rgio wrote: 
Through the China backdoor, of course.  If things go really south on Putin, China might be forced into a sponsorship of sorts with Russia like it has with North Korea.  Do note that while action was taken against Russia via closing down most of its access to SWIFT, trading in oil continues.  The only way to stop Putin in his tracks right now would be a total embargo on Russian oil and that is not going to happen.  No one has the stomach or will to do that, yet that is what would be required.

And how would we deter China from helping Putin ?  Well that would require economic sanctions and possible embargoes on Chinese goods and services.  Also unlikely as they, both Putin and the CCP, have created critical dependencies on their products.  Let us not forget what Taiwan is in the world of semiconductors.  These are both countries with real and active imperialistic postures.  The world is at a crossroads.  This is where appeasement has led us.  The choices are pretty clear.  The window of opportunity to make these choices is fast closing.

weird kind of hiatus has settled in after those talks but somehow I'm expecting this to get worse before it gets better. 

The subject of Putin’s mind has been of interest to Pentagon analysts and psychologists for a long time.

Beyond the posturing debates over whether Putin does or does not have a “soul,” the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA) undertook a study in 2008 that examined his mental state. USA Today obtained that study (and one from 2011) and published the findings in 2015. Controversially, it speculated that the Russian leader has an “autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions.” Researchers pointed to Asperger’s syndrome, though they couldn’t prove that theory without having done a brain scan. One psychiatry professor cited in the study later walked back the specific claim of Asperger’s.

The armchair analysis was largely based on videos of Putin and attracted scrutiny at the time. It must be taken with salt grains. But those findings still wouldn’t account for the more recent changes in behavior Western officials say they’ve noticed, against the backdrop of his disastrous war in Ukraine.

Indeed, it is hard for anyone to see the videos of Putin’s pronouncements this week or the images of him taking social-distancing to absurd degrees or the sheer consequences of his decision-making without thinking that this man with command of a million-strong military force and a nuclear arsenal is not well.

Putin was Machiavellian in his prime. How does that cunning contort at the edge of 70? Per the Guardian, on this point:

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads. . . .

Following Putin’s speech on Monday, an Elysée official made an unusually bold assessment that the speech was “paranoid”. Bernard Guetta, a member of the European parliament for Macron’s grouping, told France Inter radio on Thursday morning, after military invasion began: “I think this man is losing his sense of reality, to say it politely.” Asked by the interviewer if that meant he thought Putin had gone mad, he said “yes”.

Guetta is not alone. Milos Zeman, the Czech president and long one of Putin’s staunchest supporters, denounced Putin a “madman” after the invasion.

“All our Russia-watchers, watching his press conferences, think that he’s descending even more into a despotic mindset,” another European diplomat said.

People grow old. They acquire ailments. Their perception of reality changes. The prospect of mortality affects different people differently. Most people don’t hold complete power over a vast nation while hearing only affirmative feedback from those around them. This is a dangerous way to age.

Australia was quick to sanction Moscow. Why not Myanmar? 

how come few sanction that coup ?
that was done with support from CCP

 Steely_D wrote: 
yep, I can follow that.

Anonymous sez it’s part of the resistance. Well, fine.
But I’m firmly against Anonymous as a concept. It’s a band of a faceless, nameless vigilantes that bear no responsibilities for their actions. 

Remember Google’s original guideline of “Don’t be evil”? Do you see that anymore? It gets lost as things evolve and things change hands.
The same will be true of Anon. They start off going after certainly bad people. But one day they may turn their destruction on someone who doesn’t deserve it, who hasn’t had their day in court, who’s been the target of a media attack. For instance, Hillary, maybe. She doesn’t drink children’s blood, of course. But what if they believed, really, that she did something like that and targeted her for “destruction.” (Some might say it doesn’t matter if they have the wrong intent, but it really does.)

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
ha, brilliant. 

Thanks to kaupmees for this tip:

How do you show images of war to people in Russia who may not be getting the news? You upload "user photos" to Google Maps' locations of popular tourist destinations... (graphic)

 rgio wrote:

Indeed.

Some scary observations from Bloomberg senior markets reporter Nikos Chrysoloras, as tweeted late on Sunday.

1) BP decided to take a hit of as much as $25 billion, just to leave Russia immediately

2) Russia's bond market is collapsing

3) Russians lined up at cash machines around the country to withdraw foreign currency

4) Unless there's a surprise de-escalation, Monday may turn out to be a dramatic day for the ruble, Russian stocks, and European markets

5) The European Union closed its airspace to Russia. The blockade applies to any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian person. Unprecedented

6) The decision to exclude Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system could result in missed payments and giant overdrafts within the international banking system

7) The EU is going after oligarchs. Essentially now the entire political and economic elite of the country is sanctioned 

8) The U.S. Embassy in Russia said citizens in the country should consider departing *immediately* - The EU approved $500 million in lethal military aid to be used against Russia's invading forces in 🇺🇦 and banned 🇷🇺 state media - also unprecedented

9) The EU also banned all transactions with the Russian central bank, severely curbing its ability to use foreign currency reserves to cushion the devastating blow from the sanctions

10) The situation on the front is unclear, but it seems Ukrainian facilities containing nuclear waste suffered damage

11) Putin says he put his nuclear forces on "high alert". Unclear what this means and what are his intentions. On the tactical side, things are definitely not going as well as he had hoped

12) Could planned talks lead to some sort of resolution? Unclear what could a mutually acceptable solution be

13) Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced plans for a massive boost in defense spending in the latest historic policy shift in Germany triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Or put another way...



