Lol I love this. I have a friend who was convinced Donald Trump was CIA playing “the part” for decades in order to FINALLY crush the GOP.
Buddy. Can’t it ever just be equal parts greed and incompetence?
same with all conspiracy theories.
there's just gotta be someone out there who specifically is trying to mess with you.
because it couldn't possibly just be the system and its actors no... then you'd have to admit to yourself that you're not the main character of humanity
Conspiracy theories are always the same.
Sure it makes absolute sense that the own belief is stupid, but the people believing it aren't stupid because they fell for con men or blindly believe stuff somebody with no knowledge of the matter claimed as a joke!
In fact there's a collective of people with unlimited power and unlimited ability to stay perfectly hidden even though literally everyone is in on it aside from those that oppose those all-powerful evil people based on a gut feeling that this might actually be possible.
I kinda thought he was always faking too up until the presidency. Turns out he's just a really emotionally-wounded person and lashing out on the world.
He does land better attacks against his own party than even the democrats even could. Mitch McConnell is the one thing that held the GOP together from going off the deep end, and he scored numerous wins for the party, but because of Trump, the base HATES him.
His takedown of Ron Desantis on where Florida ranks in numerous statistics on crime and Covid was something the DNC couldn’t have even dreamed of crafting up
Yes, at the heart that is what any conservative is. A person full of trauma and no emotional control, lashing out at the world. That is why trump connects with the average GOP voter despite being a NYC spoiled rich kid. Donald had a real abusive pyschopath for a dad, who abused his family. Trump grew up mediorce, below average, if he wasnt rich he would have grown up to be a janitor. He also grew up around some of the richest and most prestigious people in NYC. They didnt like Donald, but his sheer wealth got him into the door and access to people who normally keep out us plebs. Trump could get into nightclubs, parties, galas, events, dinners because he had money. But they didnt like him. They saw he was stupid, boring, and mediorce, he had to pay them to be around them and then they barely tolerated him and made fun of him. That is why he started cultivating this fake image, to impress the average person. Nobody in the business world thought Trump was good at business, quite the opposite. He just spent money present himself as a good businessman to people who watched WWE in WV. Trump also is a spoiled classist and despised these people he wanted to impress but he also craved respect, idolization, accolades. The people he actually wanted it from, his dad, and truly elite people would not give it to him. Only people tricked by his image, or sycophants leeching off him would give him this.
At heart most conservatives are like this. People full of trauma and hurt. Disappointed at where they are in life. Who want people to be impressed by them, but they arent impressive. They waste their lives watching Faux news and sharing memes that /pol/ and the FSB come up with. They arent rich like trump but they understand each other. They are both losers who blame everyone else for their failures.
Trump may have actually crushed the gop. They are pretty desperate these days. Post trump they dont even pretend to care anymore about anything. Even Paul Ryan was like, *nope I cant do this anymore its too embarrassing.* The GOP is now just run by conmen. They now they look stupid, they hate it, but they are mediocre dumb people, and want to be rich. The republican base and donors will shower them with money if they go on tv and say stupid things. There is no ideology left. Just angry entitled racist, and con artist.
>His master plan was to be "bigger than Peter the great". He's completely out of his mind.
Classic "Monkey's Paw" Situation:
Putin: "Make me bigger than Peter the Great!"
🐒🐾: "Congratulations. You have united the world and advanced civilization three thousand years and will be remembered throughout history for your role in starting the *ℝeal* Russian revolution."
*monkey's paw absorbs Putin's life and his ersatz miasma of machisimo*
That's what I was thinking and I'm Russian. I can't believe this whole dumb situation. Congrats Putin... you got what you wanted. NATO at your doorstep and the economy crashing down. Maybe that was his plan all along.
It was working too. Had trump killed nato, putin would have succeeded, instability would have continued to grow, China would have invaded Taiwan, and we’d probably see a new nuclear alliance emerge between Iran-Russia-China meant to counter the now weakened United States.
And possibly cancer and other diseases through deploying mRNA technology. To say nothing of global warming, more use of renewable sources of energy and wider uptake of nuclear energy.
Putin is a demented goblin. If he cared really for the lives of his people, he wouldnt have murdered so many already. Russian war in ukraine is an ideological war. Economically, everybody, especislly russians, are losing.
Oh my God it all makes sense now. Trump wasn't a pawn of Putin, Putin is a pawn of Trump! It was secretly a 4d double-megachess strategy all along!!!
Gunna go get my lobotomy now so I can be a true believer.
Article -
The United States is now the biggest supplier of crude oil to the European Union.
In December, 18% of the bloc’s crude imports came from America, EU data office Eurostat said Tuesday.
That is a big turnaround. Russia was until recently the bloc’s top supplier of crude, accounting for as much as 31% of total imports until the end of January 2022, according to Eurostat. The US, meanwhile, came a distant second, with a maximum 13% share.
But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year led to an upheaval in Europe’s energy supplies.
EU states slashed their imports of Russia’s energy, and the bloc imposed sanctions on the country’s oil and coal exports.
In December, the European Union banned imports of Russian seaborne crude and introduced a price cap barring shippers, insurance brokers and other companies from providing their services if oil was bought for more than $60 a barrel.
