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[Magmacube_tr]

I doubt the lack of money is gonna stop Russia's fighting, might slow it down but won't completely stop it.

Weakening them is enough, really.

[Telgin]

What has actually changed?  I've been hearing that Russia was going to run out of money imminently for over a year now.

[Lord Shonus]

They have been running out of money for over a year now. They've been using closed markets and other tricks to artificially inflate the ruble and hide the problem, but they're running out of tricks.

[King Zultan]

Given that this is Russia we're talking about I'm sure they'll just pull out a new box of tricks to try out.

[Loud Whispers]

Technically they still have 300 billion dollarydoos worth of central bank assets and 30 billion of oligarch assets stuck in US/UK/Swiss/EU banks. Canadians recently enacted a law allowing the seizure of Russian assets to compensate Ukraine for damages. So thanks to Canadian special economic operation that well will dry up. Granted the actual number of Russian assets frozen has always been left unexplained so the oligarch money could be getting dealt back by scummy bankers or getting looted by western politicians in secret so who knows. It's like the old joke "hey boss I found 1 billion" "hey boss I found 500 million" all the way down to "hey boss I found this 2 dollars"

[Maximum Spin]

I'm hearing about more headlines around Europe lately about Russian oil flowing into Ukraine (and being used there) via other countries. It's seeming like the beginning of a campaign to try to sanction those countries to stop sales of Russian oil to Ukraine, which strikes me as... counterproductive. Any Europeans have any information about this?

[martinuzz]

Haven't heard anything about that. EU countries are not buying any Russian oil (since december 2022), so they can't sell any to Ukraine. There's some news articles about China and India buying Russian oil very cheap. I dunno, it is possible that China or India are selling Russian oil to Ukraine, no idea.

[Maximum Spin]

Haven't heard anything about that. EU countries are not buying any Russian oil (since december 2022), so they can't sell any to Ukraine. There's some news articles about China and India buying Russian oil very cheap. I dunno, it is possible that China or India are selling Russian oil to Ukraine, no idea.

Last article I saw blamed Hungary and Turkey.

[martinuzz]

Hungary is indeed not joining in on the boycot of Russian oil, but I doubt they are selling it to Ukraine. Hungary needs the Russian oil for it's own power needs (or at least that is the argument they use to not join the boycot).
Hungary has agreed however to pay Ukraine transit fees for the oil flowing through Russian-occupied territory.

Turkey, possible. Haven't read anything about it though.

EDIT: in other news, the IAEA reports that landmines have been placed at the Zaporizja nuclear power plant terrain.

[King Zultan]

EDIT: in other news, the IAEA reports that landmines have been placed at the Zaporizja nuclear power plant terrain.

I was under the impression that those had been there for a while now.

[Loud Whispers]

Haven't heard anything about that. EU countries are not buying any Russian oil (since december 2022), so they can't sell any to Ukraine. There's some news articles about China and India buying Russian oil very cheap. I dunno, it is possible that China or India are selling Russian oil to Ukraine, no idea.

Looks like for a lot of EU countries Russian gas imports are still very much ongoing, with the EU being Russia's 2nd largest gas export market still. This ties in with the EU policy to target Russian revenue, but not necessarily gas volume:

Russia’s Declining Fossil Fuel Revenues
The EU’s bans and price caps have resulted in a decline of daily fossil fuel revenues from the bloc of nearly 85%, falling from their March 2022 peak of $774 million per day to $119 million as of February 22nd, 2023.

Although India has stepped up its fossil fuel imports in the meantime, from $3 million daily on the day of the invasion to $81 million per day as of February 22nd of this year, this increase doesn’t come close to making up the $655 million hole left by EU nations’ reduction in imports.

[Maximum Spin]

I just learned that the US government and other Western sources estimate that more Ukrainian refugees have migrated to Russia than Russians have emigrated or died during this war. That's not even counting populations of occupied regions.
So that's, well, that's a thing.

[Loud Whispers]

I just learned that the US government and other Western sources estimate that more Ukrainian refugees have migrated to Russia than Russians have emigrated or died during this war. That's not even counting populations of occupied regions.
So that's, well, that's a thing.

Not surprising. Before the war there were many who considered themselves Ukrainians and Russians, then when Russia invaded they had to pick one or the other. Reminds me of how British and Irish used to not be conflicting adjectives. Of course in addition to those Ukrainians who fled into Russia willingly, there are also those who are just being coerced abducted or lacked a safe route into Ukrainian held territory

[Maximum Spin]

Not surprising. Before the war there were many who considered themselves Ukrainians and Russians, then when Russia invaded they had to pick one or the other. Reminds me of how British and Irish used to not be conflicting adjectives. Of course in addition to those Ukrainians who fled into Russia willingly, there are also those who are just being coerced abducted or lacked a safe route into Ukrainian held territory

I'm not at all surprised that some Ukrainians would flee to Russia, but I do find it surprising and worth mentioning that it more than makes up for all of Russia's losses since the start of the war. Analysts were claiming, before, that war losses and emigration would destroy Russia's economic future.

[martinuzz]

The Russian parliament signed a law that allows regional governors to set up their own private armies, to compensate for the loss of Wagner.

Inb4 civil warring mini warlords everywhere. Russia becomes the new Syria. Allahuakhbar!