Russia invades Ukraine

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Really annoying how cable news is devolving into the usual cycle of just kind of talking generally about stuff that has happened some time in the past 48 hours as "breaking news", trying to pass off hours old video as live, and generally just not providing any actual news.

Things don't happen fast enough for 24-hour news cycles, but people demand that their new being entertainment so you have the new everything is hyped up and repeated every 10-minutes.

[sureLoss]

nevermind

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Krovikan

Things don't happen fast enough for 24-hour news cycles, but people demand that their new being entertainment so you have the new everything is hyped up and repeated every 10-minutes.

Well yeah, but they have reporters on the ground. They can literally provide live coverage if they want to. But I saw on CNN a few minutes ago a correspondent trying to say she was standing with people trying to evacuate by train and the feed was light out. It's midnight there.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Breaking news has lost all meaning

Totally. I'm tossing "Breaking News" in the same basket as a "New Release" sign at Blockbuster before it went out of business.

[djsFlames]

Kyiv getting bombed soon...

#### Putin.

Hope they've rounded up as much AA equipment as they can.

[Azure]

From 5 min ago.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497694164217208835

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497695073982681093

[sureLoss]

nevermind

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Really interesting and valuable stuff

I think a point not yet talked about is Western governments have known Putin's ambitions for years, got caught off balance on Trump's election, and then fell into COVID.

So it went from hypothetical, to f me it's potentially real, to oh #### something else is more serious.

I don't think it's coincidence that Putin is striking when he feels COVID won't derail him, and Western governments have not recovered from financial and other issues. There will not be a more opportune time. Everyone else has spent 2 years ignoring geo-political issues, why would he wait for the west to get settled?

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Azure

From 5 min ago.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497694164217208835

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497695073982681093

This has certainly escalated fast.

[devo22]

cutting them from SWIFT is one thing, but freezing their currency reserves (I think I've read $600bn or so) is massive. In terms of the EUs options on the financial side of things, this is pretty much going for the jugular.

[1qqaaz]

Apparently only some of Russia's banks are being cut off?

[White Out 403]

https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comm...m_source=share

I'm over any sort of beef I had with English football. That was so kind. Very emotional watching that. England has been so amazing during this for Ukraine. Top down.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by devo22

cutting them from SWIFT is one thing, but freezing their currency reserves (I think I've read $600bn or so) is massive. In terms of the EUs options on the financial side of things, this is pretty much going for the jugular.

Dumb question, but where are the currency reserves held? Not in Russia I take it?

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

Apparently only some of Russia's banks are being cut off?

Its the ones already sanctioned.. so the big ones. And I believe they said they will rotate the others if needed. But I assume they still want the ability to pay for gas/oil they need.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

This has certainly escalated fast.

Only took a week to unite NATO in ways we haven't seen in decades.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

They've apparently left some smaller banks alone in the hope of not completely sewering ordinary Russians and small business. But from what I'm reading it still sounds like a run on the banks is imminent, so the result of this still seems immediately catastrophic.

Also seeing some noise about a couple more Russian planes being shot down.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by edslunch

Dumb question, but where are the currency reserves held? Not in Russia I take it?

here's a good piece on it:

The Russian economy is open, and the ruble is convertible, both backed by the FX reserves. But these reserves are largely electronic book entries in the Russian Central Bank accounts with the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and similar Western institutions and clearing houses. There are no physical bonds and certificates. In the language, Western government bonds and other securities and sovereign deposits with Western central and commercial banks are dematerialized and uncertificated.

For example, U.S. Treasuries owned by central banks of 200 countries are book entries on the computers of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, traded by its authorized dealers, with the sale proceeds transmitted electronically via Fedwire to correspondent banks.

From this vantage point, if sanctions hit, the $638 billion FX reserves shrink to their salvage value. Of the $638 billion FX reserves, only $12 billion are dollar and Euro-denominated cash in the vaults of the Russian Central Bank. The gold stored there, worth $139 billion, is hard to sell en masse, especially if the Central Bank falls under the Western sanctions. Another part of FX reserves, $84 billion in Renminbi-denominated instruments, is of little financial use in a crisis. Some $403 billion, almost two-thirds of the FX reserves, are securities and deposits denominated in U.S. dollars, Euro, British pounds and other Western currencies, representing electronic book entries in Western central and commercial banks. If sanctions are imposed on the Russian Central Bank, the $403 billion of its FX electronic holdings in the West could not be used. Russia will be left with little Western cash, unsaleable gold and Chinese bonds.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national...nction-russias

[PeteMoss]

Its almost hard to imagine how much of a miscalculation this has been by Putin (at least it seems that way in my uninformed opinion)

Let's hope he comes to his senses soon and tries to negotiate his way out of this.

[afc wimbledon]

I expect Trump's fundraising to triple to absurd levels now that he is cut off from his lenders

[holden]

Could be huge IF true. Who knows...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1497699493889949702