The Foolishness of Sanctions

#1

"These political morons are clueless about cross-border investments and capital flows. Biden did not bother to look but the US has the biggest investment in Russia according to the statistics released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The data clearly shows that the US was the largest investor in Russia and accounts for 8.9% of the Russian economy which is almost $40 billion.

While people speculate that there will be a massive run of Russian banks, they are also not looking at the damage removing Russia from SWIFT will mean to foreign investors. Russia now escapes all foreign liabilities.

Putin is smart. He can back the ruble with gold only for domestic use in effect reversing the strategy of FDR who confiscated gold domestically."

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#2

@peter.s.james
Armstrong definitely gets A+ on this one! IMO, Biden very well knows the consequences, keeping in mind his aim is to hurt The People of The US & weaken Our Country, along with Europe. Putin’s been setting this up for quite some time; months I’ve watched the troop movements. My question is: Did Putin really “under plan” for an assault of 72 or so hours or, did he plan this & top the cake with harsher threats to bring leaders to the table? What is it that was said in Red October film, “Russians don’t take a dump without a plan”. I think this might be the case. I think Putin will keep upping the threats until he gets (he hopes) all the land east of the river; maybe some influence in Kyiv, but I think no more. IF his plan works.

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#3

The Russian strategy here is foreign to the common battlefield practices of the west, such as “shock and awe” and more of a Blitzkrieg strategy. This isn’t a typical invasion of an enemy country. It is more of a siege to rid a specific region of a specific faction. This is much closer to our (the US) Civil War than most people seem to realize. In many cases Russia is conducting a siege on a town that the average soldier may have cousins living in. Putin seems to be trying to keep the pace slow and controlled to minimize collateral damage (human, hardware and infrastructure), as this will ultimately become less focused on combat and more focused on “hearts and minds.” If Russia simply wanted to crush the Ukraine, there would have been a massive air campaign, artillery and rocket strikes. It would have been over in 48hrs.

As a funny side note, isn’t it weird that as an American, the only nationalism I’m encouraged/tolerated to express is towards foreign countries?

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#4

I agree, Ronin. Killing cousins is touchy business & I do think Putin wants to minimize casualties & damage to infrastructure. That being said, he MUST have the land east of Dniper, else, Russia could starve & Putin knows regimes change when the people get truly hungry.

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#5

It is what it is… develope your own COG plan I guess cuz they got one!