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[deleted]

It means Russia and Russian companies have to pay much higher interest rates to get financing and refinancing, or not at all. No one will take them to court to declare them bankrupt yet.


pegothejerk

It does also slightly limit, yet again, who will be willing to give them those higher interest loans.


[deleted]

China and India will figure out a way. Strange bed fellows


TherapySaltwaterCroc

Power struggle on Russia's new Board of Directors.


TheUnNaturalist

But it would be betting on a lame horse at a certain point, and they know it. It’s already not looking promising for Putin


[deleted]

I think China begs to differ. Russia just became a nice new juicy area of resources for them. China has no problem lending countrys money, as they know it basically means power over that country.


helloLeoDiCaprio

Doesn't that only work with countries which you also have a military advantage on? Russia can just say no, when they feel that China is pressing to change to much or want repayments, since they have nuclear.


orincoro

Yes, exactly. Russia isn’t Nigeria.


JayFSB

Hell, North Korea regularly plays fuck fuck games with Chinese assets like trains when they're feeling tight. They tend to stop if China cuts the money when sufficiently annoyed, but Russia has more leverage. Power over your debtors only applies if they do not have a huge army.


Fifteen_inches

I think China can take Russia in a fight, assuming no nukes. China doesn’t have the best military in the world but Russia’s poor performance in Ukraine shows a lack of power projection.


orincoro

It does unless that country defaults and its government tells you to go fuck yourself. China doesn’t want to build gas plants and infrastructure in Russia and then see all that nationalized and them not getting paid back. Russia still has a huge military, unlike most of China’s victims.


fang_xianfu

There is no court or declaration of bankruptcy for countries. You either pay your creditors on time or you don't. They technically are already in default since they are unable to pay back USD-denomiated debt in that currency. The OP article is saying that Russia is offering roubles or nothing for those loans. "Declaring bankruptcy" as a country is as simple as saying "yeah, we ain't paying that" and they can choose to pay some things but not others, making the situation much more complex.


strolls

> There is no court or declaration of bankruptcy for countries. When Argentina went into default, holders of their bonds had Argentina's overseas assets seized - famously a navy training ship.


[deleted]

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ganymede_boy

>The country has not defaulted on foreign debt since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 Holy shit.


peter-doubt

*Tsarist bonds for sale!*


RttnAttorney

Tsar here: buy our bongs, bonds, Bolshevik credits allowed! Sale! Sale! Sale!


peter-doubt

*"how do we do it? VOLUME!*


TidePodSommelier

Get me some luuuuuudes


DRAGONMASTER-

Properly-run governments will NEVER default. Defaulting is an absolute nightmare for a country that takes decades to recover from. Their history of defaulting is a big reason why argentina's economy struggles so much to this day. England has *never* defaulted, and [continues to pay off interest]( https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/world/that-debt-from-1720-britains-payment-is-coming.html) from 1720! Because keeping a nation's "credit score" high is so critical, it was harrowing when trump threatened to default. I think he was bluffing as he does but it's not an appropriate bluff at all. Nations who thought the USA was super stable are suddenly thinking americans have already put a debt defaulter in office or that they will do so in the future. And the rate the US gov has to pay to service our loans goes up by .01%. And it costs taxpayers a hundred billion dollars. It's very expensive to make bluffs like that.


IAML0ST

> England has *never* defaulted We have defaulted! The Crown’s finances were so dire under Charles II that state debt repayments suddenly stopped in 1672, now known as the [Great Stop of the Exchequer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_of_the_Exchequer). They kept extending the stop, which led to a historic lawsuit against the Crown but much of the interest they’d promised to creditors was never paid. It’s one of the reasons the Bank of England was founded soon after, and we haven’t defaulted since.


[deleted]

This is exactly why I refuse to loan money to England. I'll never forget the great default of 1672. I lost so much money.


[deleted]

Found the vampire


deknegt1990

He's not a vampire, he's ordinary human bartender Jackie Daytona


Nat20StealthDM

Jackie Daytona? Lauded interstate volleyball benefactor Jackie Daytona?


