Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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NRao
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

I think what is happening is that Biden had sold most of the US oil/petroleum reserves to contain inflation. So, the US is now refilling all those caves in which they store their reserve oil.

The US has also removed Venezuela from the sanction list (and has accepted Maduro as the official President of V!!! How fortunes turn) - so they can import oil from there too.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by JE Menon »

NRao wrote:Jan 10, 2023 :: EU to extend sanctions against Belarus and Iran for supporting Russian war against Ukraine, says von der Leyen

This AM, while commenting on this, Alex Christoforou posed the question, "Who next?" and answered it himself: "Turkey, India, China?".
About three weeks ago, I had a brief chat with Alex Christoforou at a cafe in Nicosia (Cyprus) - it was a purely coincidental meeting - and he suggested that India was on the up in the power stakes, and I'm guessing that is his reasoning behind this line of thinking. I agree with his take.

My thinking is that if these guys succeed with Russia, the same principle can be applied with an even higher degree of viciousness against India - leveraging everything from religion to caste, class, language, etc. towards this end. There are already visible signs that they have started "setting the theatre" (as one of the US Theater Commanders recently stated about Russia) for India. My gut instinct though is that they will only aim to weaken, not totally undermine, the Modi government in order to more easily influence policy decisions related to weapons purchase exclusivity, targeting of China and overall control over the Gulf & SEA region. But they will come after us, there is NO doubt about it. If they are willing to sacrifice the EU, consign it to a totally unpredictable future, and economic degradation, what can we assume about their views regarding India (given their friendship with it is so recent and so untested). Note the upswing in relations with Pakistan, as just one example.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Cyrano »

NRao wrote: Do you really think either the Americans, EU, or the UK on one side and Russia (and perhaps China) on the other feel India has been impartial/neutral?

Consider a long queue of Americans (Nuland, Dalip Singh, Biden .... Yelen), EU (van der Layen), and finally, Boris Johnson considered India very partial.
Right NRao garu. It doesn't matter what India thinks of her position, the west has made its opinion about it and they think India is not their camp. India however is trying to separate Ukraine issue from all the other ongoing matters. The EAM visits to Austria, Cyprus, visits from German, French ministers, upcoming Macron visit in March, people mobility agreements being signed with various countries etc indicate that India hasn't given up on Europe despite one area of major disagreement, and hopes to rebalance the relationship. Also note the attention being given to smaller Eastern European countries. And conversely the attention not offered to more bellicose countries like Sweden, Norway, Baltic states etc. I'd think this is not by mere accident. In doing what its doing, India is looking out for only its own interests.
Russia on her part has been selling oil at a price to keep India within the Russian orbit. And, has been very busy trying to patch up relations between India and China. Hardly the behavior of a nation that feels India can be impartial.
Right, and India is selling products refined from Russian crude to even European countries! A diesel glut is expected when Russia stops exporting to price cap countries starting feb, and its expected that EU will import a lot of diesel from India then. If India didn't have this huge refining capacity, Russia won't be able to sell as much to fill its own coffers. So besides historic trust there is some hard-nosed business interest here.
IMO, neutrality is just an appearance. Once one side gets the upper hand India will dance to their tune - which is what I meant by cannot straddle this divide.
Actually India is NOT saying its position is NEUTRAL. We are not saying "after considering both sides, we opine that both sides have equal merits and demerits therefore we are taking a neutral stand on this matter". What we are saying is "we dont give a flying duck about your war, we have nothing to gain from this but the actions you guys are taking wrt Russia are impacting us (and others of the global south) on energy, fertilisers and food prices; and we are quite pissed about that. In EAM's words "We aren't interested in taking sides, the only side we are on is ours". There is a world of difference between a neutral stand and the stand India is taking.
As long as India imports some 70-80% of its energy needs, wants to be a pole, has no economy to talk about (per capita GDP stuck at some 150th - of 194), and a military that cannot throw her weight beyond a restricted area and that too for a few weeks, there is not much India can do, India IMO has only her diplomats to rely on. And, that cannot last for too long in the violent atmosphere of a world reorder.
India is making some interesting moves on this regard. Just today there was a conference led by EAM with his counterparts of a dozen "global south countries". See: https://youtu.be/VXl8-zjLEXQ for EAM's remarks which are very very bold and clear cut. The G20 presidency comes at a handy time. So you're right our diplomats are doing incredible stuff we at BRF used to dream of just a few years ago.

