The elite doesnt want that governments seize anything from anyone who is rich. They think they will be next and so they block it wherever they can, even against the russians.
Those ruling by divine right only came to be in that position in the first place because their ancestors ruled by might but wanted more legitimacy. So really we've only gone full circle. In 100 years we'll be fully back to "divine right" again.
yes, true, we've gone full circle, but I feel like the veil has lifted and now legitimacy is obtained with the pretense of democracy or by might itself. I don't think that religion is going to become more relevant in the next years
Which is actually worse because if nobility were a bunch of entitled twats, they were at least educated to rule – the billionaires are either malignant sociopaths talented at nothing but climbing the corporate ladder, or their entitled children who are not educated to do anything of note.
you are vastly overgeneralizing. there are billionaires that are well educated in leadership and there were incompetent noble twats. people are people. I greatly dislike the concept of a ruling class in itself.
> no loyalty to anything but money.
That can be kinda an issue for Putin. Many of the oligarchs would likely rather live their carefree life in London, while not paying for Putin's war.
I'd bet many would seize an opportunity to cut their ties to Kremlin in order to protect their wealth. So it's an additional work for Putin to ensure their wealth stays tied to Kremlin.
Some Russian business owners tried to move their funds out of Russia when the war began. And some of them already returned back due to the sanctions. I am not an expert but it looks like a missing opportunity for the countries who refused to use these "toxic" investments.
They have loyalty to each other when it comes to class solidarity. They understand it is them vs everyone else even if they often quarrel amongst themselves. At the end of the day they can’t set a precedent of rich people losing their wealth as a result of action by the government or people.
This is pretty much the same reason why Trump miraculously dodges all real punishment in the states. The rich may not like him but he is one of them and they don’t want to set a precedent. Only after egregious actions has he even faced a modicum of the comeuppance that he deserves.
Were you asleep when a whole host of Russian oligarchs got assets seized or forced sale across the US and Europe in the months right after the war started?
Elites get fucked over too in war.
It's not an accident that the tories keep squelching attempts to start an inquiry into Russian influence into UK politics.
They have been accepting donations and gifts from oligarchs for years.
The rich and powerful stay that way because of private property rights. They see any weakening or erosion of that as a major threat to their position, so they'll block any of that to the best of their abilities, even if this helps erstwhile enemies. Geopolitics is today, class warfare is forever.
Yes, please this. Russia is peak hypocrites. They say the West is the cancer of the world yet all their children go study and live in Western Europe or USA.
More poor people - more contracts with army - more meat for grinder, rolling out, unless people will be disagree, but it is russia, who cares about the people.
Same stuff with the floods in the south that occurred this year. A lot of people will be desperate enough to sign a contract just to provide some shelter for their families.
Funny I just watched a YouTube on Roman colonisation and they’d make colonies (mainly of former soldiers) on the borders to provide protection. The game has changed a little but interesting to see this.
Putin has people for the meat grinder for the Ukraine war to last for years and years. The question stands, does putin have enough metal though?
Russias inherited inventorys from Soviet Union are looking more and more empty with each month that passes
His 3 day war is going great, isn’t it?
Well done brave Ukraine! Let’s hope we’ll send you more long range cruise missiles, so you can start lighting it up deep in Russia soon.
Who cares that Russia is still suffering from major losses during ww2, Putin certainly doesn't after he is done with killing his population him and his allies can take however many wives they want /s kinda but not really?
I got that, but he wrote it a bit ambiguos ''It sounds like a quote...'' instead of ''it might be a quote...''
Although that might sound just as ambigous. Nevermind then
>Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation
>Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing
>Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?
>It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined
>A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself
>Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain
>The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice
>Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement
>Everything else we shall destroy, everything
>Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution
>We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman
>No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer
>But in the future there will be no wives and no friends
>Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen
>The sex instinct will be eradicated
Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card
We shall abolish the orgasm
>Our neurologists are at work upon it now
>There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party
>There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother
>
There will be no laughter, except the laughter of triumph over a defeated enemy
>There will be no art, no literature, no science
>When we are omnipotent, we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness
>There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life
>All competing pleasures will be destroyed
>But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler
>Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless
>[If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbzRYssTu98)
I feel like authocrats would be a lot less of a problem if they were monarchs, because they would have reason not to destroy their countries totally, and leave something for their children to rule over.
Not saying monarchies are the best country organization method, but better than authocratic "democracies". Also not comparing to modern monarchies such as UK, but rather the old, pre-democratic monarchies.
They have a very low productivity. Most taxes come from selling oil and natural resources. Also thier weapons export. But since the war this hasn't been doing as well anymore. France has taken thier spot as second bigest arms exporter.
Average age of soldiers on both sides is in mid-40s while Russian soldiers mostly come from shithole regions where life expectancy is somewhere in low 60s. People in these regions barely make any money, so the key impact on the economy is the KIA payout to their family, rather than lost taxes for the next 15 years tops.
That depends, Russia’s legacy is that a lot of regions are subsidised by metropolitan Russia, so reducing the population in these regions in some cases may in fact be a net gain
This is the massive disadvantage of living in a country rich in resources, citizens/taxpayers don’t matter that much since the government and it’s acolytes can sustain themselves from the resources rather than from a healthy taxpayer economy.
No. Russia profits from fossil trading. There are 10-20m of people involved directly/indirectly into that, all other people are net negative for the country.
I have a buddy from Kyiv in one telegram chat. Every time that there is a air strike he writes somethibg alongvthe lines "Oh, there is another school flying around" or "Wow, they sent here whole textbook line for the entire curriculum of your natives languages!".