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Switzerland says it will freeze Russian assets, setting aside a tradition of neutrality.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
authoritarianism is the type of dictatorial disease that only understands power and that power exercised over other human beings

they think they have a higher claim on other humans and are willing to use force to get them to submit

it's a long term losing game and it looks like the freer countries around these thugs are waking up to the fact that they're on the menu

i dislike that a huge portion of high tech will be directed toward weapons/military but when bad guys are killing and strong arming others it could seem like one of the safer options

peace

Prayers, good vibes or whatever you do, badly needed for DeltaIndia again:

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in mass shelling in rocket strikes by Russian forces on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, the Ukrainian interior ministry has said. 

Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said in a post on Facebook:

Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded.

So negotiations start and this is their idea of a negotiating tactic.
Don't know about anyone else, but my instinctive reaction to bullies is to tell them to go f. themselves.

 kurtster wrote:
Kurt, I think you're ignoring Islander's point.

Say you're right, and Russia has an enormous gold reserve.  HOW do they use it?  You can't sell it to yourself, and when you do sell it, you need a way to "get paid".  You can't use banks and exchanges that the world uses.  

Meanwhile, middle and upper-class Russians are losing their shirts.  There is no more money in their system, and the systems that they use daily in Europe are now off-limits.   Russians can not get their hands on currency today. There have been no available Rubbles since last Thursday....all of the printed money is "out" in the hands of Russians hoarding cash.  Putin's biggest threat is the misery his own people are experiencing.

Everyone in the US is up in arms with 7% inflation YOY.  Russia has experienced a 30%+ inflation in a week.  This inflation is solely due to one man's desire to expand his empire, by attacking the families of his own citizens.  

So you're right, Russia has a lot of gold.  How do they use any of it?

 islander wrote: 
Where do you get your information from ?

At one time I was living, breathing precious metals.  Too white knuckle, but I learned an awful lot about commodities along the way and where and how to look for information.  I've been watching how much both Russia and China have been accumulating gold over the past 10 years and how big of a priority it is for them.

Also do not forget that Russia is the 2nd largest oil producer in the world.  They call it Black Gold for a reason.  In case you haven't noticed, the world still runs on oil.  If someone needs energy bad enough, they are going to get it from wherever they can and pay whatever it takes and that would also include policy decisions.  Oh, and FWIW, Putin long ago hardened Russia's power grid against EMP attacks, something that we have failed to even get past talking about who is going to pay for it and do we really need it, yada, yada.  Another story for another time.

Try this.  While dated as far as current holdings, the rest is germane to your claim.

Gold Ownership

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) is a legal entity whose powers derive from the Constitution of the Russian Federation as well as from federal laws. The Bank of Russia is owned by the Russian Federation. The gold reserves of the Russian Federation are owned and managed by the Bank of Russia.

As per Article 2 of the “Russian Federation Federal Law On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation:

“The authorised capital and other property of the Bank of Russia shall be in federal ownership….the Bank of Russia shall exercise its powers to own, use and manage its property, including the gold and currency (international) reserves of the Bank of Russia.”

Bank of Russia Gold Storage

The Bank of Russia stores two-thirds of its gold reserves in Moscow in a Bank building on Ulitsa Pravdy (Pravda Street), and the remaining one-third of the gold reserves in a building in the city of St Petersburg. Therefore all Russian official gold reserves are domestically held within the Russian Federation.

The Moscow storage vault is known as the Central vault of the Bank of Russia and comprises a space of 17,000 sq/metres, with a storage area of 1,500 sq/metres, and stores both cash and precious metals. The gold stored in this vault is mostly in the form of large variable weight ‘standard gold bars’ which weigh between 10 kgs and 14 kgs (ie Good Delivery bars). The vault also stores some smaller bars (100 grams to 1 kgs bars). The gold bars in the vault are stored in plastic and wooden boxes. In January 2011, the then prime minister Vladimir Putin toured this vault area and was the first Russian prime minister ever to do so.

 kurtster wrote:

But most of that is held outside of the country. And with the current temperament on sanctions it's unlikely they will be able to use all of it. And while that seems like a lot of money, when it comes to running a country at war while trying to shore up your currency, it is probably a few weeks worth.  

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
 kurtster wrote: 
I said Hope.  Reality paints a different picture.  Especially with now adding Sweden and Finland into this.

This really is for all the marbles.  Just ain't no one willing to admit it yet.

Vladimir Sorokin - Putin's endgame isn't Ukraine but western civilisation

Elon Musk says SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service is active in Ukraine with more terminals on the way

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Yeah, ok.

Russia for First Time Holds More Gold Than U.S. Dollars in $583 Billion Reserves

(Bloomberg) — A multi-year drive to reduce exposure to U.S. assets has pushed the share of gold in Russia’s $583 billion international reserves above dollars for the first time on record. Gold made up 23% of the central bank’s stockpile as of the end of June 2020, the latest date for which data on the breakdown is available, according to a report published late Monday. The share of dollar assets dropped to 22%, down from more than 40% in 2018.

The shift is part of a broader strategy outlined by President Vladimir Putin to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy and lower its vulnerability to U.S. sanctions amid deteriorating relations with Washington. Gold is now the second-biggest component of the central bank’s reserves after the euro, which makes up about of a third of total assets. About 12% of the stash is in yuan.

 OBTW ... Gold has gone up about $100 / ounce the past week.  Floating at around $1900 / oz. USD.  Figure out the gain for the 2400 tons of gold that Putin has.