For the rest, consider this: How much coercive influence can a dysfunctional EU and a directionless US+UK which are exhausting themselves at the gates of Russia put on India on which they have some direct and indirect dependencies ?
I have said this before, what is happening today is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I fully expect things to get really bad.

My estimation is, if its gets bad for India - and it very well could, it will be a lot worse for other major global powers.

JMT...
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Cyrano »

JE Menon wrote: My gut instinct though is that they will only aim to weaken, not totally undermine, the Modi government in order to more easily influence policy decisions related to weapons purchase exclusivity, targeting of China and overall control over the Gulf & SEA region. But they will come after us, there is NO doubt about it. If they are willing to sacrifice the EU, consign it to a totally unpredictable future, and economic degradation, what can we assume about their views regarding India (given their friendship with it is so recent and so untested). Note the upswing in relations with Pakistan, as just one example.
Agree Menon saar,
There will be lot of pressure on India in the future. But India can throw a few biscuits of purchases now and then to keep US at bay - there won't be any big buyers left for American wares after Europe falls into the ditch. What shape Russia will end up in after this conflict is also unsure, and we will always have the China menace. May be we will throw more than a few biscuits because our own MIC won't leapfrog anytime soon. India needs to be even more ruthless wrt securing its energy and military needs in the future. So we may continue on the path of cautious rapprochement with the US.

Pakistan is a dead end, and US also knows it. Many in the west think India under Modi is just waiting for an excuse to repeat 1971, or worse. They surely noted the Akhanda Bharat map Modi will hang in the new parliament building.

Lastly, if we can hope any country to exert a bit of tempering influence on the US, it can only be India.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Vayutuvan »

JEMenon gaaru,

Alex Christoforou related to Alexis Christoforous by chance?
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Vayutuvan »

Pratyush wrote:India laughs all the way to the bank.
I am not complaining as my tax dollar are going to Bharat than Paxis. I pay more at the pump, but all for a good cause. Onlee. 8)
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by dnivas »

Vayutuvan wrote:
Pratyush wrote:India laughs all the way to the bank.
I am not complaining as my tax dollar are going to Bharat than Paxis. I pay more at the pump, but all for a good cause. Onlee. 8)
two things I learnt from BR that I will take to the end of my existence
1. started looking at where products are made in desi store. used to buy Shan and other TSP products
2. stopped spending my money at any place that says Indo - Paxtan variation.
3. Indirectly tell my friends/acquaintances to do the same as above

In terms of geo political fall out, Germany finally seem to have found its balls today and said it will only ship MBT's if the daddy US sends its MBT's as well. Imagine the visuals when a 20-30 German MBT's go poof in the first week but US still keeps safeguarding its MBT back in the mainland.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Prasad »

Lol Germany doesn't have serviceable MBTs to send in enough numbers in the first place. They're just as bad as the brits in that department.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Cyrano »

Uber high-tech weaponry is great for inducing brochureitis but ends up being a nightmare to keep operational in the field. The only country which can deploy such stuff with some efficacy is the US.

Even the US has done it against second rate forces like Iraq or insurgents like Isis and talibunnies. Doing it against a powerful Russian force in a high intensity conflict will be a wholly different ball game.

Some people at the Pentagon must be getting chilling sweats contemplating such a prospect.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by JE Menon »

Vayutuvan wrote:JEMenon gaaru,

Alex Christoforou related to Alexis Christoforous by chance?
Possible, but highly unlikely. Both Alexandros (short for Alex, Alexis - latter being a unisex name in Greece/Cyprus) and Alexandra of which Alexis can be a shortened version are very common names in Greece/Cyprus. However, Christoforou is a predominantly Cypriot name so I'm guessing Alexis Christoforous is of Cypriot origin like the Duran guy.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

@JEM,

If you happen to meet Alex again please let him know he has me hooked on Cyprus.