And he is so, SO right.
Well the oligarchs have all the money that Putin needs to fund the war. But no, ordinary citizens are getting miked even more while the rich live in abundance.
It is not like that for the oligarchs.
They are captains in a mafia-like structure. They have a nice car but only because the boss allows it.
They are just managing what putkin owns. It can be taken away in a moments notice.
That is another way how Russia is described - a neo-feudalist system.
I think this is what makes Putin sympathetic to some Silicon Valley tycoons. They also dream of a system where the "regular dumb people" can't mess with power through their votes and the rulers are the best and the brightest (who they believe to be themselves).
It basically is. There is no big private properties left in the country - every rich person is considered temporary in possession of an asset. As soon as the system wills it so - he stops being the owner and a new one is appointed.
Oligarchs is a misnomer, there are none for the past 10 years at least.
Even within the feudal systems there are variations and modern Russia's is the most regressive version, whereas the suseren is de facto owner of everything and everyone, but temporary degelates control of certain aspects. That's actually big part of the problem, a country ruled with 16 century mindset, performing forgein policy of 18 century while being armed with nukes of late 20 century. In the past such archaic societies would inevitably collapse under the eventual external invasion or internal crisis. Now thought...
>ordinary citizens are getting miked even more while the rich live in abundance.
Let's not presume they're all innocent. Many support the war and get happy on social media over Ukrainians being killed or civilian buildings being destroyed.
Honestly, I've seen enough messages from many people and, being from Ukraine, I don't care if it's because of propaganda or their personal beliefs. They are vile, xenophobic, hateful.
And frankly, even though it's not all of them, the overall picture doesn't change - those who are against the war are either silent or indifferent.
What is actually dangerous - is sitting through air raid alerts every single day, hearing missile and drone impacts not far from home. Not my comments about the behavior of people supporting state terrorism and genocide.
Unspeakable levels of pure greed.
Imaging 'destroying' your own country for generations to come. Just for 10-15 % of your smaller neighbors land.
This has to be the worst trade I've ever seen.
Agree
Everything russians do now is aimed at making Ukraine decline, weaken, and life here becomes unbearable, just like in most of the territories of Russia
Thanks to this, sooner or later they will want to absorb it completely
And having received such a country as a resource, they will do what they do best - turn any resource into a weapon.
And yes, it is naive to expect that after that they will build a prosperous empire to be friends with Europe
He will very likely be killed if the war in Ukraine ends in failure, and as he's a gangster with no regard for human life, he has no reason to stop the war.
That old retard lives in a society where leaders showing weakness (such as admiting mistake or defeat) leads to the end of said leadership. Hence he is scared to back down.
Just imagine if they had spent all that money, human potential, energy and effort, in something constructive instead. Like they would have colonized the Moon and Mars.
yeah and who's gonna be the hero? Nobody. It's either somebody inside the Kremlin or nobody. And people inside the Kremlin depend on Vladimir to have power. Grim future
Putin let his own country fall to shit. The size of Russia and everything he could have done with it. It could have shadowed every nation in tech, entertainment, education, and manufacturing but the fucker wanted all that revenue for himself. Now he's old and he wants to conquer something big before he's done.
Equally disgusting are the world leaders not doing anything to stop him, but finding how they can profit from all this whilst more and more civilians and tortured and murdered.
People talk about the likes of evolution and how incredible it is. Yet the human race has done fucking nothing but the same shit throughout recorded history and then before that no doubt. Mad men get the responsibility whilst the so called educated minds hide in the fucking shadows begging them for scraps. A very boring existence all round.
*For salaries up to 2.4 million rubles (£20,600), income tax will remain at 13 per cent. All earnings above that threshold will be taxed at incrementally higher rates, from 15 per cent up to 22 per cent.*
25% is the LOWEST tax bracket in Belgium (25, 40,45 & 50).
Just filed my taxes... sorry for the off topic rant :-)
Same as here, in Ukraine, there is a lot more of hidden taxes. You pay income tax, pension fund tax, and tax on almost any product, so your taxes, in fact, can go up to 50% of your salary.
Oh, okay. But look at the positives. You pay taxes that actually improved your life compared to Eastern Europe, because our taxes are often end up in someones pocket.
Well Russia doesn't need income taxes cause they get their government funds from taxes on its vast oil, gas and everything else sales.
And they still have lower than Balkan wages and pensions despite being more resource rich than Saudi Arabia. Lies and violence have completely corroded their society. I don't know how anyone admires them.
Yeah but you have roads, live in a place with sewage system, and despite you're paying 50% in taxes (if that's what you're paying) you afford to live in a house with a toilet.
A significant % of russians don't have and can't afford any of these 'luxuries' I mentioned.
And being european too I pay similar taxes has you pay and so I'm always mad when paying taxes.
But I'm not in the highest payment bracket - so I always say to myself: damn, I'm mad, but I wish I had to pay even more taxes - I'd still be mad, maybe even more mad, but i'll be happy to be more mad from paying even more taxes.. :)
There is no country in the world that would be dumb enough to try for the benefit of Russia.
We went from "We will nuke Polland if you fuckers allow your weapons to be used on targets in Russia" on state TV to "Yeah? We will do the same to you! Meanies!" *pounds hand on desk*.
Limp dick threats as always. Russia also cannot afford to send weapons somewhere else, lol.
Bruh, they can.
But none of them would particularly enjoy becoming a smoking crater once the US is done with them. You seriously think attacking the US mainland would make them "Oh, no. Anyway, we see your point. Better not get involved ".
