Russia invades Ukraine

[Locke]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

We've got a new gif to use when the Flames win tanks to that video.

fyp.

[Southside]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I know I am in the complete minority when it comes to this but what we are most likely to witness and deal with should never been allowed to happen. This is one person, one man who has caused untold destruction to no other level in recent and modern memory.

On the balance of probabilities Putin is done, both politically and physically. He won't be able to leave the Kremlin and than just go onto the sunset and enjoy retirement, given speeches and being an elder statesman. It's over for him in the short term.

We will all look back at this in history and ask why was this allowed to happen? Why didn't the power's at be do more? The human suffering that is going to actually occur in Ukraine, Russia and the global community is vast. Why didn't we all skip a few steps and just end it for Putin? I know this isn't a popular opinion and that there is a complicated issue with military force against Russian leaders but it's over.

I doubt he stops until he is stopped in full. This will only embolden him as he isn't going to go back to regular President Putin who will go onto official state visits, cutting ribbons and discussing Russian and (insert country) interests.

I get that nobody wanted boots on the ground but this situation could have been made a lot easier if a global decision was just made that 1 person can't be responsible for this destruction.

I like to think the Russian people will cure the world of this sick bastard themselves. I agree, it's hard to watch knowing his military is only numbers he sends out to overwhelm neighbors. Clearly we see now a capable military would wipe the floor with them but that sick bastard also has nukes. Bring on the coup.

[bob-loblaw]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498770380231639042

“there is a lady from canada by the name chrystia freeland. I believe she is some kind of deputy prime minister or some such.

she is in fact cutting russia's economy down to the size of zimbabwe.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by bob-loblaw

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498770380231639042

Can someone explain why the international sanctions would have this impact? Wouldn't their Central Bank/Rainy Day fund be internal to Russia? Or was the fund entirely in Rubbles and the crash in the Rubble means their fortune is now ashes?

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Can someone explain why the international sanctions would have this impact? Wouldn't their Central Bank/Rainy Day fund be internal to Russia? Or was the fund entirely in Rubbles and the crash in the Rubble means their fortune is now ashes?

Their central bank assets are invested all over the world in real currency. They only had 12B in dollars and euros in a vault in Moscow, the rest was invested all over.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

It looks like Russia is deploying their thermobaric missiles. The reddit thread says its in Kharkiv. I don't mean to cause worry especially with everything Huntingwhale has shared with us and I'm so so sorry this is happening to your wife and family. Completely unnecessary violence.

NSFW!

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreak...ne####_russia/

There have been several different videos posted of large explosions being attributed to thermobaric bombs, but the particular explosion in the link you posted has been indicated as a Ukrainian arms depot... Terrifying, nonetheless.

[bob-loblaw]

No iPhones for you! Mind you, a Russian would have to take out a mortgage to get a crappy iPhone SE these days.

Apple halts product sales in Russia.

[starseed]

Judging by how many tweets I just saw claiming Chrystia is a secret nazi, I think she is under Putin's skin.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Can someone explain why the international sanctions would have this impact? Wouldn't their Central Bank/Rainy Day fund be internal to Russia? Or was the fund entirely in Rubbles and the crash in the Rubble means their fortune is now ashes?

You hold foreign currency reserves and gold so that you can buy your own currency when you require it ("backing it").

Fiat currencies are essentially worth what people think they are worth.

Sanctioning a central bank hasn't happened since 1979, so they might not have anticipated this level of cooperation on sanctions. The Swiss broke a 200yr+ tradition of neutrality to do it, as an example.

If you control your energy, your food supply, your water supply and have a sovereign currency you can deal with your currency plummeting, and just print money as some sort of accounting method. Russia relies on food imports, so they will import inflation and most likely hyperinflation.

Hyperinflation toppled the Weimar Republic, and recently put Venezuela in the toilet.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I know I am in the complete minority when it comes to this but what we are most likely to witness and deal with should never been allowed to happen. This is one person, one man who has caused untold destruction to no other level in recent and modern memory.

On the balance of probabilities Putin is done, both politically and physically. He won't be able to leave the Kremlin and than just go onto the sunset and enjoy retirement, given speeches and being an elder statesman. It's over for him in the short term.

We will all look back at this in history and ask why was this allowed to happen? Why didn't the power's at be do more? The human suffering that is going to actually occur in Ukraine, Russia and the global community is vast. Why didn't we all skip a few steps and just end it for Putin? I know this isn't a popular opinion and that there is a complicated issue with military force against Russian leaders but it's over.

I doubt he stops until he is stopped in full. This will only embolden him as he isn't going to go back to regular President Putin who will go onto official state visits, cutting ribbons and discussing Russian and (insert country) interests.

I get that nobody wanted boots on the ground but this situation could have been made a lot easier if a global decision was just made that 1 person can't be responsible for this destruction.

BECAUSE HE HAS NUKES.

That's the whole answer. It's not hard to understand.

[kn]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Another man, whose grandfather was killed by Stalin said that it was OK and put the blame on the local authorities following orders, and not on Stalin. Everybody they asked seems OK with recent images of Stalin being put up in places.

So it wasn't even that they are not aware of the bad things, they just think they are excusable or not worth considering.

Small sample size of course, so I don't know if this means that much, just thought it was interesting.

You'd be surprised how many Russians in Calgary feel the same way, not just about Stalin but Putin as well. I was shocked at the sentiment, especially considering they've emigrated to Canada and have lived here for many years. Needless to say my wife (Russian) and I don't associate with those people anymore.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Rutuu

You hold foreign currency reserves and gold so that you can buy your own currency when you require it ("backing it").

Fiat currencies are essentially worth what people think they are worth.

Sanctioning a central bank hasn't happened since 1979, so they might not have anticipated this level of cooperation on sanctions. The Swiss broke a 200yr+ tradition of neutrality to do it, as an example.

