Who’s running out of cash? Russian banks. Long ATM lines in Russia as citizens withdraw funds — risking a bank run that could send the Russian economy into further chaos. What’s “uninvestable”? Russian assets. Market index provider, MSCI, is considering removing Russian stocks and bonds from their indexes — which funnel billions into the Russian economy. "It is obvious to all of us that the market is very difficult to trade and, in fact, it is uninvestable today.” – per Dimitris Melas, head of research at MSCI. The Russian ETF, VanEck Russia ETF (BATS:RSX), fell another 18% yesterday and is now down 67% in 2022. Who’s joining the fight against Russia? (Almost) the entire world. Anonymous – the infamous hacking group – is raging cyber warfare against Russia — calling hackers worldwide to target government websites. Mastercard and Visa blocked Russian financial institutions from using their services amid sanctions. Warner Bros and Sony halted all theatrical releases in Russia until further notice. Retail stores discontinued sales of Russian vodka in certain US states. FIFA and UEFA banned Russian football teams from playing in games.
Russia never looked this incompetent when president T was in charge. I’d argue america was one of the biggest dunces the last 4 years.
Yeah I’m 80% inclined to believe the CCP is now laundering that position via the NYT. Not buying that a “no limits” partnership backing each other over Ukraine/Taiwan meant the opposite. Reuters on 2/4: https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...nsion-moscow-backs-beijing-taiwan-2022-02-04/ Their joint statement literally read: “Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no forbidden areas of cooperation.” They meant what they told the world they meant.
My favorite Chinese gov talking point is their frustration at not understanding why nobody trusts them.
Late to the Japanese discussion, but another big psychological factor at the time for the Allies was the German surrender terms in WWI and how it led to WW2. Essentially, the Allies were not going to settle for anything but unconditional surrender (and everything that goes with that - war tribunals, national contrition, demilitarization) from either Japan or Germany even though by 1944 it was clear that they had lost and were just angling for a deal. Allies risked losing popular support at home for a multi-year invasion / occupation of Japan and the associated costs. Of course there were other options, but based on the Pacific experience and the horrific suicides by civilians it was pretty apparent the cost from a treasure and humanitarian perspective to invade and occupy the home islands would be absolutely massive. Public would have maybe tolerated for a year (why send my son to take that damn island?), and the chance at total victory potentially lost. Not any illusions that Americans are saints, but if total victory was a "must have," then there weren't many options on the table given the Japanese will to withstand starvation, and literally die to the last man / woman / child.
I mean any mig flying over the Black Sea right now is in a war zone. Not sure this changes much even if the Russians took them out.
So what lies is Putin telling the people about the stock market closure? Maybe it’s not discussed like here but a multi-day closure doesn’t just go unnoticed
You a You know the old adage: Better to be thought militarily incompetent than to invade and remove all doubt.
I mean, shoring down a jet and the shooting down the rescue helicopter sent after it is something if that’s what happened
If you just flip that graph of the stocks doing down upside down now they're going up just like the morale of Russian forces as the neo-nazi Ukrainian dogs surrender in mass and the populace brings cookies to Russian soldiers for liberating them.
Would love the Western-Russian culture war to spill over to the gaming world where ghost recon games rule again and Russian youth have to instead play the State made game "Hero of Republik!" which is just a pirated copy of Code Veronica
Pop culture has sucked since the Cold War ended. Time for a new Western renaissance of tits action movies