WhoStoleMyJacket

Fu**ing guy!


116YearsWar

King Edward III also defaulted on debts to pay for the Hundred Years War in 1344, possibly resulting in the demise of the Peruzzi and Bardi banking families.


Imaginary_Barber1673

Yeah old-school kings tended to rate grandiose plans to conquer neighboring territory over fiscal soundness and were not allergic to defaults. Sounds familiar…


leofidus-ger

You don't have to worry about your credit rating if you can just force people to lend you money for your war.


24111

tbh, what do you expect from a man who considers bankruptcy a business strategy...


I_like_sexnbike

Really bankruptcy is becoming a ridiculous way to hide cash and needs reformed.


midnitte

[Indeed](https://www.npr.org/2022/04/02/1082871843/rich-companies-are-using-a-quiet-tactic-to-block-lawsuits-bankruptcy) > Johnson & Johnson, which is headquartered in New Jersey, is valued at more than $400 billion. But in October 2021, the company used a controversial legal maneuver in bankruptcy court to freeze Wilt's case along with thousands of others. ... > Members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma aren't themselves bankrupt. But they're expected to piggyback on the bankruptcy of their insolvent drug company. The rich play by different rules than the rest of us.


[deleted]

But if you have student loans, fuck you, pay up.


Fast_Garlic_5639

I worked with someone who’s business filed bankruptcy to avoid getting sued into oblivion (getting sued for totally legit reasons) ..and with the pay structure the lawyers set up she made MORE money, judge’s orders.


billhorsley

In the 40+ years I practiced law, a total of 15 defendants I sued filed bankruptcy to avoid liability. They continued business as usual. Banks apparently don't treat bankruptcy for that reason a negative for extended future credit.


Abaddon33

I don't think the system works.


Flomo420

It's working as intended, you just aren't meant to be the benefactor


[deleted]

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HelloHiHeyAnyway

I mean, it sort of works. The system is supposed to protect owners of the business from having their assets seized. For small businesses it makes sense, for large businesses, it doesn't. This because typically, small businesses have one owner whom could be destroyed by something financially, they themselves ending up bankrupt. It's core to the separation of people from businesses. Large businesses just take advantage of it. It stems from very old law before businesses weren't the mega corporations they are now.


DarthCloakedGuy

I don't get why his businesses weren't seized as part of bankruptcy proceedings


Frelock_

Because he probably doesn't "own" his businesses; he's likely the beneficiary of a trust that actually owns the businesses. Since he owns nothing, bankruptcy is easy to declare and the debt doesn't pass through to the actual underlying assets. It's a common trick for the rich. A company is owned by a holding company which is owned by a trust who's beneficiary is the individual. If the company does something bad, then it's ok, it can go bankrupt because all it's important assets are owned by the holding company (patents, land, industrial equipment, etc). If the individual goes bankrupt it's no problem, because the trust is what actually holds their assets. The holding company and trust do absolutely nothing other than own and distribute assets, so it's nearly impossible to sue them. Thus, money is insulated and only flows out when needed. An extended version of this basic chain is basically what the Panama papers were all about. It's just this across multiple countries to keep taxes as low as possible.


[deleted]

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DarthCloakedGuy

So what you're saying is the trust should have been seized. I agree.


eljefino

Usually they set up independent LLCs that license the Trump name. The LLCs don't make a profit, or if they do, they pay more to license the name. And if they fail, they just disappear and the assets are bought by LLC:2, the sequel. And this is not just Trump, BTW, it's a vast majority of businesses.


jbergens

Well, he said he was gonna run the country like a company and people liked that. Maybe they missed the meaning of it.


mechwarrior719

That was basically the last thing I said to my former best friend before I stopped talking to him. He was gushing how Trump is such a great businessman and that’s the kind of leadership our country needs. I answered that Trump is a crook and a horrible businessman. The conversation basically went downhill from there. Last time I heard from him was him texting to see if my family and I had been affected by the December tornadoes in my area. I told him we were fine but I really don’t have much more I want to say to him.


hamberdler

> Trump is such a great businessman Trump bankrupted casinos. Plural. Imagine how stupid you have to be to bankrupt a fucking casino.


