After 3 months of war, life in Russia has profoundly changed

Russian do not fight for their freedom at home,why would they fight in Ukraine

Do I get it right, that we throw away all our kernel industries for environmental reasons or climate change theories, but due to war sanctions they have to fly now 12 hours to Tallinn in Estonia via Istanbul in Turkey? Is now everyone going mad on this planet? No need to answer, I know it already. lol

"Ruble Hits 5-Year High as Gas Buyers Bend to Putin’s Will"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-20/ruble-surges-to-7-year-high-as-gazprom-clients-heed-putin-on-gas

Yep those sanctions really effective, huh?

Changed? Oh! You mean they are now honest?

@Blacklabel

From the article, that high Ruble is like double edged sword.

As the world transitions away from fossil fuel, sped up by the opprobrium of dealing with a fascist pack of war criminals, the income for poo tins colonial expansionist dreams and his excuse for an army will simply dry up. Sanctions will progressively degrade russias already backward, inefficient and corruption riddled economy. As businesses close, become bankrupt, exports dry up and consequently more and more people become unemployed, the consequences of poo tins ego driven folly will start to hit home to the russian people.

Further as the majority of the cannon fodder his generals are sacrificing come from the hinterlands many of whom have an ethnicity, culture and language of their own suppressed by imperial/soviet russian governments, the disproportionate burden of sacrifice may well begin to split the empire apart.

@Blacklabel

From the article, that high Ruble is like double edged sword.

to be fair to you personally, quite possibly.

But based on all the other people here who were celebrating and mocking and claiming "sanctions work!, Russia is hurting!" when it was half price, I would say higher value is the best option for Russia.

I didnt see any of them at that time claiming lower ruble was actually good for Russia, right?

go back to Feb this year and read. Dont read the latest April/May articles trying to tell you that the opposite of what was said back then is actually true.

Example:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/28/economic-sanctions-send-russians-scrambling-for-dollars-euros-and-other-currencies-as-ruble-plunges.html

Such a drop in the value of the ruble would ultimately translate into a lower standard of living for Russians. Any goods or commodities Moscow imports — from wheat and soybeans to medical supplies — will be magnitudes more expensive.

Ok, so now the ruble is at the record high. So its a much higher than before standard of living and goods and commodities are magnitudes less expensive.

Or were they lying in Feb and telling the truth now?

Imagine if McDs and IKEA etc left Japan.... End of the world? No, you would go to MOS burger or Freshness Burger for your eats and NITORI for your low quality, flat pack furniture. The propaganda photographer could then take photos of an empty McDonalds shop and not the extra crowds at MOS...

I'm not saying all the sanctions are meaningless but those being hurt the most are McDonalds, Renault and Shell etc

Imagine if McDs and IKEA etc left Japan.... End of the world? No, you would go to MOS burger or Freshness Burger for your eats and NITORI for your low quality, flat pack furniture. The propaganda photographer could then take photos of an empty McDonalds shop and not the extra crowds at MOS...

So what's the Russian equivalent of Mac? Nittori? IKEA? Oh and dont forget, when Mac pulls out, it's a direct effect on close to 100,000 others who work in industries directly related to supporting Mac. Farmers, ranchers, delivery folks, all up and down the supply chain, they are all affected by it.

Oh and dont compare MOS to Mac, people are not going to suddenly run to MOS, it's too expensive by comparison!

Imagine if McDs and IKEA etc left Japan.... End of the world? No, you would go to MOS burger or Freshness Burger for your eats and NITORI for your low quality, flat pack furniture. The propaganda photographer could then take photos of an empty McDonalds shop and not the extra crowds at MOS...

So what's the Russian equivalent of Mac? Nittori? IKEA? Oh and dont forget, when Mac pulls out, it's a direct effect on close to 100,000 others who work in industries directly related to supporting Mac. Farmers, ranchers, delivery folks, all up and down the supply chain, they are all affected by it.

Oh and dont compare MOS to Mac, people are not going to suddenly run to MOS, it's too expensive by comparison!

I'm not saying all the sanctions are meaningless but those being hurt the most are McDonalds, Renault and Shell etc

FYI, they are far from hurt. So they dont make another $5 or $10 billion, but they still are in the black. Pulling out of Russia is not going to bankrupt them, far from it!

Imagine if McDs and IKEA etc left Japan.... End of the world?

Imagine if another 400 companies joined them, and another 600 scaled back their activities. Would this be of concern despite still not being 'End of the world'?

But they or others won't be leaving Japan since Japan isn't invading other countries and killing thousands of citizens.

that they saw as a plunge into full totalitarianism. Some young men may have also fled in fear that the Kremlin would impose a mandatory draft to feed its war machine.

A plunge, totalitarianism has been the history of Russia, read about Stalin's USSR, fortunately for the west many who left Stalin's Russia ended up becoming quite successful and greatly benefited the nations they moved to. I imagine there are still lots of talented individuals in Russia who might want to leave to another country here they might experience more freedom, assuming Putin and his totalitarian regime would allow them. Russia has seen brain drains in the past, many leaving for countries nearby that had been part of the USSR. But I doubt many will want to go to another country near to Russia after watching what Putin's invading hordes did to Ukraine.(assuming they were able to watch anything close to reality while living in Russia).

mandatory draft?

Why don't those working kush jobs in the Kremlin and the oligarch circle volunteer, after all they're the ones who were set to benefit most from the territorial land grab. And why would Putin and the Kremlin need more military personnel, are they planning another territorial land grab? Have they admitted to how many Russia troops were killed invading Ukraine?

So what's the Russian equivalent of Mac? Nittori? IKEA?

Russians have various equivalents to McDonalds in every region but much healthier and tasty.

As for Ikea, they are buying the same furniture made in China. Just cutting out the Swedish middle man. Ditto for Uni Qlo and the Japanese middle man.

I don't think even the most optimistic forcasters thought Russia would fare so well in the economic war vs Japan, Europe, North America.

I'm sure it hasn't changed anywhere near as it has in Ukraine these past 3 months.

I’d play them a sad song in the world’s smallest violin, but good luck finding one in Russia these days.

Yubaru....

So what's the Russian equivalent of Mac? Nittori? IKEA? Oh and dont forget, when Mac pulls out, it's a direct effect on close to 100,000 others who work in industries directly related to supporting Mac. Farmers, ranchers, delivery folks, all up and down the supply chain, they are all affected by it.

McDonald's Russian stores have already been bought by the largest franchiser in Russia... they will open under a different name with the same products. There will be knock on effects, mostly temporary, but people are still going to eat.

Oh and dont compare MOS to Mac, people are not going to suddenly run to MOS, it's too expensive by comparison!

McDonalds IS the MOS of Russia.. the others are cheaper.

Whether Muscovite’s clog their arteries with MacDonalds or some home-grown junk isn’t all that important.

Sanctions mean that Russia can’t get spare parts to repair its tanks and military vehicles, and the factories that should be producing new tanks are closed down because of the lack of parts.

Tanks captured in Ukraine have been found to have parts cannibalised from dishwashers.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-fixing-tanks-with-dishwasher-spare-parts-l82jbq3lk

A really sad article.

I hope that one day the Russians can lift up their heads and feel proud again, and that their economy really booms.

In the meantime please stop the mindless killing machine, which is based on a largely false premise, and bring your remaining young ones home. Putin made his point on days one and two. We got it. Everything since then is madness.