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Not only does Russia have its own financial interchange system but they have their own credit card network as well. Visa and MasterCard were forced to integrate

Not only does Russia have its own financial interchange system but they have their own credit card network as well. Visa and MasterCard were forced to integrate with them early on in order to get a toe hold in the country. This will do more to hurt MasterCard then Moscow. Hindsight being perfect, one of the worst blunders the US ever made was turning their backs when the Soviet Union collapsed. That was their one chance to jump in and shape things in their favor, instead they opened Pizza Huts.

ido 5y ago
I think this is a naive reading of historic events. The US didn't "open pizza huts" but collaborated vigorously and enthusiastically in the looting of Soviet state assets post-collapse.
- vmception 5y ago
  Oligarchs are the OG dip buyers Bonus round 2 right before our eyes! assuming Putin doesn't nationalize stuff. Everyone else is literally helping you have diamond hands because you cant sell until the sanctions are lifted haha, which I mean, they will eventually. Undervalued, revenue producing assets aren't going to be ignored for long. BTFD. Just assume that you're going to the front lines soon unless you have enough money to donate enough to an Ivy League school for admission and draft deferral, like last time. The people that couldn't afford have no lineage as their bloodline ended, and the people that could afford it are current politicians and Presidents on all sides and their genes and ideas do pass on. Makes it easy to rationalize taking asymmetric financial bets during a time when people think they don't want to talk about it.
  - R0b0t1 5y ago
    They didn't buy the dip, they stole it from the state and its people.
    - vmception 5y ago
      There is no way that a state that nationalizes everything and then has to sell it all in a yet-to-be-birthed private economy has the ability of doing it amicably and for the people. There is no market depth, there is no liquidity, and there will always be people close to the decision makers or an international market of people willing to exchange, racing against the domestic people. The folly was the communism, the unbridled accumulation of revenue producing asset was just waiting for the communism to fall apart, I think it is shocking I also think I do not have sympathy for it. Time to do it again. Cheap revenue producing assets.
scyzoryk_xyz 5y ago
This, imho is eerily similar to the mistake of punishing Germany ruthlessly at the end of WWI, which basically created the perfect underlying conditions for Nazis and WWII.
- rib3ye 5y ago
  Show me the treaty where Russia was required to pay back crippling reparations.
  - Tabular-Iceberg 5y ago
    Does it matter to the average Russian if the money goes to a foreign state or a handful of oligarchs? The end result is the same. After enduring the communist hellhole for 70 years they should at least have been able to enjoy the fruits of all that labour.
    - maigret 5y ago
      I agree but then you have to change inside, not outside.

ido 5y ago

I think this is a naive reading of historic events. The US didn't "open pizza huts" but collaborated vigorously and enthusiastically in the looting of Soviet state assets post-collapse.

vmception 5y ago
Oligarchs are the OG dip buyers Bonus round 2 right before our eyes! assuming Putin doesn't nationalize stuff. Everyone else is literally helping you have diamond hands because you cant sell until the sanctions are lifted haha, which I mean, they will eventually. Undervalued, revenue producing assets aren't going to be ignored for long. BTFD. Just assume that you're going to the front lines soon unless you have enough money to donate enough to an Ivy League school for admission and draft deferral, like last time. The people that couldn't afford have no lineage as their bloodline ended, and the people that could afford it are current politicians and Presidents on all sides and their genes and ideas do pass on. Makes it easy to rationalize taking asymmetric financial bets during a time when people think they don't want to talk about it.
- R0b0t1 5y ago
  They didn't buy the dip, they stole it from the state and its people.
  - vmception 5y ago
    There is no way that a state that nationalizes everything and then has to sell it all in a yet-to-be-birthed private economy has the ability of doing it amicably and for the people. There is no market depth, there is no liquidity, and there will always be people close to the decision makers or an international market of people willing to exchange, racing against the domestic people. The folly was the communism, the unbridled accumulation of revenue producing asset was just waiting for the communism to fall apart, I think it is shocking I also think I do not have sympathy for it. Time to do it again. Cheap revenue producing assets.

scyzoryk_xyz 5y ago

This, imho is eerily similar to the mistake of punishing Germany ruthlessly at the end of WWI, which basically created the perfect underlying conditions for Nazis and WWII.

rib3ye 5y ago
Show me the treaty where Russia was required to pay back crippling reparations.
- Tabular-Iceberg 5y ago
  Does it matter to the average Russian if the money goes to a foreign state or a handful of oligarchs? The end result is the same. After enduring the communist hellhole for 70 years they should at least have been able to enjoy the fruits of all that labour.
  - maigret 5y ago
    I agree but then you have to change inside, not outside.