavy-armor brigades, just on the Russian side of the Ukrainian Frontier, in the area of Kharkov.  The city of Kharkov is but a few scant miles from that Border.  Putin thus intimidates the residents, and by extension the government in Kiev, simply by keeping lots of troops  (possibly 75,000) and tanks right on the river banks. Putin also engages in disinformation campaigns and pays fifth-columnists to destabilize the regions with both propaganda and acts of sabotage and aggression. 

Putin is engaging in economic warfare in order to collapse the Ukrainian economy.  The entire exercise of spending some 13 Billion on a Baltic Sea gas pipeline is to deprive Ukraine of gas transit fees through the existing pipeline.  What I find amazing is how utterly stupid and vapid the Merkel government is and has been about that pipeline.  Even more amazing is that German banks are in on the deal, providing the capital. Say what you want about Putin, he sure is smart. 

Merkel was brainwashed early in life. Germans have gradually fallen into line with Russia it seems. They have always had a fondness for totalitarianism. That fits with how they and France run the European Union. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

7 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Merkel was brainwashed early in life. Germans have gradually fallen into line with Russia it seems. They have always had a fondness for totalitarianism. That fits with how they and France run the European Union. 

Unfortunately, I suspect you are correct. 

Another aspect is this fantasy that if Russia is integrated into the European marketplace as both a buyer and a seller, then it becomes self-restrained as to its naturally aggressive and violent behavior.  That idea I suggest is behind some of the German use of Russian gas.  The idea is a total fantasy.  You cannot seriously think that you are going to alter the behavior of some thug by buying some of his gas, now do you? 

Russia is a dangerous, violent, drunken society.  Those aspects are why so many Russian women want to marry a Western man, especially an American man, just to get out of the place.  The public displays of appallingly drunken behavior are there all day long, and nobody does anything about it.  How could you?  That society does not have the resources to cope with the drunkenness.  In Russia, a totally hopeless impossibly alcohol-fuelled drunken American  is no more than a mild party animal, A harmless social drinker. People not in tune with Russian public conduct have a hard time grasping the extent of public drunkenness in Russia.   Check it out:

 

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

Unfortunately, I suspect you are correct. 

Another aspect is this fantasy that if Russia is integrated into the European marketplace as both a buyer and a seller, then it becomes self-restrained as to its naturally aggressive and violent behavior.  That idea I suggest is behind some of the German use of Russian gas.  The idea is a total fantasy.  You cannot seriously think that you are going to alter the behavior of some thug by buying some of his gas, now do you? 

Russia is a dangerous, violent, drunken society.  Those aspects are why so many Russian women want to marry a Western man, especially an American man, just to get out of the place.  The public displays of appallingly drunken behavior are there all day long, and nobody does anything about it.  How could you?  That society does not have the resources to cope with the drunkenness.  In Russia, a totally hopeless impossibly alcohol-fuelled drunken American  is no more than a mild party animal, A harmless social drinker. People not in tune with Russian public conduct have a hard time grasping the extent of public drunkenness in Russia.   Check it out:

 

 

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

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

26 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

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

Look at it this way: that drunken Russian lying on the bench is doing far better than I would, under those circumstances.  I would have soaked my pants; this guy, not one drop on his trousers.   Must be the result of lots of practice!

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

31 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

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

Ron, this is what Russian women, looking for husband prospects, have to choose from.  Gets rather discouraging.  Compared to this, Americans look not only civilized, but outright tame:

And now you know why Anastasia Dating does such a roaring business!  Hey, compared to this, even a farmhouse out in South Dakota starts to look good.........

[Tomasz + 1,608]

Before you start to spread antirussian racialist propaganda all over again please at least check facts-newest data  for alcohol consumption rate from 2014 published by WHO before you make a pathetic post

Russia achieved  a very big progress in becoming more sober in last decade  and you can oficially check it on WHO report published about a year ago.  Consumption rate is now lower than for example in France  or Germany and equal with UK so your post is totally worthless. Because in European Union anno domini 2014 Russia would not be even in top 5 of this ranking. 

Apart from the fact that you want to present yourself on this forum as liberal enghlited European but you  very often spread racialist stereotypes about Russia at the same time. You wouldnt dare to say this about Jews but you see no problem to insult Russian people. 

 I understand free speech but rusophobia imho is a new  antisemitism and I will always react to this  although I was absent on this forum for the last 3 months.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Tomasz

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

15 hours ago, ronwagn said:

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

The U.S. is #48?  It's MADDening!