If you control your energy, your food supply, your water supply and have a sovereign currency you can deal with your currency plummeting, and just print money as some sort of accounting method. Russia relies on food imports, so they will import inflation and most likely hyperinflation.

Hyperinflation toppled the Weimar Republic, and recently put Venezuela in the toilet.

I think it will be interesting to see if anyone is prepared to sell anything to them anyway, if you're a Chinese company you have very little surety of being paid

[CETokyo]

Are there any other sources that discuss who in the Canadian Government actually developed and promoted this idea of sanctions targeting the Russian Central Bank?

[Hack&Lube]

Aftermath of Kyiv tower strike by Russians.

5 dead.

WARNING GRAPHIC BUT THE WORLD HAS TO SEE THE REALITY OF THIS WAR
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/commen...eb2x&context=3

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Rutuu

You hold foreign currency reserves and gold so that you can buy your own currency when you require it ("backing it").

Fiat currencies are essentially worth what people think they are worth.

Sanctioning a central bank hasn't happened since 1979, so they might not have anticipated this level of cooperation on sanctions. The Swiss broke a 200yr+ tradition of neutrality to do it, as an example.

If you control your energy, your food supply, your water supply and have a sovereign currency you can deal with your currency plummeting, and just print money as some sort of accounting method. Russia relies on food imports, so they will import inflation and most likely hyperinflation.

Hyperinflation toppled the Weimar Republic, and recently put Venezuela in the toilet.

Exactly.

And to the bold, they can't even use Rubles to import food or supplies right now, as no one will take them (other than the puppet Soviet states). So regular Russians will be decimated by this.

And his inner circle of Oligarchs have seen most of their assets frozen, probably to a much greater extent than they expected. This will cause them to pressure Putin to end this quickly or they will turn on him.

A weak Ruble, combined with a closed stock market (and a war) means that the value of companies like Gasprom are just plummeting. And because the markets aren't open, and these stocks are suspended, they can't do anything about it - they can't sell, they just have to wait it out.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I'm starting to wonder if, the blitzkrrieg having failed, the Russians are now thinking that if they take it slow, the rest of the world will get bored and change the channel. Seems expensive, but I'm not sure why else they're taking their time.

[bob-loblaw]

Originally Posted by CETokyo

Are there any other sources that discuss who in the Canadian Government actually developed and promoted this idea of sanctions targeting the Russian Central Bank?

Ask, and you shall receive.

Behind the push to freeze Moscow’s foreign cash

"Ahead of the latest sanctions, Canada’s Chrystia Freeland worked with her Ukrainian counterparts to win over skeptics."

During a call with the European Commission president after the decision, Trudeau and von der Leyen “praised the transatlantic cooperation that led to today’s joint statement,” an official readout reports. The sanctions heralded by Freeland, they agreed, would mean “enforcing additional restrictive measures against Russian banks, companies, officials, and elites.”

A little more about her history of bad blood with Russia as alluded to previously in the thread...

As Canada looks to increase pressure, it has significant Russian-owned or associated assets within its own borders that it could sanction — a fact Freeland likely knows well. Long before she entered politics, after earning a degree in Russian history and literature from Harvard, Freeland joined the Financial Times as its Moscow bureau chief. There, she helped identify corruption in Russia’s oligarch class, getting her a big break exposing misdealings at oil company Sidanco.

Freeland went on to write “Sale of the Century,” about the mass sell-off of Soviet assets after the fall of the Berlin Wall: It “remains a must-read for those of us who still care about what the hell went wrong with the naive best intentions for Russia’s forward journey,” wrote former Canadian ambassador to Moscow Jeremy Kinsman in Policy.

In 2014, when the West levied penalties against Moscow for its invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Freeland herself, then just an opposition member of Parliament, was slapped with a retaliatory Russian travel ban.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I'm starting to wonder if, the blitzkrrieg having failed, the Russians are now thinking that if they take it slow, the rest of the world will get bored and change the channel. Seems expensive, but I'm not sure why else they're taking their time.

And this is likely pretty true.

However, taking it slow will devastate them financially.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Sliver

BECAUSE HE HAS NUKES.

That's the whole answer. It's not hard to understand.

I get it, it isn't hard to understand, I just think we will look back once this get's worse and wonder why?

This is a leader who has killed his own people for his own political gain. Literally flattened them. Done a ton of damage globally.

Tactically speaking since up until the other day, the rest of the world has done nothing to stop him, what does he have to lose? He has out smartened them all.

Looking at where this would probably go and he does inflict damage on a NATO ally, I just don't see as that is the best time to act as a world.

I get the defensive tactics but at what stage do you play offense?

I hope I am wrong

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I get it, it isn't hard to understand, I just think we will look back once this get's worse and wonder why?

This is a leader who has killed his own people for his own political gain. Literally flattened them. Done a ton of damage globally.

Tactically speaking since up until the other day, the rest of the world has done nothing to stop him, what does he have to lose? He has out smartened them all.

Looking at where this would probably go and he does inflict damage on a NATO ally, I just don't see as that is the best time to act as a world.

I get the defensive tactics but at what stage do you play offense?

I hope I am wrong

If you still think we will look back and wonder why after being given the answer, you absolutely do not get it.

Even if the eventual end to this is nuclear war (which I doubt), you do not bring that eventuality up any sooner, because between now and then there are viable ways to avoid that outcome. The only thing “playing offence” accomplishes is bringing about the worst case scenario.

I don’t know about you, but let’s be real: there is a LOT worse Russia could do and a lot of lives that are going to be lost before anyone in their right mind thinks “we should have gone nuclear.”

I don’t mean to be rude, but people need to get their heads out of their asses and stop treating this like a movie.