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There are smart people in western europe that will deny or downplay Lenin and Stalin's crimes because they were made "with good intentions" or "for the greater good". Defending present Russian aggression is way easier. I've ventured into one of pro-separatist facebook pages and a lot of posts are from angry young people with greek or spanish sounding names. It's weird seeing "No pasaran" in one comment and anti gay comments in another..
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Sep 17, 2014 09:32
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Something I almost missed. Polish miners blocked a coal train from Kaliningrad. That article doesn't go into details of protest, it's a bit more than "Lol, unions want protectionism". Taxes and tolls are based on declared value, which in turn is based on declared quality of coal - of course importers declare lower quality to be vastly more competitive. That way imported coal is 20-40% cheaper than polish alternative, while if all laws were obeyed it would be closer to 5-10%. In turn that makes companies that sell imported coal win most of competition for high volume contracts.
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Sep 25, 2014 09:49
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Russian economy and government are incredibly inefficient, to a point where it's called kleptocracy. Even with adverse economic conditions Russia could maintain their present level by cutting down on state-mandated stealing. They might end up a lot stronger after that crisis. Who am I kidding? They'll put all the blame on the west.
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Oct 14, 2014 08:00
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Cyclist in Warsaw are massive cunts, I saw them force their way on red light and push aside pedestrians on crossing. They go in front of cars on traffic lights, and when you get green you have to adjust to their pace. They avoid using bike lanes, because "gently caress drivers, I can shave 30 seconds off my time, let them collectively waste hours". As far as drivers go, I've been driving to Warsaw for about a decade now, and it gets progressively better. Krakow is worse, especially if you've got Warsaw plates. Of course the better someone's car the higher chance of acting as an rear end in a top hat, with special clause to usual sales rep. cars like Opel Insignia or Skoda everything.
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Oct 21, 2014 12:57
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A lot of Poles work in other countries, and they provide a steady stream of income for their families. As Mokotow said Poland got lucky with demographics, but in 20-30 years the system will collapse - a lot of people won't come back and those who stay will be unable to affort having 2+ kids.
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Oct 21, 2014 14:47
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TeodorMorozov posted:I don't know who is it. Poor Pavel Trofimovich Morozov, how his motherland has forsaken memory of him...
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Nov 13, 2014 17:26
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OddObserver posted:Maybe they should just try a personal union under the Lithuanian government. The more likely plan would be declaring war against Czech Republic, and then immediately surrendering on condition of total annexation. Karmalis posted:Can I be the newly elected king? I promise to change my name to Vladimir Jogaila or Zygimintas Augustas if required. I promise not to do anything at all, like all royalty do. That'd be the most boring Pacta Conventa ever signed by an elective king, probably most doable too.
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Nov 21, 2014 11:04
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Russian government did really well with propaganda effords, so it's no surprise so many people are for annexation of Crimea. It's not only about business, it's also dislike for US and desire for stability/aversion to risk.
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Nov 25, 2014 10:40
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Batka plays both sides, thanks to that people within his circle of power will rake a lot of cash for all the stuff going through Belarus. I wonder how long until all those russian government officials that thrived on import bribes start talking up.
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Nov 27, 2014 10:04
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Slashrat posted:are horses genuinely a cheaper source of meat than sheep, cows or pigs? Horses aren't raised for meat, the ones that end in slaugherhouse are usually unable to do their intended purpose because they are old or unable to walk. In Poland horses are treated as companion animals, just like dogs, it's the last thing to eat before starving. AFAIK if the horse is sold for meat it's mostly transported to Italy.
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Nov 27, 2014 11:44
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Ardennes posted:I believe most of their district heating is natural gas based not heating oil, that said natural gas prices hasn't declined like oil. Ukraine could try with coal, but I'm not sure how much of energy and heat needs they can fulfil with their present infrastructure. Of course assuming they can get coal from somewhere (Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia - one of those is really stupid cost-wise). There was mention of nuclear sector in Ukraine: http://www.energypost.eu/ukrainian-nuclear-power-emerges-russian-shadow/ posted:Almost half of the electricity in Ukraine comes from its four nuclear power plants: Khmelnitsky (2 reactors VVER-1000), Rivne (2 VVER-1000 and 2 VVER-440), Zaporizhzhya (6 VVER-1000) and South-Ukraine (3 VVER-1000), which combined have more than 400 cumulative reactor-years of operation. The total capacity of the reactors amounts to 13.8 GW, which represents approximately 20% of the primary energy balance. Some semblance of Ukrainian energy independence from their aggressive neighbour will take either decades or metric poo poo-ton of resources.. They are hosed for another decade.