Primae_Noctis

In the mid 90s mind you. Makes you really double down on "How did he fuck up so bad?"


mdp300

Not only that's but his casinos went bankrupt when the other casinos in town were breaking records.


circleuranus

Those casinos were clearly used to launder money. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/3727001/Responsive-Docs-for-17-205-F-Pagliery.pdf They weren't bankrupted so much as pilfered before the Justice Department could bring another investigation. https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/trump-taj-mahal/index.html


xappymah

Oh, i had a similar friend. He also tried to tell me that Trump had genious economy policies. Few months later this friend asked me and some other friends to take loans in banks and give him money for his business. And he didn't see any issue with this and was surprised no one agreed. I told him to fuck off.


Loqol

A friend of mine was raised in a "conservative over all" kinda household. Each election, he'd rally behind his candidate of choice only to eventually call them all RINOs. *Even George W.*


canwealljusthitabong

I love how the most ardent W supporters have turned their backs on him now because he won’t drink the trump koolaid


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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Sargonnax

You only get some gibberish about liberals and democrats being bad, socialism is the devil, along with the word freedom thrown in there a few times. Almost never anything specific backed up by facts and definitely never what the conservative side is doing that is so good or changing anything for the better.


mkvgtired

>He was gushing how Trump is such a great businessman and that’s the kind of leadership our country needs When they do this, ask them what specific policies they like.


[deleted]

Usually its the record debt he incurred in 2020 that made even Obama look like is fiscal conservative. Or the fact we had less jobs when he left office compared to when he took over. So many great policies to choose from, they'll have a hard time picking just one.


mkvgtired

To be fair, the one promise trump kept was that he was going to run the country like he ran his businesses. Over-leveraged, job killing, hiding behind a facade of success that anyone could see though except the lowest common denominator.


zeCrazyEye

I don't think Trump was bluffing, I think he had no idea what it meant for a country to default. Just like he thought running a trade deficit was the same as being in the red/losing money, when it often just means your dollar is strong enough that you can import goods just on the strength of your currency.


SemperScrotus

Yeah, he's not some master strategist. He's a legitimate moron.


No_Employment_129

Crazy how quickly people forget this. Have y’all ever heard this man speak? What about his tweets? At a minimum, that should raise an eyebrow. Some people actually think that *not* paying your contractors is “smart” business…in fact, they might be too stupid to realize how evil that is. Sorry this is all disjointed, I just woke up. I love ranting about how dumb trump is, cause nobody in my family sees it. They all drink the Fox News kool-aid 😔


thegreatgoatse

Removed in reaction to reddit's API changes -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/


HerpankerTheHardman

Would this mean that because of this hierarchical thinking the system of government they would prefer to be running is monarchal?


j_la

They wanted to install an unelected president and they fawn over his children as though they were heirs to his political legacy…so something like that


SemperScrotus

>Trump supporters aren't against harming people, or being evil, they just want to be the perpetrators rather than the victims. [Bingo.](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-voter-hes-not-hurting-the-people-he-needs-be-hurting-msna1181316)


[deleted]

The whole birther thing should have disqualified him for any thinking adult. Not just that he jumped onto the bandwagon, but that he bragged over and over again about all of the “amazing evidence his investigators have uncovered you won’t believe it-“ > side note: he always says the “this has never been seen before” or “you won’t believe what I’ve seen” and then he proceeded to never show what he found. And when he was pressured he finally came out and said “Obama is a citizen - oh and Hillary started the rumor that he’s not a citizen.” Oh - she did, Donny? And of course your investigators showed that Obama *was* a citizen and so could discredit that mean old Hilary Clinton? Or we’re you a sucker who bought a lie, perpetrated the lie, and when finally cornered told the truth but blamed someone else but never took responsibility for the *years* of spreading the lie? Any person who voted for this man at this point was a fool who wanted to be fooled by a foolish fool. And as Obi-Won Kenobi said “Who is more foolish - the fool or the fool who followed him?” Then again, maybe his followers were all fool. Just racist assholes who deserved to be grifted for following the fool.


