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Thug Lessons posted:You're softballing it, they correctly identify the cause of their economic woes as caused by Western sanctions and oil price manipulation by the West's ally Saudi Arabia. So very predictably people are supporting the guy who's standing up to those countries more than anyone else on earth. The Russian economy has been on the ropes for years. Like in Venezuela this was only barely disguised by the oil and commodities boom that was occurring. The EU sanctions would have had minimal effect if the underlying fiscal and economic position of Russia was better since the main restrictions they impose on things other than individuals is on extending credit to banks and companies linked to the Russian state or to figures close to senior state officials. Several Russian companies are having debt and financing crises and can't go cap in hand to the evil western capitalist banking sector for cash. If you talk about trade sanctions then the Russian counter sanctions impacted a greater volume of cross border trade than the EU sanction on them did and were responsible for some of the greatest supply shortages and prices rises in Russia. The direct trade sanctions on Russia target arms and oil equipment which Russia can mostly build and supply domestically. Putin imposed the trade restrictions which had the most impact on the general Russian populace himself in order to reap the backlash stemming from those by linking them to the EU sanctions regime. Saudi Arabia's move is aimed more at certain Western producers than Russia etc since they are the high cost producers rather than Russia who as a low cost producer can't be squeezed out of the market. The main difference is that these western economies have other areas of economic activity they can fall back on. That said if you've followed economic news at all then you should have noticed that the current situation has been devastating for the balance sheet of a lot of western oil companies. If the US really is driving Saudi oil policy in this case then some politicians are going to get crucified when it comes out. Also, just as important is that Saudi Arabia's continued pumping is not the only driver of low oil prices. Low demand (like the general low demand for raw materials across the board) is another huge driver. That would not go away should Saudi Arabia sharply reduce their output. In addition there is a lot of spare capacity which has been mothballed due to the low oil prices, upticks in prices and demand would meet an increase in supply leaving the oil price low for an extended period. What drove the initial price drop of oil was not Saudi pumping but a huge amount of oil coming on the market from "unconventional" sources; those being the certain western producers I mentioned in the previous paragraph. So yeah, "correctly identify the cause of their economic woes as caused by Western sanctions and oil price manipulation by the West's ally Saudi Arabia" my foot. The basic problem is that it has failed to reform its economy and has been far to reliant on raw material exports; it is now reaping the same reward as Venezuela (but less so since the level of graft and mismanagement in Venezuela was staggeringly beyond what is present in Russia).
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Feb 28, 2016 23:31
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Friendly Humour posted:That's why I used the word 'perceived'. When it comes to Putin's pupolarity, the true reasons for Russia's economic woes don't matter so much as who is blamed for them. Yup, definitely. He has been very successful at focusing the ire of people on external enemies rather than domestic failings. That combined with the fact that he's been able to get Russia to throw its weight around on the geopolitical power table earns a lot of popularity.
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Feb 29, 2016 00:02
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If you want to get shots in on the Americans about language competence then talk about Arabic and other languages in core theaters they are engaged in...
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Mar 8, 2016 20:17
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Pizdec posted:Poland will be the only country in the world that penalises unintentional miscarriage. We're growing up to be such a unique, special, retarded snowflake. Well, the US is doing that stuff by the back door in certain jurisdictions: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/4/2/20_years_in_prison_for_miscarrying
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Apr 1, 2016 23:49
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TasogareNoKagi posted:I've seen comments about the length of the transcript vs the length of the call (4 1/2 pages for a 30 minute phone call? With the way he talks?) There is also some speculation about the ellipses in the transcript which usually note that something was omitted. Usually it is snipping out unimportant bits of a quote but their placement is rather suggestive. You also have some people questioning the basic fact that it was marketed as a transcript even though it looks like it strictly speaking wasn't.
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Oct 3, 2019 05:05
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What does the Russian(?) text actually say?
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Oct 12, 2019 01:50
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lol. This is all amazing. Of course consequences are going to be minimal but it is nice to have all this poo poo out there in the open.
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Nov 16, 2019 23:47
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OTOH when has a right winger elected to sort out the corrupt establishment ever worked out well.
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Mar 3, 2020 02:54
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Looks like all the worst people are trying to exploit the crisis. 
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Mar 31, 2020 10:02
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Vasukhani posted:So I read Ukrainian, and this guy's take literally changes nothing? Err, could you misrepresent what he said any more than that? The fact that the letter is hideously anti-semitic and written by an anti-semitic head of a regional police force isn't under contention here. He also doesn't gloss over the fact that one of the most powerful people in the Police is a white supremacist etc. What is under contention is whether the Ukraine is entirely run by an anti-semitic, fascist, junta, which is exactly what that thread addresses. Including the fact that certain Jews are being cast as "not real Jews" since them being so is inconvenient for the narrative people are pushing. Similar to more liberal Jews supporting Corbyn were cast as fake and or apostates by the more conservative Jewish organizations there.
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May 12, 2020 21:51
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Vasukhani posted:Never implied that, just some top cops with hard-ons to catch some 19th-century style jewish gangsters really doesnt help that perception! Not to mention an official policy of "both sides-ing" WW2 In that case I don't think there is much disagreement between you and the guy who posted that Twitter thread. I don't think that he thinks that the current people with strong influence over a lot of the police force are not a big problem. Also, given their history with the Russian Empire then the Soviet Union it is kinda understandable that they don't entirely cast the Nazis as the sole bad guy of the piece. Finland has similar issues in certain regards due to having fought on the wrong side of that conflict but not due to any particular love of the Nazis and their policies. That is yet another issue though which, whilst also having ties to the anti-semitism stuff due to the whole fash Nazi loving contingent, also has a slew of other stuff and motivations tied into it which has very little to do with the love of Nazis.
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May 12, 2020 22:30
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Vasukhani posted:the evil foreign occupiers of Ukraine -- the Ukrainians! We were so close to being a liberated nation, complete free from any slavs outside of the reservations! We would all not even exist! Clearly, the fact that Ukraine even exists today shows that both sides were really equally bad. As we all know of course the only true Soviet was Georgian. The Ukrainian was only fit for an ice pick, have his movement reduced to pamphlets and being derided by good Communists everywhere.
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May 14, 2020 07:09
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Doctor Malaver posted:In six days Serbia will have parliamentary and local elections. Two weeks later, Croatia follows with parliamentary elections. This is hardly relevant for anyone but I can do a write-up if there are at least a couple of goons interested. I am a sad geek who read up about the political history of Suriname (Dési Bouterse is a bit of a character...) when looking into the age of Latin American constitutions. I will gladly read this.
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Jun 15, 2020 18:50
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Tevery Best posted:I don't think I've ever had to stand in a line to vote. I was done in five minutes today. Serious question: has anyone ever gotten in a queue for the voting booth outside of America? I had a bit of a queue in the UK once but no worse than a supermarket checkout on a busy day.
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Jun 28, 2020 23:46
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