lotusmars

11 ms·

61.
by lotusmars 4y ago
> If both countries were to be compensated 'fairly' for the wheat, maybe there would be no war right now. Wow. Now this is the Putin apologist take I've never heard before, and I've heard a lot of them watching Russia
62.
by lotusmars 4y ago
> You're still not addressing the fact that large portions of the city are still standing. Thank you Putin for leaving some parts of bombed cities intact! Thank you Putin and his army for not murdering all families in gas chambers,
63.
by lotusmars 4y ago
This in itself is Kremlin's propaganda 101. Kremlin's most effective propagandist media and influencers are never as blunt as "Putin is good". It's more like "we never know the truth". "One side says
64.
by lotusmars 4y ago
RT was actually grown by Kremlin as a brand that "tells truth your government wants to hide". Conspriacy theories and Oliver Stone interviews interspersed with footage of Kremlin-backed European extremists protesting and pepper-sp
65.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Putin's bet seems to be that sanctions will erode and be lifted before microchip, oil technology embargo actually hits Russian economy. Medvedev explicitly said this two days before invasion. Yes, Western reaction will be loud but shor
66.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Important to note that this article is alread almost two months old. Since then there was even more recovery. Interest rates while spiked briefly to 20% now lowered. There was a brief capital control but now it's not neccessary: ordina
67.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Absolutely. They've been doing it a lot pre-war. When protests erupted and were crushed in Moscow and in major Russian cities Putin's media scrambled to show that "regular hard working people oppose gay rich Muscovite hipster
68.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Yep, saying this as a Russian, Russian media will show you a small part of the city with a staged crowd carrying Russian flags and tell you it's the whole city. They've done it for years. It's a shame some people in the West
69.
by lotusmars 4y ago
I was shocked to learn that most Westerners (especially Americans) believe that sanctions actually worked. Most believe that SWIFT was cut for Russian banks (most are working fine). That you can't buy USD in Russia (it's absolutel
70.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Plese don't spread Russian propaganda. Graham Philips worked a token "pro-Putin Westerner" on RT and Zvezda, which is literally Russian army's TV channel. He's as shilly as it gets.
71.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Putin already hinted that in exchange of lifting sanctions he will ship grain from occupied Ukraine. I'm pretty sure that Western politicans will scream "no way" initially but will quietly give in later. Just they way they ga
72.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Yes. It's more expensive than before, but there's a thriving market on Telegram with prices fixed in EUR/USD. Also Chinese cars sales are growing and soon market will be flooded.
73.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Where do you get this? You can buy USD officially at most banks. Tinkoff for example sells it for 67, which is once again even lower than before war.
74.
by lotusmars 4y ago
No, Moscow is fine and you can buy foreign currency freely now. This is a delusion based on Western politians' loud promises which never came true. We were promised crushing sanctions that would reduce Russian economy to 1980's st
75.
by lotusmars 4y ago
No problem flying to Dubai to Istanbul and using their banking system. Actually most of Russian and Belarussian elite are happily using it. You can meet all kinds of adult kids of Lukashenko, Yanukovich there or an odd Russian silovik.
76.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Where do you get that? You can actually buy dollars in Moscow from banks. Everything is mostly back to normal or even better (retail banks sell dollars cheaper than pre-war levels). There was a brief panic and tight controls in anticipation
77.
by lotusmars 4y ago
It's actually 64 RUB per USD, Tinkoff bank sells for 67 for example. Compare to 78 pre-war. This week Central Bank lifted another restrictions and you can get up to $50k out of the country. I think unfortunately Americans drank Biden&#
78.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Interest rate is already back to 14%[1]. Russian economy recovered super fast. Ruble is already stronger than before war (around 64 RUB for USD). Basically sanctions are a joke made for Biden to shout once before American public attention s
79.
by lotusmars 4y ago
Russian social media are full of winking posts hinting that McDonald's will sell operations to a Russian company which it will still profit from "behind the scenes" (via offshore proxy or some other indirect way). They also h
80.
by lotusmars 4y ago
They always seemed to be very shill-y and collaborative with FSB and Putin's government. Binance were also the first to collaborate with Russian government when FSB successfully lobbied crypto regulations that allowed only Central Bank
81.
by lotusmars 5y ago
We are not enjoying because lots of people in Russia want the downfall of Putin and his clique. The problem is West is too cowardly. They announced "crippling sanctions" that looked sweet on paper but barely made a dent in the eco
82.
by lotusmars 5y ago
Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria. Add to that inhuman treatment of civilians, unhinged army, mass rapes as terror means, bombings, chemical attacks, kidnappings, tortures. Putin wins it easily and we in Russia know this well. And he just started.
83.
by lotusmars 5y ago
I'm puzzled why we should always talk about America, your government, your policies, social media and search engines? People in the third world want oppression off their backs and if you think you don't have democracy, well too ba
84.
by lotusmars 5y ago
It's wild how Western commenters say "we don't know for sure" when it was all public, they just didn't pay attention. VKontakte is a great example because was literally a hostile takeover from Durov to Kremlin'
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by lotusmars 5y ago
Can you list some by Russians?
86.
by lotusmars 5y ago
The funny and somewhat ironic thing is that neo-Nazis (like RNE or Barkashov's movement or Dugin) are thriving in Russia if they collaborate with Kremlin. They also enjoy widespread financial support by companies associated with Kremli
87.
by lotusmars 5y ago
This is the most widespread position. On the hardline side there are variations of "you want gay parades?", "Ukrainians hate Russians and are Nazis", "[blacks, but usually the n-word] are fighting for Ukranians&quot
88.
by lotusmars 5y ago
Western whataboutism is a really underexplored phenomenon. Why do they always do diminish struggle of people and nations outside of West? It's like they're always saying "nah everybody hurts, you're not going through any
89.
by lotusmars 5y ago
It's a notch worse but it has very little noticeable effect on ordinary Russians' lives. Even middle class people safely return from abroad (Istanbul, Dubai, Yerevan) where they expected to stay while economy crashed but it didn&#
90.
by lotusmars 5y ago
One of the catalysts were probably 1999 bombings of apartment buildings[1] that were very suspicious (including one where FSB were actually caught planting hexogen by a local militia) and led to dramatic rise of Putin. Along with crackdown

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