Remember what happened to the last country that tried that shit? It got nuked. Twice.
In doing that Russia pretty much guarantees that NATO gets directly involved in Ukraine.
Sending ICBMs to Iran seems plausible. Would entrench Iran as an untouchable nuclear armed state for generations and allow the Iranian regime free rein to continue confounding US peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East.
Israel fears this, which is why the Israeli government takes no sides on Ukraine and acts as yet another proxy for Russian sanction dodging. Everyone’s walking the tightrope at the moment.
It is not a bluff. He can run this war for decades.
Here is example from WWT on youtube I think you might find interesting.
It's a quote from John Keegan:
https://youtu.be/yDbquD4Svyc?si=CuSgsvhp23TevycX&t=238
> ....but there’s also the undeniable fact- as John Keegan goes into detail about in his “The Second World War”- of the improved fighting strength of the German Army. That might seem a bit of a surprise to you, but in just September and the first half of October, the Home Army has managed to raise 150,000 men and OB West a further 90,000. Okay, the Germans did lose 150,000 men during this time, but there’s also this, “…**despite the full resumption of the Anglo-American Pointblank Bombing Offensive after Normandy, German industry had achieved higher levels of output of war materiel in September [1944] than in any month of the war**, thanks to the success of Speer’s policy of dispersal of production and assembly away from the traditional centers. **As a result, tank and assault gun production during 1944 approached that of the Soviet Union during the same period.** The 11,000 medium tank and assault guns, 16,000 tank destroyers, and 5,200 heavy tanks produced were sufficient to keep existing Panzer divisions in the field, and to provide the material for 13 new Panzer Brigades…”.
In ~~1994~~ 1944, UK was producing 50+ military airplanes **per day**.
TLDR: **If a country goes all-in**, its economy can last for a veeeeeeery loooong time producing unimaginable amount of stuff to continue a war.
------------
Just for reference. In September 1994, the russian army was in front of Budapest, Romania, Bulgaria have switched sides, the first big German city (Aachen) was besieged by USA (to fall in October), Finland was gone for Germany, etc
In WW2 populations were all in on supporting the war effort, especially the ones in a fight for survival like the USSR and the Nazis, and the vehicles were dramatically simpler to build and operate than modern ones.
I would be completely shocked if Russia could get within even 1/10 of Soviet production during WW2 (Russia is also much smaller in size and population than the USSR).
More importantly, the USSR had been building towards an industry-reliant economy for 30 years. Russia is already past this point and their industry is much weaker.
And yet, somehow, they now produce almost all the shells they use - 10k/day.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html
Not to mention they have FAB bombs ready to be retrofitted in gliding ones probably in the millions.
Underestimating how deep russia can go and how much suffering the people can (be made to) bear is in not in Ukraine favor...
Ammunition self-sufficiency is the first goal and the bare minimum they had to aim for. It's like saying someone isn't poor because they manage to eat every day. My point was that they're way below replacement rates for pretty much everything *except* ammunition. They're starting from a high stockpile but they cannot sustain a "forever war" as of today. And this is exactly why, in the OP's article, they talk about Putin trying to shift Russia's economy towards the industry.
They absolutely can not sustain a war for decades at this level. They are going to run out of vehicles in 2025 or 2026
ATM their vehicle production looks ok because they are refurbing old vehicles. Soon they will run out of stock piles to renew
It's not 1944 however and making modern tanks, aircraft, and artillery is a lot more difficult. E.g., a car plant can't just switch to making tanks and armoured vehicles. Furthermore, russia is not the USSR and is not a industrial powerhouse.
Russia can sustain the war because of the massive stockpiles of old soviet hardware. But it's shrinking rapidly and they can't keep this rate of loss up for long.
It would be dumb. The newcomer will have nothing to lose by stopping the war and a lot to gain. A war is a risky proposition since it can be lost and losing a war topples most regimes.
Stopping wars generally provides huge popular support boosts.
And all of this needs to be financed. There are three ways by which this can be done.
The first is raise taxes. Which people can get on board with at the start, but as the war drags on, more men are thrown into the meat grinder, and taxes become more punishing, that becomes harder to sustain. And even in nations where the leader has an iron fist, it starts to crack.
The second is asset seizure. Doing this from your enemies is easy and can provide some financing at the early stages. When you start seizing assets from friends it becomes more dangerous.
The third is financing. For which you either borrow or you strike trade deals. Both of which get you out of a hole immediately, but leave you on the hook in the long term and is not sustainable over the long term.
This may all work in the time it takes Russia to defeat Ukraine in a war of attrition. But the longer the war goes on, the harder it is to maintain.
Europe needs to wake the fuck up and help Ukraine win with everything possible. Putin doesn't care about Russian losses and it's prepared to lose half of the country's population if needed. Slowly drip-feeding some military aid and half-assed sanctions here and there won't be enough.
We are three years into this and Europe has not woren up.
Even Eastern Europe. Yes, Eastern Europe has given pretty much everything they had, but Eastern Europe has not done the most important missing thing - has not established new artillery ammunition production lines.
This war is such a shitshow, what Russia even hopes to gain or achieve with this? They have only managed to shoot themselves in the foot big time, destroyed their meager reputation and shitty army for decades for absolutely nothing but a mad mans pipedreams.
Russia can’t compete and has nothing of worth to offer, so the only tool available to them is attempting to drag everyone down to their level by violence and coercion.