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

6 hours ago, Tomasz said:

Before you start to spread antirussian racialist propaganda all over again please at least check facts-newest data  for alcohol consumption rate from 2014 published by WHO before you make a pathetic post

Russia achieved  a very big progress in becoming more sober in last decade  and you can oficially check it on WHO report published about a year ago.  Consumption rate is now lower than for example in France  or Germany and equal with UK so your post is totally worthless. Because in European Union anno domini 2014 Russia would not be even in top 5 of this ranking. 

Apart from the fact that you want to present yourself on this forum as liberal enghlited European but you  very often spread racialist stereotypes about Russia at the same time. You wouldnt dare to say this about Jews but you see no problem to insult Russian people. 

 I understand free speech but rusophobia imho is a new  antisemitism and I will always react to this  although I was absent on this forum for the last 3 months.

Er, Tomasz?  Did you read the link the ronwagn shared?

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

It appears that the difference between the 2010 quoted section and the 2015 quoted section is not about improvements and drops, but is about different statistics.  I could be wrong.....

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by Dan Warnick

[Rodent + 1,424]

I offer this not as a support for blanket assumptions about Russian people, but as a rather unfortunately timed event given your current conversation.

Drunk Russian sailor crashes massive cargo ship into South Korean bridge

the headline is followed by the punchline that tells of another event: the same cargo ship clipped a cruise ship 1 hour before crashing into the bridge. whoops!

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

11 hours ago, Tomasz said:

 

Russia achieved  a very big progress in becoming more sober in last decade  and you can oficially check it on WHO report published about a year ago.  Consumption rate is now lower than for example in France  or Germany and equal with UK so your post is totally worthless. Because in European Union anno domini 2014 Russia would not be even in top 5 of this ranking. 

 

Tomasz, you really do have to learn to lighten up.  Russia has (officially) lowered its alcohol consumption from 17 liters of pure alcohol equivalent to 15 liters, whether that can capture bootleg and backwoods-distilled alcohol is anybody's guess.  In any event, the "official" numbers put Russia at #5, just behind Belarus and Lithuania.  Yet the difference is hairline.  Russians drink, a lot, and when drunk they are known to be violent.   Russia is a society that sorts out road disputes with the motorists getting out and beating each other up with clubs and fists.  The problems are severe enough for the Russian women to want to escape it all, by marrying Westerners, with a preference for Americans.  Would the drinking and the violence decrease if Putin were gone?  Unknown, but likely.  He is not exactly a help as far as setting an example. 

It is an unpleasant reality, to be sure, but for you to get bent out of shape over some pictures of Russian men drunk and urinating, or passed out in ridiculous poses, has a certain comic relief.  Just roll with it, chum.  Being thin-skinned is not bringing you any benefits. You are not going to change Russian society by yelling at me on Oilprice.  Hey, you are Polish, not even Russian any more.  Let it slide.  

11 hours ago, Tomasz said:

Apart from the fact that you want to present yourself on this forum as liberal enghlited European but you  very often spread racialist stereotypes about Russia at the same time. You wouldnt dare to say this about Jews but you see no problem to insult Russian people. 

Actually, you may think of me as an American, if you like; I don't mind a bit..  I am good with that.  As far as "dare to say this about Jews,"  of course I would!  And do!  I say a lot of things.  Jews are hardly above criticism, especially that guy Netanyahu. I'll criticize him all day long.  Along with Putin.  Enjoy life; it's short enough. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

13 hours ago, Tomasz said:

Before you start to spread antirussian racialist propaganda all over again please at least check facts-newest data  for alcohol consumption rate from 2014 published by WHO before you make a pathetic post

Russia achieved  a very big progress in becoming more sober in last decade  and you can oficially check it on WHO report published about a year ago.  Consumption rate is now lower than for example in France  or Germany and equal with UK so your post is totally worthless. Because in European Union anno domini 2014 Russia would not be even in top 5 of this ranking. 

Apart from the fact that you want to present yourself on this forum as liberal enghlited European but you  very often spread racialist stereotypes about Russia at the same time. You wouldnt dare to say this about Jews but you see no problem to insult Russian people. 

 I understand free speech but rusophobia imho is a new  antisemitism and I will always react to this  although I was absent on this forum for the last 3 months.

If I had to live in the totalitarian dictatorship of Russia, I might become a drunk too. I have mostly sympathy for the Russian people who have had so many great thinkers, and are now stuck with Putin and his crony plutocracy.