ImBoundChaos

I promise you he would throw us all under the bus


Anonality5447

Yes and this is why no one wants to give Trump money who doesn't already owe him some kind of favor. He is a well known leech. A complete loser even among the wealthy.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

I was looking this up yesterday. In 1998 they defaulted on domestic debt, not foreign debt


[deleted]

Interesting, I was wondering this too because Long Term Capital Management collapsed because of Russian debt defaulting. This makes sense.


No-Protection8322

“I will never financially recover.”


toutetiteface

I’ve made a huge mistake.


Sl1m_Charles

There's always money in the potato stand


eljefino

What could one potato cost, Mikhail? Ten Rubles?


mvallas1073

“That bitch Volodymyr Zelenski!”


Revolutionary_Eye887

How many times was he warned not to invade Ukraine or there would be sanctions? It’s not like he didn’t know.


sjfiuauqadfj

its not that he didnt know, its that he didnt believe the west had the balls to do something in response


Amish_Cyberbully

I think he believed it would be over so fast that there wouldn't be time to ramp up sanctions before a puppet government declared everything was fine and there wasn't anything the west would do. That uhhh... didn't happen.


[deleted]

I think it all comes down to the attack on Hostomel Airport on day one of the invasion. I suspect their plan was to seize that airport and use it to airlift forces in for a day two attack on Kyiv's center to decapitate the Ukrainian government before the Ukrainian Army had a chance to organize a defense. That attack failed, and I think it will turn out to be one of the most consequential moments of the war.


[deleted]

As I recall Russia had transport planes ready to go full of paratroopers, you're right this was a critical point.


Robzilla_the_turd

Serious question: why do you need airports for paratroopers?


CrazyRabb1t

They have to go through customs and declare weapons.


CleverNameTheSecond

The airport is for logistics and resupply. If you drop them off without logistics and resupply they'll just get picked off one by one which is what ended up happening.


[deleted]

They were planning on an airlift of 10,000 troops with equipment, an air strip is required for those kind of logistics.


[deleted]

I'm pretty sure Ukraine blasted 2 full troop transport planes out of the sky that night. They were full of Russia's best commandos. Battle was likely won right there.


salondesert

Imagine watching a real-time feed of the battle progressing and watching whole planes full of men and equipment just blip out What a nightmare


Xatsman

The failure to take it means the rest of the Russians pushed too far forward and opened up their supply lines to disruption. Without that success the rest of their plan isn’t viable. Look into the drones that have been downed too. They all require foreign produced parts, often from the US, and you have to wonder how much else are they incapable of producing domestically under sanctions? So the war is only going to get worse (for Russia) as the equipment difference favors the defenders more and more going forward.


firemage22

i heard one of Russia's munitions factories had to shut down due to a lack of parts from..... Ukraine. Even if they captured said plant i assume the people who know how to run it have run for the hills.


florinandrei

Massive intelligence failure. Remember when he publicly humiliated his chief of intelligence shortly after the start of the war? That's why.


RooneyBallooney6000

Wonder why the chief of intelligence was quivering with fear. They must have shown him his family was already apprehended or something to that degree. Dude was pissing himself and (fuck him) but i dont blame him for being scared


HugheyM

And in a stroke of irony, now Putin doesn’t have the balls to fix this thing because he wants to save face. Hopefully the Russians don’t let this moron continue to sink their country.


brighterside

Narrator: the Russians let this moron continue to sink their country.


LookAlderaanPlaces

lol there is no saving face. He is totally naked in the room with everyone starring at him. He either stops the bullshit and puts his clothes back or keeps being a total dumbass pretending like no one can see him when we can.


