fatherboxx posted:

Batka is still the most skilled tactician in this whole clusterfuck.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

To put the discussion of backwardness in various countries to rest, here's a graph. Stats are from 2011 I think?

Discendo Vox posted:

Well, I'd like to see what those axes are actually measuring and what the source was, but just going from intuition I'd prefer a society somewhere on the upper middle- God dammit, I've inadvertently become goon.txt.

Discendo Vox posted:

Well, I'd like to see what those axes are actually measuring and what the source was, but just going from intuition I'd prefer a society somewhere on the upper middle- God dammit, I've inadvertently become goon.txt.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

The stats come from the World Values Survey.

az posted:

It's a bad graphic because self reported values across countries are highly subjective.

Young Freud posted:

I'm guessing that the idea of Survival vs. Self-Expression is how well that country's society overall is on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, with 0 being something like psychological needs are being met by that society. The high-end, "Self-Expression", coincides with the top of the hierarchy, in which the person becomes self-actualization, while, at the low end of that axis, you'll notice that there's countries where the populace doesn't feel safe (either from crime/warlordism or their own government) or are having issues with getting the most basic biological needs fulfilled.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

To put the discussion of backwardness in various countries to rest, here's a graph. Stats are from 2011 I think?

quote:

Russia's government has pushed the country into an economic crisis by not tackling its financial problems fast enough, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, as evidence mounted of trouble spreading through the economy.

As he spoke President Vladimir Putin prepared to hold emergency talks with Western leaders to try to resolve the stand-off over Ukraine, the central bank bailed out its first victim of the collapsing currency and authorities announced a tax on grain exports to protect domestic stocks.

A Reuters poll of 11 economists predicted that Russia's gross domestic product would fall 3.6 percent next year, after only 0.5 percent growth this year.

Russia has been hit by what Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev recently called a "perfect storm" of plummeting oil prices, sanctions related to its military action in Ukraine, and a flight of investors' capital - made worse by a lack of structural reforms that means the economy is overwhelmingly dependent on oil revenues..

Government officials have tried to minimise the impact of sanctions on the country and its rouble currency, which plunged 80 percent against the dollar last week despite a hike in interest rates to 17 percent. Putin has claimed "external factors" like oil were the key culprit behind the country's "tough times".

But Kudrin - a darling of investors who is credited with building Russia's US$170 billion sovereign wealth funds - asserted that sanctions over Ukraine, not falling oil prices, were primarily behind the collapse of the rouble, and warned that Russia risked having its debt downgraded to junk status in 2015.

"Today, I can say that we have entered or are entering a real, full-fledged economic crisis. Next year we will feel it clearly," the former minister told a news conference.

"The government has not been quick enough to address the situation ... I am yet to hear ... its clear assessment of the current situation."

Kudrin, one of few to criticise President Vladimir Putin, quit in 2011 in protest at proposals to increase defence spending, though the two men are still believed to be close.

He has also criticised Putin's response to Western sanctions imposed following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and its subsequent support for loyalist fighters.

The Kremlin's foreign policy adviser said Putin would hold phone talks with the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine on Monday that would "focus on the current crisis situation and prospects for the next meeting of the contact group."

MOUNTING PROBLEMS

Mounting evidence suggested that Russia's economic pain and isolation were starting to bite.

The country announced plans to impose a heavy tax on grain exports since rouble volatility and high global prices have caused exports to spike: Russian news agencies reported Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting with officials that the country needed to hang on to its stocks.

And Russia's central bank said it would have to bail out mid-sized Trust Bank with 30 billion roubles (US$540 million) to stop it going bankrupt. Trust held 145 billion roubles (US$2.63 billion) in private personal deposits as of December 1, according to its accounts

The country's largest lender Sberbank was forced to deny a report from RIA news agency that it had suspended taking new requests for auto loans and mortgages.

Though Russia's biggest oil firm Rosneft partially eased some worries by saying it had made a US$7 billion debt repayment from its own cash reserves - investors had been concerned it could default because the sanctions cut off its access to Western finance - it announced separately that a deal to acquire an oil trading business from Morgan Stanley had been terminated due to a refusal by regulators in the United States to clear it.

The termination of the deal is another blow for Rosneft after its partners including ExxonMobil withdrew from projects to develop Arctic offshore oil deposits after the sanctions were introduced.

Kudrin forecast a series of defaults among both medium and large companies - though he said banks would probably be supported by the state - which was likely to result in rating agencies downgrading Russia's debt to "junk" status.

Most agencies have put Russia this year one notch above junk status.

"Russia will get a downgrade," Kudrin said. "It will enter the 'junk' territory."

MISTRUST

The rouble firmed against the dollar on Monday, with exporters responding to Putin's urge to sell their foreign currency revenues on the market, and Brent crude prices stood close to US$60 a barrel.

While the currency, down some 45 percent against the dollar so far this year, may stabilise in the first quarter of next year, its decline will likely help to push inflation to a rate of 12-15 percent in 2015, Kudrin said.

The central bank envisages next year's inflation at around 8 percent. Economists polled by Reuters see it at 9.2 percent.

Kudrin said he believed that between 25 and 35 percent of the decline in the rouble could be attributed to sanctions. The rest, he said, was down to a stronger dollar and investors' mistrust of Russian authorities and their actions.