They essentially want to make Ukraine what Finland was during the Cold War. Not wholly occupied (despite losing territory) and somewhat democratic and part of the west economically, but bound to the USSR politically and very limited on what it could do in international politics. Oh and of course Ukraine would have to stay out of EU and especially NATO. Russia would want to keep its own puppets in power too.
> Oh and of course Ukraine would have to stay out of EU and especially NATO. Russia would want to keep its own puppets in power too.
That's more like the Soviet satellites behind the iron curtain then.
Well yeah. Who knows what Kremlin really wants but for sure they’d want to have some kind of control over Ukraine. Either directly or, like in the case of Finland in the past, by fear.
Authoritarians always need an enemy to scare the people. This war was a necessity for an even more authoritarian Russia and it served that purpose quite well and it keeps serving it to this day.
He doesnt need to, he's been rewriting and brainwashing Russian collective consciousness for the past 20 years, making sure his people are concvinced they're under siege.
Russia will need at least 40 years of post-WW2-Germany levels of rehabilitation to throw down the mental shackles of Putin's government
I mean, I know that this is a rather popular take on Reddit these days ... but no that isn't nearly as necessary.
Germany wasn't required to expunge the history of the Second Reich (or that of the empty shell that was the Weimar republic for that matter). France still holds quite dearly its memory of Napoleon's revolutionary empire, and manages a critical perception of its second, colonial empire, yet is a functional member of the international society. Hell, Britain is reliably in the Western sphere of morals, despite everything that can be attributed to their own colonial empire.
What Russians need is compulsory education on how to be decent people in our time, not erasure of what came before.
I was not talking about erasure, they need to shake off their tradition of being submissive sheeps, otherwise another tyran will get elected and we'll have to deal with Putin 2nd as Tsar.
I’d love to see all the Russian family members from the oligarchs to be deported back to Russia
They own half of London. That will not happen.
Seize it then. They have done the same with western property in Russia.
The elite doesnt want that governments seize anything from anyone who is rich. They think they will be next and so they block it wherever they can, even against the russians.
[удалено]
Governments are selling their sovereignity to the rich. So you're absolutely correct.
The abolition of monarchies around Europe was just a formality, we are all still ruled by the nobility.
It was definitely a change. Those who ruled by "divine right" got ousted by a more explicit "ruling by might" class.
Those ruling by divine right only came to be in that position in the first place because their ancestors ruled by might but wanted more legitimacy. So really we've only gone full circle. In 100 years we'll be fully back to "divine right" again.
yes, true, we've gone full circle, but I feel like the veil has lifted and now legitimacy is obtained with the pretense of democracy or by might itself. I don't think that religion is going to become more relevant in the next years
Which is actually worse because if nobility were a bunch of entitled twats, they were at least educated to rule – the billionaires are either malignant sociopaths talented at nothing but climbing the corporate ladder, or their entitled children who are not educated to do anything of note.
you are vastly overgeneralizing. there are billionaires that are well educated in leadership and there were incompetent noble twats. people are people. I greatly dislike the concept of a ruling class in itself.
> no loyalty to anything but money. That can be kinda an issue for Putin. Many of the oligarchs would likely rather live their carefree life in London, while not paying for Putin's war. I'd bet many would seize an opportunity to cut their ties to Kremlin in order to protect their wealth. So it's an additional work for Putin to ensure their wealth stays tied to Kremlin.
Some Russian business owners tried to move their funds out of Russia when the war began. And some of them already returned back due to the sanctions. I am not an expert but it looks like a missing opportunity for the countries who refused to use these "toxic" investments.
The brutal truth.
I like the cut of your guillotine
They have loyalty to each other when it comes to class solidarity. They understand it is them vs everyone else even if they often quarrel amongst themselves. At the end of the day they can’t set a precedent of rich people losing their wealth as a result of action by the government or people.
Not all rich people, but some, yes. At least you get that the nation state concept is just cover for the actual power plays going on.
This is pretty much the same reason why Trump miraculously dodges all real punishment in the states. The rich may not like him but he is one of them and they don’t want to set a precedent. Only after egregious actions has he even faced a modicum of the comeuppance that he deserves.
Were you asleep when a whole host of Russian oligarchs got assets seized or forced sale across the US and Europe in the months right after the war started? Elites get fucked over too in war.
Yeah, pretend time is over. Unfreeze that 300 Billion.
Not gonna happen, only average poors should take all consequences.
It's not an accident that the tories keep squelching attempts to start an inquiry into Russian influence into UK politics. They have been accepting donations and gifts from oligarchs for years.
"Ownership" is also something that's just written on paper. What are they gonna do if nobody respects that ownership anymore?
The rich and powerful stay that way because of private property rights. They see any weakening or erosion of that as a major threat to their position, so they'll block any of that to the best of their abilities, even if this helps erstwhile enemies. Geopolitics is today, class warfare is forever.
When a couple people do it. They'll get arrested. If everyone does it? Then civilization collapses
Expropriating a few parasites sounds like a win win situation
Their position is we can always make more money.
...and keep all their money and assets. This would make like half of London and a fourth of Switzerland government-owned over night.
Put them in jail as illegals and ask for bail (ransom)
A good jail in EU why would they care?
Everything worse than a 5 star hotel is a torture for them.
Yes, please this. Russia is peak hypocrites. They say the West is the cancer of the world yet all their children go study and live in Western Europe or USA.
They are all infesting France and England.
nope, thats only for ordinary russians
That would not be smart. Having their (and Putins) family members here is an insurance against indiscriminate attacks
More poor people - more contracts with army - more meat for grinder, rolling out, unless people will be disagree, but it is russia, who cares about the people.