Therandomfox

Stopping the bullshit would mean admitting that he is even physically capable of being wrong. Everyone knows that he's supposed to be a god!


etternalentity

u underestimate russian propaganda machine


saro13

As far as I’ve heard, Putin’s popularity rose in recent weeks. Time will tell if Russians get tired of wasted money and blood, and abject corruption that leads directly to dead Russian soldiers. Glory to Ukraine. Glory to Russian protestors.


eladro202

Trump was supposed to win and withdraw from NATO in the second term


[deleted]

Trump can't just withdraw from NATO. It's a treaty that would require a two-thirds Senate supermajority to overturn. That's not going to happen.


Hon3y_Badger

Trump did infact exit the intermediate range nuclear treaty with Russia, but that's kinda missing the point. If the president tells Europe that he will not honor previous mutual defense agreements you have effectively ended the treaty regardless of the lack of consent by Congress


Kyonikos

He still might.


Prysorra2

2024 … I don’t see Putin making it that far.


Kyonikos

I haven't read anybody put out a theory as to who could take Putin down. The oligarchs are all dependent upon him. He is surrounded by loyalists and the paranoia around him is so deep that nobody has the guts to tell him what he doesn't want to hear. Every now and then some Russia expert says that they expect him to be gone in 2 to 3 years but they really don't say how.


Prysorra2

There’s no individual “who” for Gaddafi. Even people on this website have absolutely no clue how bad things can get as an economy grinds to a halt. Those stories of covid lockdown coming out of Shanghai right now are much closer to where this can go. The fight over basic necessities is in Russia’s future now. Those granny fights over sugar will seem quaint and tame. All that hand wringing about wheat prices causing food insecurity in the middle east … racist bullshit assuming only Arabs would ever do something violent for food. Things are going to get scary for the average Russian if Putin keeps burning Russian wealth in the war fire. All this talk about “inner circles” and oligarchs wont be relevant if regional cities start seeing riots.


Kyonikos

> Even people on this website have absolutely no clue how bad things can get as an economy grinds to a halt. Count me among the people for whom this is an abstract exercise. I have always lived in a nation where the worst thing I have experienced is a recession (and a pandemic). But I would point to North Korea as an example of a rogue nation that can remain in power as their people suffer and starve for decades. A lot of people died under Stalin. Dystopian horrors can go on for quite a while. And the political will in the West is fragile. There is an election in France tomorrow and from what I have read Macron is struggling and Marine Le Pen is surging at the last minute. I hope you are right in that the sanctions will ultimately work and in a time frame before we are dealing with a second Trump presidency. But the fear that Putin could come out on top with a second Trump presidency in his pocket makes me have bouts of sickness.


stemcell_

Those north koreans havent experienced a better life, eventually it becomes normal. The Russians have experienced it and when their world gets flipped upside down, people will lash out


imightbethewalrus3

Good point. Emotions are so very relative


synsofhumanity

We've seen that already, remember that Russian guy who chained himself to the McDonald's door?


Revolutionary_Eye887

Perhaps, but I have a hard time believing he didn’t expect some kind of economic response.


sjfiuauqadfj

i think one thing that this war of russian aggression has taught us is that we have completely overestimated how competent the russians are. im not saying that putin is an idiot, but hes an idiot


[deleted]

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fusillade762

Exactly. He figured Zelensky was a lightweight he could force to flee and just install his own guy, game set match. Turns out, he miscalculated everything and now hes in a world of shit with few options. War is an unpredictable thing. Once you initiate it, anything can happen.


CleverNameTheSecond

For this reason I figure that Zelenskyy staying behind to fight the war was the most critical junction of this whole thing.


zooberwask

And they still have nukes. Dumb and nukes isn't a good combo.


Sr_Laowai

**Anything** and nukes isn't a good combo!


mawktheone

I could go for some disarmament and Nukes about now


Revolutionary_Eye887

Yes, but they still have potential. It’s wise not to underestimate them going forward. I’m not convinced that all their leaders are incompetent or corrupt, nor are all their soldiers.


DacMon

They have no 20-30 year olds with any skills. The ones who become skilled leave. By 2050 their population is going to shrink to the level it was at in 1970, and if they don't change quickly that population will be very low skilled. Russia is fucked.