His outlook for the economy next year was bleak: Even if the price of oil rose to US$80 per barrel, gross domestic product was still likely to fall by more than 2 percent in 2015, Kudrin said. At US$60 per barrel GDP would decline by 4 percent or more, he added, echoing the central bank's latest assessment, published last week.

- Reuters

Warcabbit posted:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/64409012/russia-entering-fullfledged-economic-crisis-says-exfinance-minister-alexei-kudrin



So, how accurate is this?

quote:

If national socialism had won we would have no unemployment, no debt slavery to banks. Absolutely everything would be better. Everything.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

What do you mean by this?

quote:

If national socialism had won we would have no unemployment, no debt slavery to banks Jews. Absolutely everything would be better. Everything.

Paladinus posted:

Is there a source for that? ROC may have claims on some Greek Catholic churches, but apart from that there is no reason to do that.

az posted:

Different nationalities, societies, cultures have completly different views on values, such as what constitutes survival or self expression. It's bad science to plot all these nations together on the same graphic without thorough adjustment.

that website posted:

A fashion revue of designer Zvonko Marković's work held on Tuesday evening was attended by Seka Aleksić. Seka chose to wear a model from the "Dolce & Gabbana" collection inspired by Byzantium, mosaics, and icons for this special occasion.

az posted:

It's a bad graphic because self reported values across countries are highly subjective.

Guildencrantz posted:

Yeah, this. I have a feeling the survey is affected severely by what people in various countries think they're "supposed" to value over what they actually value. That, and plotting "tradition vs self-expression" on one axis is an absurd oversimplification given the complex ways in which these factors interact. Looking at two societies I'm familiar with:

Fabulous Knight posted:

http://rt.com/politics/216679-belarus-america-russia-warning/


I am unable to provide a comment here really. Let us never forget Milosevic, Gaddafi and Hussein who perished in the struggle against imperialism.

Discendo Vox posted:

It's not even that, it's "survival" versus "self-expression". The other axis is "traditional" versus "secular-rational".

quote:

Potential Flashpoint:
Vladimir Putin undermines NATO members by stirring up trouble with Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia, and with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave between Poland and Lithuania. Recent airspace encounters show Russia’s willingness to test NATO’s capabilities.

Potential Flashpoint:
Putin-backed rebels, supported by Russian forces, drive further west in Ukraine to create a land corridor to join up with Crimea. That triggers deeper economic sanctions from the U.S. and the European Union and forces them to accelerate military support to the government.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

To put the discussion of backwardness in various countries to rest, here's a graph. Stats are from 2011 I think?

Lichtenstein posted:

It's a tank put on a pedestal as a war memorial. Not really a particular one, there's a lot of these in Eastern Europe, especially in smaller towns that ain't keen on blowing their budgets on actual statues.

Paladinus posted:

So, when asked 'Do you believe that the world was created by God less than ten thousand years ago' 40% of American actually hear 'Are you a republican?' and answer 'yes' to that?

If so, I'm not sure if it's better than if the stats were correct.

vegaji posted:

I think that I know which to believe.

OddObserver posted:

It's kinda amazing they keep pushing the Su-25 thing, what with the plane being incapable of doing it and all...

vegaji posted:

Read it here, if you can stomach the tinfoil: http://www.kp.ru/daily/26322/3200809/

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

"America did it" has worked as justification for everything the Russians do so far.

quote:

Although the White House issued a condemnation of the Beslan hostage-takers, its official view remains that the Chechen conflict must be solved politically. According to ACPC member Charles Fairbanks of Johns Hopkins University, US pressure will now increase on Moscow to achieve a political, rather than military, solution - in other words to negotiate with terrorists, a policy the US resolutely rejects elsewhere.

Allegations are even being made in Russia that the west itself is somehow behind the Chechen rebellion, and that the purpose of such support is to weaken Russia, and to drive her out of the Caucasus. The fact that the Chechens are believed to use as a base the Pankisi gorge in neighbouring Georgia - a country which aspires to join Nato, has an extremely pro-American government, and where the US already has a significant military presence - only encourages such speculation. Putin himself even seemed to lend credence to the idea in his interview with foreign journalists on Monday.

Proof of any such western involvement would be difficult to obtain, but is it any wonder Russians are asking themselves such questions when the same people in Washington who demand the deployment of overwhelming military force against the US's so-called terrorist enemies also insist that Russia capitulate to hers?

Swan Oat posted:

Why couldn't an Su-25 have shot down MH17? I am asking this out of curiosity only, not because I think Ukraine shot the plane down.

Swan Oat posted:

Why couldn't an Su-25 have shot down MH17? I am asking this out of curiosity only, not because I think Ukraine shot the plane down.

computer parts posted:

There is no way Japan doesn't have "traditional values" unless you don't care about women at all.

MaxxBot posted:

They're not particularly good on LGBT rights either, that chart is dumb.

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

From Bloomberg's "A pessimists guide to the world in 2015"

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-flash-points/img/baltics-big.png?v=11




That Putin needs to be someone's avatar.

Dusty Baker 2 posted:

Who should I piss off to make it happen?

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Guildencrantz posted:

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm pretty sure Poland is not a society with similar attitudes to Ethiopia, which we apparently neighbor on this chart.