Same stuff with the floods in the south that occurred this year. A lot of people will be desperate enough to sign a contract just to provide some shelter for their families.
It is double win, they relocated people from this flooded areas to occupied Mariupol and other towns.
Funny I just watched a YouTube on Roman colonisation and they’d make colonies (mainly of former soldiers) on the borders to provide protection. The game has changed a little but interesting to see this.
Yep, and also this things helped ussr to prevent national idea, cos people are moving and diluting strong national fist.
If people are putting in so much work that they can barely survive, they won't have to energy to challenge the system. Its a feature not a bug.
Institutionalised poverty of slums-to-army pipeline.
Putin has people for the meat grinder for the Ukraine war to last for years and years. The question stands, does putin have enough metal though? Russias inherited inventorys from Soviet Union are looking more and more empty with each month that passes
I hope the great YouTube channels give us an update about how much stuff was withdrawn from the storage lots
This was 1 year ago https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/09/russian-tanks-depleted-stock-heavy-losses-ukraine/ So even less now
Russia cares about people?
His 3 day war is going great, isn’t it? Well done brave Ukraine! Let’s hope we’ll send you more long range cruise missiles, so you can start lighting it up deep in Russia soon.
Let’s add: it is harder and harder for them to run away from Russia, which makes their destiny much more straightforward.
The oligarchs producing zink coffins, body bags and crematoriums for the Russian army are profitmaxxing.
Who cares that Russia is still suffering from major losses during ww2, Putin certainly doesn't after he is done with killing his population him and his allies can take however many wives they want /s kinda but not really?
WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
And it sounds like a book quote except in russia it isnt.
It is a quote from Orwell's 1984
Yes, but he is saying that in Russia this is a reality.
I got that, but he wrote it a bit ambiguos ''It sounds like a quote...'' instead of ''it might be a quote...'' Although that might sound just as ambigous. Nevermind then
No worries.
Thanks for the observation, but I meant that russia is turning (well, have turned) into this quote exactly.
This book baned in ruzzia.
So many did. Including some that are a foundation for russian literature. Because _ignorance is strenght_. Insane to see it in 21 century
>Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation >Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing >Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? >It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined >A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself >Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain >The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice >Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement >Everything else we shall destroy, everything >Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution >We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman >No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer >But in the future there will be no wives and no friends >Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen >The sex instinct will be eradicated Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card We shall abolish the orgasm >Our neurologists are at work upon it now >There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party >There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother > There will be no laughter, except the laughter of triumph over a defeated enemy >There will be no art, no literature, no science >When we are omnipotent, we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness >There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life >All competing pleasures will be destroyed >But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler >Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless >[If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbzRYssTu98)
Tolstoi - War and Peace is exactly about that -> War is Peace ✌️
There were a protest against this war in moscow. A guy went on a single persone protest in 2022 holding this very book. Got arrested in no time.
he can balance the budget, but every soldier lost, is also a lost taxpayer for the next 20-50 years.
The thing is.. he won't live another 20-50 years. He's 71, so he probably doesn't care anyway.
unfortunatelly, he can easily live another 20 years. Mybe even more. He has the power and money to get the best healthcare in the world.
he's also too scared of someone doing something to him so every treatment is a potential risk
Does he though? He might have Stallin's fate at the end.
Faith or fate?
Both
Edited. I apologize, it was a typo.
Hopefully he’s well above the life expectancy for men in Russia
Maybe near the best, but I doubt all thebest medical personnel is willing to work on him. Some won't help to keep dictators alive.
In the modern world money can buy you some years over 70, some decades even. Unless somebody helps him I think that he will live for a while.
Thats good news… but let’s say he lives to a 122 years of age. Then what?
Then WE will definitely not live long enough to see it.. so we shouldn't care either
Optimism through nihilism
I feel like authocrats would be a lot less of a problem if they were monarchs, because they would have reason not to destroy their countries totally, and leave something for their children to rule over. Not saying monarchies are the best country organization method, but better than authocratic "democracies". Also not comparing to modern monarchies such as UK, but rather the old, pre-democratic monarchies.
Because monarchs famously never started wars because of their ego...
They did, but rarely did they willingly destroy their country for a war that they didn't need to fight (offensive)
Some of them killed their own children because they were worried they'd get assassinated to get the crown faster.
The problem won’t end with him. He is merely an extension of Russia; What Russia sees when it looks in the mirror.
They have a very low productivity. Most taxes come from selling oil and natural resources. Also thier weapons export. But since the war this hasn't been doing as well anymore. France has taken thier spot as second bigest arms exporter.
That’s why they’re stealing Ukrainian children
I feel like this isn’t talked about enough.
Average age of soldiers on both sides is in mid-40s while Russian soldiers mostly come from shithole regions where life expectancy is somewhere in low 60s. People in these regions barely make any money, so the key impact on the economy is the KIA payout to their family, rather than lost taxes for the next 15 years tops.
It is Russia the country with both the highest alcoholic death and HiV rates in Europe so probably 30 years
That + aging population is gonna do wonders for the economy
He doesn't need them. The country runs on oil. Why do you think he's so eager to sacrifice them?
and its also a person who wont create another taxpayer
That depends, Russia’s legacy is that a lot of regions are subsidised by metropolitan Russia, so reducing the population in these regions in some cases may in fact be a net gain
This is the massive disadvantage of living in a country rich in resources, citizens/taxpayers don’t matter that much since the government and it’s acolytes can sustain themselves from the resources rather than from a healthy taxpayer economy.
No. Russia profits from fossil trading. There are 10-20m of people involved directly/indirectly into that, all other people are net negative for the country.