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Dec 3, 2014 14:52
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I'm not sure if Poland can sell coal below cost, EU would throw a fit.
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Dec 3, 2014 15:34
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I wonder if those attacks in Chechnya and Dagestan are prelude to bigger clash with IS or IS-aligned opponent. Russia/USSR was always averse to fighting on two fronts, I hope it doesn't mean Putin orders swift resolution in Eastern Ukraine.
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Dec 6, 2014 01:59
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Gantolandon posted:It got better in early 00s, which angers a lot of reactionary shits who complain that the education system became soft on laziness. In Poland presently about 15% of primary school students get dys-(graphia,lexia,calculia,ortograpia) paper, so they game the system during exams. For example the exam on end of first stage of education you can get 50% more time if you have your papers "arranged". Same goes with PE - just find a doctor that will write you a paper that you're unable to exercise for "reasons" and you're golden. In late '90 the cheating wasn't so widespread because dysgraphia meant you had to attend regular training sessions.
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Dec 9, 2014 13:12
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Is Yandex and mail.ru being nationalized? I doubt they do a lot of business in EU or US, short of buying hardware, so sanctions shouldn't affect them.
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Dec 11, 2014 13:05
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Enjoy some Polish music recorded in New York City in 1927. "Piesn Dziada" performed by Grajek Wiejski https://archive.org/details/04PiesnDziada Awesome song! Up until recently every wedding in my area had songs with similar melody played, of course text more about sexual innuendo, not how lovely someone's family is. Grajek Wiejski means Folk Musician, I imagine it's like that dreaded driver "Prawo Jazdy" that was terrorizing Ireland a couple of years ago.
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Dec 15, 2014 11:31
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SaltyJesus posted:Heh, I didn't realize. That's pretty cool. The title means something like "Grandfather's Song" right? Dziad could mean elder, grandfather, older person or beggar, based on song's lyrics it's "beggar's song".
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Dec 15, 2014 12:32
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There were some CHF loans in Poland, same thing happened when Swiss Franc started gaining value (something like 30%), but all the people got was rate spread restriction. There was some talk about forcing banks into some agreement, but most people went "gently caress them, they knew the risk of loaning in foreign currency. " Foreign currency loans percentage rate is tied to currency issuing country rates, so they were a lot cheaper.
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Dec 16, 2014 11:51
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Lari to USD isn't that bad: http://fx-rate.net/USD/GEL/ There might be some fluctuations as forex is as much about emotions as facts, and Georgia might end up in "Russia and company" basket.
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Dec 16, 2014 13:04
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fatherboxx posted:Russian banks are already ordering five-digit signs for displaying exchange rate. Putin should switch to hexadecimal already, then 80 roubles for USD in one moment changes to 50! Everyone rejoices!
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Dec 16, 2014 13:09
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Forgall posted:They are cracking down on emigration too: http://lenta.ru/articles/2014/12/15/dolg/ I've tried reading that article through google translate, but I think it doesn't do a particularily good job. Could you post a short summary?
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Dec 16, 2014 14:46
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It's not like he can care away silovniki and all those corrupt criminals at top. If my choice was apathy or ending like Anna Politovskaya (Анна Политковская) and many others I'd pick apathy..
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Dec 16, 2014 16:12
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I imagine not many countries that share border with Russia would like to welcome Russian immigrant now, because Ukrainian example shows you end up with huge risk of aggression afterwards.
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Dec 17, 2014 12:04
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In Poland you'd have an rosary, which is used so you know how many hail Mary's you've to say in that really weird and boring kind of mass prayer.
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Dec 22, 2014 15:11
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Mokotow posted:Wait, so prayer beads and a rosary are two different things? Nah, I was wrong. I've always assumed that rosary needs to have a cross and some "introductory" beads between the cross and the rest. It seems there are many kinds of Christian rosaries, and I was familiar with Roman Catholic one only.
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Dec 22, 2014 16:04
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Completely spot on. Nowa Prawica is pretty loving creepy once you meet some of their older voters, since it's a mix of Ayn Rand believers and neonazis.
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Dec 23, 2014 14:20
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Dusty Baker 2 posted:Maybe they should stop provoking their neighbors to flee to NATO, then. B.. but muh buffer zone! 
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Dec 23, 2014 15:39
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sugar free jazz posted:Eastern Europe is within Russia's rod of influence! Back off NATO! I guess it's good baltics moved to northern europe and Poland, Czechia and Slovaikia moved to Central Europe. Sucks for Ukraine and Belarus....