__________________________________________--

Many talk of, comment on, etc on a nation going to war - as though it was like waking in the AM and suddenly deciding to go out on a walk. Combat Power Analysis is Combat Power Density is a 2012, 69 page monogram, written by Maj. James Zanella, US Army, while he was at the School of Advanced Military Studies, US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS.

1st para from the Introduction to the monogram, on how things really work:
Historically, the United States military has had difficulty articulating and justifying force
requirements to civilian decision makers. Since at least 1975, governmental officials and civilian
analysts have consistently criticized the military for inadequate planning and execution.1 Most
recently, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reinvigorated the debate over the proper identification
of force requirements. In February of 2003, Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki and
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz publically disagreed on the force requirement for
Iraq.2 Pentagon officials advocated a force size around 100,000 soldiers and argued that size force
was adequate to provide security during the occupation of Iraq. However, Shinseki testified to
Congress that a force of several hundred thousand would be required.3 The military’s inability to
define force requirements became a conspicuous issue in late 2009 when the Obama
Administration rejected the Army’s statement of force requirements for securing Afghanistan
.
After receiving the initial assessment of 40,000 additional soldiers, the Administration spent three
months conducting its own assessment
, and as a result, chose to send only 30,000 additional
soldiers.4 The doctrinal planning tools had again provided force estimates that proved
unpersuasive.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Deans »

Prasad wrote:Lol Germany doesn't have serviceable MBTs to send in enough numbers in the first place. They're just as bad as the brits in that department.
German tanks fighting Russians, is exactly what Russia needs to unite its population against the NATO threat.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by IndraD »

Image

old pic of prince Harry in Nazi outfit ...is there soft support for Nazis in Europe/UK? Morons of Sun have labelled it Swastika
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Kati »

Gas pipeline explodes in Lithuania on day marking independence struggle from USSR

https://www.euronews.com/2023/01/13/gas ... -from-ussr
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by IndraD »

https://www.nairaland.com/7524875/franc ... -espionage

The French authorities are worried that US specialists sent to the EU to combat cyber attacks will actually spy in favor of the States, writes Le Monde.

"The work on technical support by American cyberwar teams, which is increasingly being carried out in European countries, especially after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, in order to track down possible Russian interference, is worrying," the newspaper wrote with reference to the head of the command of the cyber defense forces of the French Armed Forces, Emerick de Bonmaison.

"From the point of view of cybersecurity, the very fact that a state provides access to its confidential data to another state, albeit a friendly one, opens up the possibility for intelligence gathering, and therefore for espionage," writes Le Monde.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Cyrano »

Bild reporting German Defense Minister will resign.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by JE Menon »

NRao wrote:@JEM,

If you happen to meet Alex again please let him know he has me hooked on Cyprus.
If I do, I certainly will, and I suspect there is a possibility it may happen; he has my card, offering support on some unrelated issues if needed.

If you are heading there, please let me know as early as you can - I'll try to turn up to have a mini-BRF meet.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

^^^^^

Sweetening the pot!! ...................... Will do

Meanwhile

Maduro mulls creating new regional bloc allied to Russia and China
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proposed establishing a new international bloc involving Latin American and Caribbean countries that would have close ties to Russia and China.

During his annual speech at Venezuela’s parliament on Friday, Maduro said that he had recently spoken with the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina about forming a new regional organization. According to Maduro, the time has come “to unite efforts and paths in Latin America and the Caribbean to advance in the formation of a powerful bloc of political forces, of economic power that speaks to the world.”

The Venezuelan president went on to say that the bloc would create “new poles of power,” and would be allied to Russia and China, the leaders of which Maduro referred to as “elder brothers.”

Such an alliance would comprise “that community of shared destiny that our elder brother President Xi Jinping talks about,” or “that multipolar and multicentric world that our elder brother, President Vladimir Putin, talks about,” Maduro added.

“For this world to arrive, a united and advanced Latin American and Caribbean bloc is needed,” he stressed.

President Putin has repeatedly blasted the concept of a “unipolar world” dominated by the US. In September, he claimed that attempts to achieve such a configuration “have taken an absolutely ugly form.” Meanwhile, Beijing has also said that China and Russia are “promoting together the multipolar world and do not recognize unipolar hegemony.”