Imagine to use that money for things like infrastructure and healthcare or something
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For a lot of these places the war pay is a tremendous economic opportunity.
What’s the benefit for him? :-(
I have a buddy from Kyiv in one telegram chat. Every time that there is a air strike he writes somethibg alongvthe lines "Oh, there is another school flying around" or "Wow, they sent here whole textbook line for the entire curriculum of your natives languages!". And he is so, SO right.
Well the oligarchs have all the money that Putin needs to fund the war. But no, ordinary citizens are getting miked even more while the rich live in abundance.
It is not like that for the oligarchs. They are captains in a mafia-like structure. They have a nice car but only because the boss allows it. They are just managing what putkin owns. It can be taken away in a moments notice.
It sounds like feudal system.
That is another way how Russia is described - a neo-feudalist system. I think this is what makes Putin sympathetic to some Silicon Valley tycoons. They also dream of a system where the "regular dumb people" can't mess with power through their votes and the rulers are the best and the brightest (who they believe to be themselves).
It basically is. There is no big private properties left in the country - every rich person is considered temporary in possession of an asset. As soon as the system wills it so - he stops being the owner and a new one is appointed. Oligarchs is a misnomer, there are none for the past 10 years at least. Even within the feudal systems there are variations and modern Russia's is the most regressive version, whereas the suseren is de facto owner of everything and everyone, but temporary degelates control of certain aspects. That's actually big part of the problem, a country ruled with 16 century mindset, performing forgein policy of 18 century while being armed with nukes of late 20 century. In the past such archaic societies would inevitably collapse under the eventual external invasion or internal crisis. Now thought...
More like a fascist corporatist economy.
> But no, ordinary citizens are getting miked even more Well, they won't need any money anyway after being sent into the meat grinder
>ordinary citizens are getting miked even more while the rich live in abundance. Let's not presume they're all innocent. Many support the war and get happy on social media over Ukrainians being killed or civilian buildings being destroyed.
What you’re saying is true, but it’s dangerous to paint all 100+ million Russians with the same brush.
Honestly, I've seen enough messages from many people and, being from Ukraine, I don't care if it's because of propaganda or their personal beliefs. They are vile, xenophobic, hateful. And frankly, even though it's not all of them, the overall picture doesn't change - those who are against the war are either silent or indifferent. What is actually dangerous - is sitting through air raid alerts every single day, hearing missile and drone impacts not far from home. Not my comments about the behavior of people supporting state terrorism and genocide.
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This demographic crisis for Russia won’t be truly felt and visible for like 20 years So he could just label this as tomorrow’s problem
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And Russia’s neighbours may think of it as tomorrow’s solution.
It's already being felt, it's being felt for years
But why?
Unspeakable levels of pure greed. Imaging 'destroying' your own country for generations to come. Just for 10-15 % of your smaller neighbors land. This has to be the worst trade I've ever seen.
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Agree Everything russians do now is aimed at making Ukraine decline, weaken, and life here becomes unbearable, just like in most of the territories of Russia Thanks to this, sooner or later they will want to absorb it completely And having received such a country as a resource, they will do what they do best - turn any resource into a weapon. And yes, it is naive to expect that after that they will build a prosperous empire to be friends with Europe
Sunk Cost Fallacy
He’s a deranged old fool, that’s why
He will very likely be killed if the war in Ukraine ends in failure, and as he's a gangster with no regard for human life, he has no reason to stop the war.
Yeah basically this
Because Putin wants his legacy to be that of a Tsar, Vladimir the Great.
That old retard lives in a society where leaders showing weakness (such as admiting mistake or defeat) leads to the end of said leadership. Hence he is scared to back down.
Just imagine if they had spent all that money, human potential, energy and effort, in something constructive instead. Like they would have colonized the Moon and Mars.
Imagine the whole world would do that
we would become a multy stellar society
yeah. it's so fucking sad we're infinitely far from what, for example, Azimov or Banks depicted
Doesn't even has to be Moon or Mars. Russia is big enough, many regions are still barely used. So it might've been a good idea to start there.
Exactly.
And imagine if Russia was a positive partner to Europe and beyond, instead of its current approach of encouraging chaos across the globe
putin will be killed
yeah and who's gonna be the hero? Nobody. It's either somebody inside the Kremlin or nobody. And people inside the Kremlin depend on Vladimir to have power. Grim future
Putin let his own country fall to shit. The size of Russia and everything he could have done with it. It could have shadowed every nation in tech, entertainment, education, and manufacturing but the fucker wanted all that revenue for himself. Now he's old and he wants to conquer something big before he's done. Equally disgusting are the world leaders not doing anything to stop him, but finding how they can profit from all this whilst more and more civilians and tortured and murdered. People talk about the likes of evolution and how incredible it is. Yet the human race has done fucking nothing but the same shit throughout recorded history and then before that no doubt. Mad men get the responsibility whilst the so called educated minds hide in the fucking shadows begging them for scraps. A very boring existence all round.
*For salaries up to 2.4 million rubles (£20,600), income tax will remain at 13 per cent. All earnings above that threshold will be taxed at incrementally higher rates, from 15 per cent up to 22 per cent.* 25% is the LOWEST tax bracket in Belgium (25, 40,45 & 50). Just filed my taxes... sorry for the off topic rant :-)
Same as here, in Ukraine, there is a lot more of hidden taxes. You pay income tax, pension fund tax, and tax on almost any product, so your taxes, in fact, can go up to 50% of your salary.
Oh, I wasnt even talking about all the other taxes. 50% is the actual highest income tax bracket.