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Jan 1, 2015 00:41
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HorseLord posted:These people are broadly correct. While there were problems with the old system there were ways of fixing them that didn't involve destroying it, going full reaganomics and loving everyone over, and wishing that this path was never taken is entirely valid. Planned economy would never work in Poland short of military dictatorship Stalin-style where helpful SB officers would ensure your part of plan is achieved. What changes would you suggest that would keep PRL intact? You cannot guarantee everyone employment without having abyssmal efficiency. What would you make communist government do so people wouldn't feel like it wasn't their country?
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Jan 5, 2015 11:05
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Even with efficient central planners you'd still have massive cost of party and security apparatus, maintaining "economic" relations with your Soviet masters, keeping up huge army for those mentioned masters and having to provide work for everyone. What's worse you'd have to remake all the structures so dumb but loyal communist drones aren't the ones making important decisions. Destroying those structures, and watching huge companies explode was way easier and faster. It would work only if Poland found massive reserves of oil, or something similar that could prop economy with constant stream of cash Saudi Arabia style, or if EVERYONE one day found that they are deeply invested in their lovely meaningless job and stopped stealing poo poo from their "employer" while working really hard to make their work more efficient, and then someone from up the ladder would found work for all those workers that were made redundant.
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Jan 5, 2015 11:41
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Communist government wasn't a good enviroment to promote good people to important posts. Cost was a thing in communist countries, even if it wasn't simple amount of currency: you've got your manpower that you have to provide for, materials, and everything around manufacturing process. In real world late '80 communist planned economy materials for your toaster factory would be stolen many times over, workers would drink a sea of vodka, your toaster factory would employ 5x people needed and output just enough toasters so every family could buy one every five years. Too bad they'd burn down every 18 months.
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Jan 5, 2015 12:04
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But to differentiate between currencies of different ECB let's add a prefix, so you know whether the price is in grEuro, gerEuro or latEuro...
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Jan 5, 2015 15:51
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:The police officers and the medics were all the picture of calm and patience. You have to be in that line of work though. They usually are really calm about drunk women. A lady I know got loving shitfaced, broke some windows in railroad station building, and police drove her home, and helped her go up 3 floors while she shouted at them and acted pretty aggressive. She ended up paying for damages only. A dude would get maced and beat up if he resisted arrest.
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Jan 9, 2015 16:18
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Apparently there's a rumor about "doghunters" using over the counter pneumonia medicine to poison and kill dogs in Moscow. Supposedly people stock up on syringes with vitamin B6 in case their animal eats poisoned food or licks pink medicine. It seems it's pretty regular occurence, with participants claiming they have to cull the population of stray dogs because of risk they pose.
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Jan 21, 2015 10:12
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So I take noone in Russia practices "catch, neuter and release" scheme of controling stray dogs and cats population? Are those dog hunters legit state employees or simply a group of people that hate dogs?
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Jan 21, 2015 10:46
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Clearly Russia and friends should start their own rating agency.
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Jan 27, 2015 14:38
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OhYeah posted:And which "friends" would those be? I didn't realize they had any left. Former USSR republics that already were mentioned, also Syria and Iran.
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Jan 27, 2015 16:15
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By presently used vocabulary of Russian propaganda it would be mercenaries sent by "warmongering Poland and nazi-sympatizing Lithuania". Of course overall it would be on CIA orders, and CIA gets theirs from Jews and Illuminati.
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Jan 28, 2015 09:27
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There can't be eastern europe thread without vodka: Starting in february minimal price for 0,5 liter of vodka is set at 185 RUB, which means enterprising tourists can have a hangover of a lifetime for ~2,65 USD (~2,30 EUR) per bottle! I'm not sure how good those would be, but I've tried Green Mark which is supposedly mid-range and in internet shop it was for 314 RUB. Cheapest vodka I was able to find in Poland that I'd find comparable to Green Mark (Krupnik czysta or Zubrowka biala) is 19 PLN which is ~5,10 USD, which means I'm either terrible at finding web pages with prices of Russian vodkas, currency has hosed them (most likely) or vodka isn't really that cheap in Russia compared to their neighbours.
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Feb 2, 2015 11:53
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MeLKoR posted:I take from this that Russia is planning to pay reparations to Poland for the whole "allied with Hitler and partitioned their country"? "Red Army saved West Belarus and West Ukraine from Hitler, Poles even got free vacation in Siberia and Kazakhstan, yet they still complain!"
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Feb 3, 2015 13:14
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