Under former President Donald Trump, the US denounced Venezuela's 2018 election, which Maduro won to secure a second term, as “illegitimate.” Washington unleashed a “maximum pressure” campaign to oust him by imposing harsh sanctions on Caracas, which included an oil embargo.

The US also offered support to opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognizing him as Venezuela’s “interim president” in 2019. In the aftermath of the move, Maduro’s government broke off diplomatic relations with Washington.

Since then, however, attempts to remove Maduro from power, which included a series of street protests and an outright coup attempt, fizzled out. In late December, opposition lawmakers in Venezuela voted to dissolve the ‘interim government’ led by Guaido.

While the US still does not formally recognize Maduro, it has engaged in diplomatic contacts with Caracas in order to negotiate prisoner swaps and has lifted some sanctions.

You can share this story on social media:
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Cyrano »

Maduro should do it quietly and not brag about it even before doing anything concrete. Now he has a target painted on his back.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by ks_sachin »

More dollars for arms manufacturers!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... until-2024
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by vimal »

NRao
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

Here we go.

Jan 8, 2023 :: US military deepens ties with Japan and Philippines to prepare for China threat
.
The US and Japanese armed forces are rapidly integrating their command structure and scaling up combined operations as Washington and its Asian allies prepare for a possible conflict with China such as a war over Taiwan, according to the top Marine Corps general in Japan.

The two militaries have “seen exponential increases . . . just over the last year” in their operations on the territory they would have to defend in case of a war, Lieutenant General James Bierman, commanding general of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and of Marine Forces Japan, told the Financial Times in an interview.

Bierman said that the US and its allies in Asia were emulating the groundwork that had enabled western countries to support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia in preparing for scenarios such as a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

........
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

War gaming, etc. Interesting 30 minutes. One article claims that the US/NATO did not war game Ukraine!!!!!!!!! Man, IF true, do not know what to say.

From the video:

The First Battle of the Next War :: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan :: 165 pages :: pdf

FUNDAMENTALS OF WAR GAMING :: 1966 :: 316 pages :: pdf

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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by V_Raman »

You cannot wargame a confiict with Russia - it is a peer power. This is a black swan IMO. They wanted to buy peace till Russia can be deterred with the conventional strength of Ukraine. West overreached.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

V_Raman wrote:You cannot wargame a confiict with Russia - it is a peer power. ............
On the contrary, the best war gaming effort is with a peer. The war games mechanism with the Soviets were classics.

The US has an extremely robust war gaming mechanism in place. Been there for eons. Their chess board, literally, is the whole world. In the past 70 years, there has never been a nation with that kind of demand. What we might consider a simple act, say moving a single carrier from the Pacific to the IO, in reality, takes a huge effort. If the SD says "no", those carriers do not move.

I ***suspect*** Ukraine is a non-governmental effort (Neocons), using some government employees to push its agenda. Thus the lack of gaming.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Pratyush »

If Russia is peer level power. So is PRC.

I submit that the west had gamed exactly what the Russians were going to do.

The expectations of the west WRT, the out come of the conflict ( ie, Ukrainian victory) is based of the fanaticism of Ukrainian nationalists and the relative weakness of Russians due to economic development and the endemic corruption of the Russian system.

This war will end in one of two ways. Either when the collective West is completely defanged ( hard but not impossible).

Or Russians collapse ( they have collapsed twice in the last nearly 115 years, 1917 and 1991).

The collective West following this collapse will impose terms on them that make Versailles treaty look like a walk in the park.

I submit that this war was imposed on Russia by the west. When they created a situation where continued peace in Ukraine was made impossible for Russia.

Correspondingly Russiagate hysteria in the US was also created post 2016 to insure that Trump dosent try to offer terms to Russia that would have avoided this war.

A lot of what Trump did was to show that he was not a Putin puppet.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by uddu »

NRao wrote:^^^^^

Sweetening the pot!! ...................... Will do

Meanwhile

Maduro mulls creating new regional bloc allied to Russia and China
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proposed establishing a new international bloc involving Latin American and Caribbean countries that would have close ties to Russia and China.