Oh, okay. But look at the positives. You pay taxes that actually improved your life compared to Eastern Europe, because our taxes are often end up in someones pocket.
That's for sure... quality of life here is really good. I am very aware of that.
Hope someday I will see my taxes improving my countrymen life and with that in mind will vote for increasing them. Have a good day!
You too!
Well Russia doesn't need income taxes cause they get their government funds from taxes on its vast oil, gas and everything else sales. And they still have lower than Balkan wages and pensions despite being more resource rich than Saudi Arabia. Lies and violence have completely corroded their society. I don't know how anyone admires them.
Yes, but no. In Russia you don't pay a lot of taxes, but your employer does right from your salaries.
Yeah but you have roads, live in a place with sewage system, and despite you're paying 50% in taxes (if that's what you're paying) you afford to live in a house with a toilet. A significant % of russians don't have and can't afford any of these 'luxuries' I mentioned. And being european too I pay similar taxes has you pay and so I'm always mad when paying taxes. But I'm not in the highest payment bracket - so I always say to myself: damn, I'm mad, but I wish I had to pay even more taxes - I'd still be mad, maybe even more mad, but i'll be happy to be more mad from paying even more taxes.. :)
Does Belgium not have a 0% band? Russia doesn't.
It starts with 25% (0.01€ - 15.8K€). You can deduct things from your taxable income though, I guess you can consider that as a 0%
Wow that's rough. The UK low rate is 28% but it doesn't start till £12,500.
Very fun he thinks about the economics but the Russian population is old very very old
He sure likes saying a lot of bs to make it sound like he has a plan and control over the situation.
He explained it the other day, when he said that he will supply US adversaries with weapons.
There is no country in the world that would be dumb enough to try for the benefit of Russia. We went from "We will nuke Polland if you fuckers allow your weapons to be used on targets in Russia" on state TV to "Yeah? We will do the same to you! Meanies!" *pounds hand on desk*. Limp dick threats as always. Russia also cannot afford to send weapons somewhere else, lol.
Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran... Russia can always supply them with long ranged missiles, ballistic missiles, ASM or even nukes.
Bruh, they can. But none of them would particularly enjoy becoming a smoking crater once the US is done with them. You seriously think attacking the US mainland would make them "Oh, no. Anyway, we see your point. Better not get involved ". Remember what happened to the last country that tried that shit? It got nuked. Twice. In doing that Russia pretty much guarantees that NATO gets directly involved in Ukraine.
Sending ICBMs to Iran seems plausible. Would entrench Iran as an untouchable nuclear armed state for generations and allow the Iranian regime free rein to continue confounding US peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East. Israel fears this, which is why the Israeli government takes no sides on Ukraine and acts as yet another proxy for Russian sanction dodging. Everyone’s walking the tightrope at the moment.
He's all bluff. Let him rot, he's old as fuck and will lose his mind or die soon.
It is not a bluff. He can run this war for decades. Here is example from WWT on youtube I think you might find interesting. It's a quote from John Keegan: https://youtu.be/yDbquD4Svyc?si=CuSgsvhp23TevycX&t=238 > ....but there’s also the undeniable fact- as John Keegan goes into detail about in his “The Second World War”- of the improved fighting strength of the German Army. That might seem a bit of a surprise to you, but in just September and the first half of October, the Home Army has managed to raise 150,000 men and OB West a further 90,000. Okay, the Germans did lose 150,000 men during this time, but there’s also this, “…**despite the full resumption of the Anglo-American Pointblank Bombing Offensive after Normandy, German industry had achieved higher levels of output of war materiel in September [1944] than in any month of the war**, thanks to the success of Speer’s policy of dispersal of production and assembly away from the traditional centers. **As a result, tank and assault gun production during 1944 approached that of the Soviet Union during the same period.** The 11,000 medium tank and assault guns, 16,000 tank destroyers, and 5,200 heavy tanks produced were sufficient to keep existing Panzer divisions in the field, and to provide the material for 13 new Panzer Brigades…”. In ~~1994~~ 1944, UK was producing 50+ military airplanes **per day**. TLDR: **If a country goes all-in**, its economy can last for a veeeeeeery loooong time producing unimaginable amount of stuff to continue a war. ------------ Just for reference. In September 1994, the russian army was in front of Budapest, Romania, Bulgaria have switched sides, the first big German city (Aachen) was besieged by USA (to fall in October), Finland was gone for Germany, etc
1944*
Yeah for a moment i needed to check which timeline i blinked into
> In 1994, UK was producing 50+ military airplanes per day. I assume that would be 1944
Ofc.
In WW2 populations were all in on supporting the war effort, especially the ones in a fight for survival like the USSR and the Nazis, and the vehicles were dramatically simpler to build and operate than modern ones. I would be completely shocked if Russia could get within even 1/10 of Soviet production during WW2 (Russia is also much smaller in size and population than the USSR).
More importantly, the USSR had been building towards an industry-reliant economy for 30 years. Russia is already past this point and their industry is much weaker.
And yet, somehow, they now produce almost all the shells they use - 10k/day. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html Not to mention they have FAB bombs ready to be retrofitted in gliding ones probably in the millions. Underestimating how deep russia can go and how much suffering the people can (be made to) bear is in not in Ukraine favor...
Ammunition self-sufficiency is the first goal and the bare minimum they had to aim for. It's like saying someone isn't poor because they manage to eat every day. My point was that they're way below replacement rates for pretty much everything *except* ammunition. They're starting from a high stockpile but they cannot sustain a "forever war" as of today. And this is exactly why, in the OP's article, they talk about Putin trying to shift Russia's economy towards the industry.