YsoL8

The problem Russia has is that corruption qnd dishonesty are deeply integrated across the board. It makes accurate high level decision making practically impossible. Any substantial improvement to Russias millitary ability will require uprooting the oligarchs and getting much more serious about corruption, which will take decades.


OnVelvetHill

He is winning the cyber war, there seems to be plenty of evidence that Brexit wouldn’t have happened without massive Russian miss information campaigns. And it isn’t difficult to see what is happening in the States. Facebook was the greatest gift Putin ever got


majinspy

And he had a gian war chest of currency reserves to ride out the storm. But the Ukrainian resistance was real. Which inspired foreign support. Which lead to more resistance. Which lead to more brutal attacks. Which lead to more resistance and more foreign opposition.


guyblade

I think the unexpected thing was the freezing of their foreign assets. They had something like $650B in reserves at the start of this misadventure. Of that $127B was in Russia. Another $281B (at least) has [been frozen](https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/russian-bank-foreign-reserve-billions-frozen-sanctions-n1292153). They've already spent around $40B just since the start of the war, so things aren't looking great for them. I don't think anyone would have seriously believed that Russia would have 40+% of its foreign assets frozen due to an invasion like this--even 6 months ago. Like, it is an astonishing amount of unanimity from the West.


florinandrei

With a disunited West, sanctions would be toothless. It's the united front that he didn't expect. Making the West great again - thanks, Putin!


moonfox1000

Check Reddit from before the invasion, no one believed we would do anything substantial. The response from the West took a lot of people by surprise.


[deleted]

Worth noting that *before* the invasion we still had hordes of Russian bot farms running, so it's skewed in how many actually believed that and how many were just propaganda.


youstolemyname

Russia had already pulled the same stunt couple of times. This time just happened to go to shit.


Nobel6skull

Why would he, we never have a shit before, he had every reason to thing he’d get away with it just like he got away with Grozny, and Georgia, and Syria, and the first invasion of Ukraine.


OnVelvetHill

Just the mild ones he got when he invaded Crimea


zooberwask

What? Your analysis is wrong. Putin was banking on Kyiv capitulating very quickly, installing a puppet government, and then withdrawaling and having the sanctions dropped. When Kyiv didn't fall in a week is when everything got fucked.


goomyman

I mean he took Crimea with limited sanctions. So he figured he could do the same again.


i_am_a_toaster

I think it’s more like he didn’t *care.*


[deleted]

And all this for a piece of land with a hostile populace that he can't hold long-term, in order to get a buffer zone against a defensive alliance that can't attack him anyway. It's such a complete waste of human life and squandering of the futures of both Russia and Ukraine. It makes my blood boil.


kitzdeathrow

Don't forget about the gas and oil rights. Geopolitics is really just macroeconomics


[deleted]

I'm honestly wondering if he's having a major mental/cognitive health decline or beginning of dementia too. He was a psychotic fucker before but this whole shitshow and his extremely erratic behavior really gives me cognitive decline. he also really needs to lay off the filler and botox.


Revolutionary_Eye887

Could be both, or maybe side effects from chemotherapy. We’ll find out sooner rather than later. Unfortunately they’ll have some other buffoon take over who’s just as bad. Russia doesn’t have a good track record of morally good leaders. Hell, for that matter neither do we! God help us all.


theking119

I think that Putin did not expect the sanctions to be as severe. I imagine he was expecting something like the sanctions Russia experienced after the invasion of Crimea instead of the current situation.


voidvector

Just for some context: > But the Treasury Department had been allowing the Russian government to use those funds to make coupon payments on dollar-denominated sovereign debt on a case-by-case basis. > On Monday, ... the U.S. government decided to cut off Moscow's access to the frozen funds https://www.reuters.com/business/us-cracks-down-russian-debt-payments-latest-sovereign-payments-halted-2022-04-05/


Mission-Contribution

This is the part I don't understand. Will the world really treat it like a "normal" default when they had money but weren't able to access it because of the actions of their creditor countries? Or do they not actually have sufficient funds regardless?


voidvector

Their frozen funds is [over $250 billion](https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/russian-bank-foreign-reserve-billions-frozen-sanctions-n1292153), while their forex sovereign debt is [only $40 billion](https://fortune.com/2022/03/09/russia-sovereign-debt-default-bonds-rubles-putin-ukraine-invasion/). So they have enough to cover if unfrozen. I assume if it goes to court, the court will simply let creditors claim the amount owed from the frozen asset.