Such an alliance would comprise “that community of shared destiny that our elder brother President Xi Jinping talks about,” or “that multipolar and multicentric world that our elder brother, President Vladimir Putin, talks about,” Maduro added.

“For this world to arrive, a united and advanced Latin American and Caribbean bloc is needed,” he stressed.
China is trying to create a soviet Union kind of alliance which is dangerous for us as well. Since the likes of Maduro sees the world from military strength point of view, its very necessary that India sends our forces to the region for regular exercise with South American and Caribbean Nations. Nothing wrong few destroyers and frigates along with air exercise and even the first deployment of INS Vikrant is to the region doing port calls.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by IndraD »

"There is evidence that Ukrainian women are being sexually exploited or forced into labour in search of work and housing in host countries of Europe''

https://www.euronews.com/2023/01/17/ukr ... ng-the-war 'Ukraine refugee *****' raises risks for women fleeing the war
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by Avid »

uddu wrote: China is trying to create a soviet Union kind of alliance which is dangerous for us as well. Since the likes of Maduro sees the world from military strength point of view, its very necessary that India sends our forces to the region for regular exercise with South American and Caribbean Nations. Nothing wrong few destroyers and frigates along with air exercise and even the first deployment of INS Vikrant is to the region doing port calls.
India will run afoul of US Monroe doctrine. Doesn't matter how good the relations are with the US -- it will invite serious blowback. Equipping those countries -- sure; but sending destroyers/frigates/etc. not so sure what we have to gain.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

Avid wrote:
uddu wrote: China is trying to create a soviet Union kind of alliance which is dangerous for us as well. Since the likes of Maduro sees the world from military strength point of view, its very necessary that India sends our forces to the region for regular exercise with South American and Caribbean Nations. Nothing wrong few destroyers and frigates along with air exercise and even the first deployment of INS Vikrant is to the region doing port calls.
India will run afoul of US Monroe doctrine. Doesn't matter how good the relations are with the US -- it will invite serious blowback. Equipping those countries -- sure; but sending destroyers/frigates/etc. not so sure what we have to gain.
Somebody has to bell the cat.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

Ukraine war: life on Russia’s home front after ten months of conflict

Alexander Titov is a British citizen.
It’s been a year since I last visited Russia. Back then, most people I met thought the prospects of a war with Ukraine were very remote, despite the massive troops build-up on the border. So I was curious to see how attitudes had changed since then. Equally important was to see for myself how the war has changed life in Russia.

The first surprise was how normal life was. Despite all the media reports of doom and gloom as a result of western sanctions, everything works just as before. Domestic banking is working, salaries and pensions are paid on time, ubiquitous e-commerce is bustling with activity, the shops are stuffed with food and consumer goods. In St Petersburg, at least, I’ve struggled to notice any change in daily life compared to January 2021.

Yet, digging deeper and the impact of sanctions is there. One issue that kept popping up was spare car parts, which have become noticeably more expensive. But even there new supplies are being shipped now. This goes pretty much for everything else consumer orientated. There’s no shortages, even of western goods such as whisky – the supermarket shelves are fully stocked.

EU travel restrictions have had their effect – but nothing like the measures introduced during the COVID pandemic. People can still travel to many countries, including Turkey, Egypt or the Gulf states.

Business people complain of facing difficulties, particularly those in the import/export sector. But, after a few months of chaos, business has been finding new shipping routes via third countries such as Turkey or Kazakhstan.

An acquaintance who works in a defence-related sector laughed at the suggestion that Russia could run out of missiles. He told me the defence industry had been stockpiling essential parts for years and is also using more locally sourced alternatives (although this is a claim I was unable to verify). The rest can still be bought – albeit at inflated prices. Their real problem is not a lack of parts, but the capacity to scale up production to meet growing military orders.

The general impression from conversations with people in different businesses is that their main focus is on adapting to the new normal. Many things will be less efficient and more expensive, but the Russian economy will not collapse.

If this is a crisis for Russia – which it is – it’s nothing like the turmoil of the early 1990s when the state, society and economy were all collapsing at the same time.