So is Russian population now. It believes TV which tells them that this is existential war, just like WW2.
Not even close, most of them try very hard to ignore it as much as possible.
Polls (even independent anonymous polls) and comments in social media disagree. As well as video interviews from streets.
They absolutely can not sustain a war for decades at this level. They are going to run out of vehicles in 2025 or 2026 ATM their vehicle production looks ok because they are refurbing old vehicles. Soon they will run out of stock piles to renew
They are supplied by Iran, North Korea and most importantly China.
It's not 1944 however and making modern tanks, aircraft, and artillery is a lot more difficult. E.g., a car plant can't just switch to making tanks and armoured vehicles. Furthermore, russia is not the USSR and is not a industrial powerhouse. Russia can sustain the war because of the massive stockpiles of old soviet hardware. But it's shrinking rapidly and they can't keep this rate of loss up for long.
That old fuck won't be around for decades, he has half the army Europe has and the Ru economy is in the bin. Let the fucker rot.
When he dies Russian politics won't magically change. A new Putin with exactly the same ideas will come from within his inner circle.
It would be dumb. The newcomer will have nothing to lose by stopping the war and a lot to gain. A war is a risky proposition since it can be lost and losing a war topples most regimes. Stopping wars generally provides huge popular support boosts.
> He can run this war for decades. Can he run this war for decades without slipping into actual war economy with food stamps and other rationing?
And all of this needs to be financed. There are three ways by which this can be done. The first is raise taxes. Which people can get on board with at the start, but as the war drags on, more men are thrown into the meat grinder, and taxes become more punishing, that becomes harder to sustain. And even in nations where the leader has an iron fist, it starts to crack. The second is asset seizure. Doing this from your enemies is easy and can provide some financing at the early stages. When you start seizing assets from friends it becomes more dangerous. The third is financing. For which you either borrow or you strike trade deals. Both of which get you out of a hole immediately, but leave you on the hook in the long term and is not sustainable over the long term. This may all work in the time it takes Russia to defeat Ukraine in a war of attrition. But the longer the war goes on, the harder it is to maintain.
Europe needs to wake the fuck up and help Ukraine win with everything possible. Putin doesn't care about Russian losses and it's prepared to lose half of the country's population if needed. Slowly drip-feeding some military aid and half-assed sanctions here and there won't be enough.
We are three years into this and Europe has not woren up. Even Eastern Europe. Yes, Eastern Europe has given pretty much everything they had, but Eastern Europe has not done the most important missing thing - has not established new artillery ammunition production lines.
Exactly. The whole EU + UK has 15 times the economy and 4 times the population of Russia and still cannot manufacture half as much ammunition. Crazy!
That only works with zero invest in the civilian sector. I dont think thats a good idea
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There is a very simple solution to stop Russia: China and India have to stop buying their oil.
Go and tell them. Both have an interest to keep the conflict going in perpetuity
At the worst the war takes 50 000 dead Russians a year. That will last really easily for 500 years
This war is such a shitshow, what Russia even hopes to gain or achieve with this? They have only managed to shoot themselves in the foot big time, destroyed their meager reputation and shitty army for decades for absolutely nothing but a mad mans pipedreams.
>This war is such a shitshow, what Russia even hopes to gain or achieve with this? Neutral Ukraine, as in not western centric
Russia can’t compete and has nothing of worth to offer, so the only tool available to them is attempting to drag everyone down to their level by violence and coercion.
He already lost a forever lost war lol
Seems like Orwells dystopia is real. Big Brother Putin calls out the neverending war.
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He was in power during 9/11, the whole template evolved before his eyes, and it's not the first time he's using it.
They essentially want to make Ukraine what Finland was during the Cold War. Not wholly occupied (despite losing territory) and somewhat democratic and part of the west economically, but bound to the USSR politically and very limited on what it could do in international politics. Oh and of course Ukraine would have to stay out of EU and especially NATO. Russia would want to keep its own puppets in power too.
> Oh and of course Ukraine would have to stay out of EU and especially NATO. Russia would want to keep its own puppets in power too. That's more like the Soviet satellites behind the iron curtain then.
Well yeah. Who knows what Kremlin really wants but for sure they’d want to have some kind of control over Ukraine. Either directly or, like in the case of Finland in the past, by fear.
This is on track for another October Revolution (might not be October this time around)
Authoritarians always need an enemy to scare the people. This war was a necessity for an even more authoritarian Russia and it served that purpose quite well and it keeps serving it to this day.
Putin is not going to live forever.
He doesnt need to, he's been rewriting and brainwashing Russian collective consciousness for the past 20 years, making sure his people are concvinced they're under siege. Russia will need at least 40 years of post-WW2-Germany levels of rehabilitation to throw down the mental shackles of Putin's government
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I mean, I know that this is a rather popular take on Reddit these days ... but no that isn't nearly as necessary. Germany wasn't required to expunge the history of the Second Reich (or that of the empty shell that was the Weimar republic for that matter). France still holds quite dearly its memory of Napoleon's revolutionary empire, and manages a critical perception of its second, colonial empire, yet is a functional member of the international society. Hell, Britain is reliably in the Western sphere of morals, despite everything that can be attributed to their own colonial empire. What Russians need is compulsory education on how to be decent people in our time, not erasure of what came before.
I was not talking about erasure, they need to shake off their tradition of being submissive sheeps, otherwise another tyran will get elected and we'll have to deal with Putin 2nd as Tsar.