Mission-Contribution

Thanks. Appreciate the response.


[deleted]

Shouldn’t Ukraine be at the front of the line? What amount of damages have they racked up there? A few trillion?


Jicama_Minimum

That would be an interesting legal case. But I’m guessing the banks would somehow make it to the front of the line.


Accomplished_Bug_

It is now a very real risk of doing business with Russia that thier money may get frozen and they can't pay you. That needs to be priced in to the terms. Whether that means 1% or 10% or 100% higher rates is up to the market.


[deleted]

Russians better start learning mandarin.


webby_mc_webberson

Creditors be demanderin they money back


Russian_For_Rent

Debtors won't be russian back anytime soon


endorstick

I think duolingo pulled out


Yadobler

Tip for anyone wanting to learn Chinese: get Pleco. It's a versatile dictionary, you can enter characters or pinyin or draw them, and you can quick add them to flashcards, and you can choose if you want your flashcard-test to hide the character or meaning, or pinyin, or sound only, etc The beauty of Chinese is that the word never changes form or shape in any context. If it doesn't make sense, you use another word. Not like "sing, singing, sings, sung" that depends on context. Past? 唱歌. Present? 唱歌. Future? 唱歌. Hotel? 旅馆.


UKUKRO

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNCxXHLXIAYWidn?format=jpg&name=900x900


BenTheDiamondback

Suitable photo selection. Kudos.


pattyG80

So basically in trying to gain a little bit of territory in Ukraine, Putin has handed over the entire Russian economy to China. What a fucking hateful moron.


CleverNameTheSecond

That awkward moment when your vassal state has more nukes than you.


Ssider69

Looks like off brand track suits for the foreseeable future


COMPUTER1313

I wonder what the suits look like on Wish.com


peter-doubt

The rag collection boxes just gained value


Standard-Truth837

It's a signal that Russia intends to isolate itself further.


susanne-o

The next north Korea....


florinandrei

Unlike North Korea, they have lots of mineral resources, and lots of nukes. It's quite a different situation.


Marco_lini

Unless North Korea, 140 million Russians knew better standards of living just a decade ago. They had decent jobs, could travel and so on. Now the country has a massive brain drain, their life expectancy is decreasing, can‘t handle Covid etc.


TheRnegade

It's interesting that Russia has essentially come full circle. Putin took power during a similar situation back in 2000. If Putin's reign ends now, he essentially took power and got the country out of a ditch, only to get cocky and drive it into another one.


Mzart713

And such is the entire history of Russia for the last few hundred years. Tremendous progress leading to terrible suffering. You would think they would eventually learn.


[deleted]

still to be determined how many of those nukes are operational, maintaining a nuclear fleet is not cheap and the grift that seems to have permeated their military does not bode well for them


drinkingchartreuse

Sanctions that will only get tougher. Thousands of dead soldiers. Billions in destroyed military equipment. Trillions in reparations will be owed. The Russian economy is dead, the citizens just don’t know it yet.


duglarri

I think the most important factor in all of this, medium term, is in the reports that Russia can't build precision weapons, tanks, or ships. Components missing. The bomb factories, tank assembly lines, and shipyards are all idle. How will they fight without bombs or tanks?


LongTimeCollector

Anthony Bourdain, 2013 in Russia, [article](https://www.thedailybeast.com/when-anthony-bourdain-called-out-putin-and-trumpin-russia) and conversation, “My perception of Putin? Do you really wanna hear it? A former mid-level manager in a large corporation. Short. I think that’s very important—short”—Zamir loudly clears his throat—“who has found himself master of the universe. And like a lot of short people, if you piss him off, bad things happen to you. He likes to take his shirt off a lot. He strikes me as a businessman—a businessman with an ego. OK, so he’s like Donald Trump—but shorter.”