Don’t mention the war
Another surprising thing I’ve found is the extent to which the war is avoided on a day-to-day basis. You see reports about it on TV news and chat shows (which steadfastly follow the government line), but I felt much better informed about the war using the Telegram app in Belfast, where I live and work, than when talking to actual people in St Petersburg. I found you could have whole conversations without Ukraine ever coming up, unless I deliberately mentioned it.

My overall impression was that the invasion has reinforced people’s pre-existing views. Those who were always opposed to Putin hate it, while those who are supportive of the government remain largely in favour. But the vast majority tries to ignore it as much as they can.

No one I spoke to was happy that the war started – but there’s an important caveat: regretting it doesn’t mean they want to end it at all costs. Some said that one thing worse than a war is losing a war.

Nor did I see much evidence of popular protests. Obviously, many people who oppose Putin had fled the country already, especially since mobilisation began in September 2022. Many others opposing the war have been imprisoned. A couple of my friends (long-time critics of the regime) were planning to leave to avoid future mobilisation.

One of the most frequent questions I was asked related to the energy situation: “How much do you pay for gas in the UK?” The UK and the EU are presently suffering from high energy costs. But it’s unlikely the European economy will collapse or cause political unrest – the implicit assumption behind the question. It’s a similar situation in Russia. Despite western sanctions, it appears that there is little danger of Russia’s economy collapsing.

Perception gap
My distinct impression from two weeks in St Petersburg is that Russia’s society and economy are still nowhere near to being fully mobilised for the war effort. While the partial mobilisation in September and October last year brought the war closer to home, it involved a relatively small percentage of the population – from all of my acquaintances only one friend of a friend was called up. Meanwhile further rounds of mobilisation are to an extent baked in to people’s expectations. Barring huge military setbacks leading to a really extensive mobilisation, it appears that life on Russia’s home front is carrying on fairly normally.

One of the biggest lessons from my trip is the huge gap between representations of Russia in the west and what you see when you arrive there. This gap in perception is likely to increase because of the lack of people currently travelling there from the west and the suspension of professional and academic links.

Important as they are, reliance on comment from anti-Putin activists in exile or those remaining in Russia and still active on social media won’t help as they’re marginalised at home and lose contact with Russian reality while abroad.

The fact is that there is no substitute for seeing things for yourself. I found my recent trip to Russia stressful – but I’m glad I did it.
NRao
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

Post by NRao »

Speeches made at Davos (World Economic Forum) have convinced me that the only way the West survives economically is if they reoccupy their colonies. Perhaps through "digital currency". As it is the WHO wants some form of global authority in the event of a pandemic.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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Any references or YT links NRao garu? Would be interesting to see who is saying what.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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Try the Twitter account @wef

Welcoming Remarks and Special Address | Davos 2023

Ursula von der Leyen

John Kerry

Goggle "WEF Speeches" and click on "Videos"
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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Russia posts record current account surplus of $227 bln in 2022

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ru ... 023-01-17/
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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Talking about WEF, India's pitch this year is very articulate, unique and compelling. Pushing supply chain resilience with India+1, India stack differentiating from only govt controlled China or solely pvt tech sector led US and west, stressing on humane business approach, Tenacity of Tech and Audacity of the Administration - lot of things that should make a non-Indian listener sit up and say "what sort of fake leaders we are saddled with driving us to war and decline and just see how differently India is thinking for its people and for the world".

Please share this with your non Indian friends.

Must watch!
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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https://mobile.twitter.com/AZgeopolitic ... 8127350784
Lavrov:"Like Napoleon mobilized almost all of Europe against the Russian Empire, like Hitler invaded and gunned down most EU countries and threw them against the USSR. Now, too, the U.S. has formed a coalition of almost all Europeans and is waging a proxy war against our country"
Existential.
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Re: Russian-Ukranian War: Geopolitical Fallout

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Zelensky says he's not sure Putin 'still alive'
During his online address at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was not "entirely sure" that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is still alive and makes decisions in Russia.

"I don't quite understand who to talk to and about what. I'm not sure that Russia's president, who sometimes appears against the chroma key is really him," Zelensky responded when asked about the possibility of peace talks.
Amazing that the world accepts such data points and then complains about a lack of energy and food.
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