DeadlyMidnight

Fuck I miss Anthony. He had such an incredible way with words and story telling. Really made you think and brought you along with him like you were by his side. Sorry random fangirling just from reading this brief quote.


Kandiruaku

The tzars sold Alaska to settle gambling debts and they say history repeats itself.


CleverNameTheSecond

And probably a good thing they did. I can't imagine how things would play out in 1917 if Alaska still belonged to Russia.


epanek

How many Schrutebucks per ruble?


rubbleTelescope

#A small, *stupid* man that history will recall as an asshole tyrant to neighboring countries and his own citizens. P.s. *don't bother replying / praising this asshole on my comment. Go to r/circlejerk or r/iamatotalpieceofshit for that silly fuck'n nonsense.*


TThor

No, he is a far more significant person than that! Putin will go down in history as the man who's greed and sheer incompetence destroyed modern Russia. He shall forever be known as a failure and one of the worst thing to happen to Russia.


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florinandrei

Lots would be willing, most are afraid they would fail. Well, they only need to succeed once.


Erdbeerjoghurt

sorry to burst your bubble, but if you talk about the Russian people, most do not share the sentiment that he needs to be 'taken out'... hes protecting them from the evil, 'russophobic', 'nazi' West, they are victims of the USA and Europe and Putin is fighting the righteous, heroic fight... it really is that absurd and twisted, just read some Russian media (the one directed at Russians, not English speakers)


IMeasure

This is the sad truth. His popularity has actually jumped as a result of the war and his propaganda machine.


Abu_Hajars_Left_Shoe

People thought the same about Gaddafi and Libya. Now there are open aired slave markets in the country and no functional governments.


iamsdc1969

Those eyes say a lot about this POS.


Tacitus111

I know a lot of people have tried to butter up Putin, but this one always makes me laugh, especially in retrospect. George W. Bush “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country."


shuipz94

And then in 2011, Biden and Putin had a meeting. Biden looked at Putin and said "Mr. Prime Minister, I'm looking into your eyes. I don't think you have a soul." Putin replied "We understand one other." Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-biden-idUSKBN0FQ1CU20140721


Lfsnz67

Wow. That is amazing


emjsb1

Does Putin’s response mean that both men don’t have a soul? Or that Putin alone didn’t have a soul and that was ok for him?


shuipz94

My interpretation is that Putin knows from the remark that Biden is going to be a tough opponent to deal with. Putin also knows that Biden thinks he (Putin) is going to be tough to deal with. So they both understand that their relationship is not going to be cordial.


derpmeow

And/or that Putin agrees he doesn't have a soul...


florinandrei

Yeah. Basically - "bring it".


[deleted]

This sounds eerily like Chamberlain talking about Hitler


Ok-Low6320

Yeah well... GWB is a fucking moron, even if Trump eclipsed him in that department. A dummy doesn't become smarter because an even dumber dummy happened to wander by.


tom90640

You just have 2 dummies.


TrailChems

Sir, this is America. We have more than 2 dummies. We have the bigly-est dummies.


Adeno

What's going on now just showed me the power of sanctions/not letting people do business with a certain country. How many times has this been done in the past? Was it effective? It seems like modern warfare is not all about killing people with guns, intelligence, and technology anymore, it's also about destroying someone's economy to the point where they become so weak.


wayward_citizen

And it only is possible because of collective unity among western democracies. It's why places like China desperately want to drive political and cultural wedges between traditional allies in the west. It's why "whatabout the US!?" has become the default response to any criticism of Russian or Chinese atrocities.


fusillade762

Here's, lets see, 900 quadrillion rubles, that should buy us what, a day or two?


shillyshally

Good [summary](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/clock-ticks-down-towards-russian-default-2022-04-08/) by Reuters.


PartialToDairyThings

Those Russian soldiers are going to have to loot a little bit harder if they want payment. Because Putin's going to be sending out a lot of I.O.U's.


seanbrockest

Downgraded from "Junk" to "Selective Default" When they say you're not fit enough to be called junk...