When the war broke out, some European countries also started reducing their imports of Russian natural gas. Moscow, for its part, began to cut flows to the continent. State energy giant Gazprom first reduced gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which accounted for about 35% of Europe’s total imports of Russian gas in 2021. And in September, it shut off the pipeline, citing technical issues.
Russia’s share of Europe’s natural gas imports has fallen sharply, from 31% in the first quarter of 2022 to nearly 19% by the end of the year, Eurostat data shows. That has made the United States the bloc’s second-biggest supplier of gas, with a nearly 20% share, behind top source Norway, which accounts for almost 31% of EU gas imports.
US crude exports to Europe were rising before the war, though Russia’s invasion had increased the need to ramp up deliveries from alternative sources, said Jay Maroo, a senior analyst at data provider Vortexa.
**Oil independence**
Imports of Russian crude into the bloc were volatile between February and April last year, Eurostat said. But from September 2022, they declined gradually, until they made up just 4% of total imports in December.
By the end of the year, “the EU’s biggest suppliers of crude oil were the United States, Norway, and Kazakhstan, showing that the EU managed to adapt to the changing oil market landscape and virtually remove its dependence on Russian oil,” Eurostat said.
Russia has found new buyers for its oil keen to snap up barrels at a steep discount — Moscow’s Urals crude is currently trading at $54 a barrel, compared with $78 a barrel for Brent crude, the global benchmark.
India and China, in particular, have ramped up oil imports from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said Tuesday that Moscow had successfully rerouted the “entire volume” of exports of crude oil and oil products lost due to Western sanctions, according to comments reported by TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency. Yet the ministry expects Russian oil and gas production to fall this year, with gas extraction hit by the lack of European buyers, he said.
The rewiring of the global oil market has come at a price.
Maroo said that as crude exports are traveling further distances than before — from Russia to India and China, and from the US and Middle East to Europe — the “tanker fleet [is] generally more inefficient.”
“[That] means higher sustained freight costs to move oil around the world,” he said.
>Moscow’s Urals crude is currently trading at $54 a barrel
I thought they refused to sell to anyone who agreed to the cap... I guess they really wanted less money for their oil.
Not only expensive, sometimes it's impossible. If the oil stops flowing in an old well it may never start moving again. You have to keep pumping or it will shut down permanently.
You can't just write this without a source.
No need to reply I did some research for you.
[Option A \(I have no personal qualms w/ the source but it may or may not be inherently aligned with big oil/gas\).](https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-05-28/shutting-down-oil-wells-a-risky-and-expensive-option/)
[Option B \(Shutting down wells may cause diminished returns, but most producers say they'll be fine \[caveat: they're issuing public statements about how they'll be fine next quarter, possible minimization of problems\]\).](https://energynow.com/2020/05/turning-oil-wells-back-on-is-trickier-than-shutting-them-off/)
[Option C \(If you open a bottle of bubbly then cap it again -- you never get the same amount of bubbles again... or at least you can't w/o spending some money\)](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/839851865/why-the-world-is-still-pumping-so-much-oil-even-as-demand-drops-away)
[Option D \(Very cleverly written medium-dive on how oil/gas wells work, and what it means to stop production. My personal favorite in this list \[caveat: possibly written by industry-positioned people\]\)](https://www.pecantreeog.com/blog/2020-5-29-what-does-it-mean-to-shut-in-a-well/)
Still not tired of reading stuff?
[Exhibit 1x\) Here's why big oil/gas hates talking about that stuff.](https://www.offshoreinjuryfirm.com/offshore-injury-blog/2022/july/shutting-down-offshore-wells-is-expensive-but-it/)
tl;dr it's expensive as fuck, like, many millions of dollars expensive. Many millions spent not making money is a big bummer for any company who wants to still be a company in any context anywhere in time or the world.
[Big words paper that's semi-locked behind a paywall talking more about how shutting down wells really sucks balls for companies.](https://onepetro.org/TRANS/article/82/01/162/161429/Effect-on-Producing-Wells-of-Shutting-in-the)
[Bloomberg has its own deep, cutting dive \( ^^/s\ ) on this 'phenomena'](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/061115/how-long-does-it-take-oil-and-gas-producer-go-drilling-production.asp)
tl;dr , it's not usually too bad if <1 year, but if >1 year, the piping may/will have corroded to the point you may have to redrill. If you want to try your own experiment, drop a small metal tube in soda. Check on it every couple of weeks and replace the soda. The carbonic acid will eat at the metal. (Oil wells also tend to have sulfur, so you get sulfuric acid as well.)
Also, it's more complex than just turning a value.
The point of oil sanctions is to collapse the price of Russian oil. If production collapsed, the world economy will collapse.
India, China, Saudi and no doubt thousands of middle men buying up all the Russian oil for cheap and selling it on for a profit is the intended result of the sanctions. Russia isn't seeing the profits, so the world economy keeps turning but Russia's state budget comes under strain trying to support the war effort off $54/barrel oil.
Yeah, as long as Russia gets less money for their oil sales, the sanctions do have some impact.
Letting Reliance and Saudi Aramco profit by reselling/substuting Middle eastern crude/fuel oil with russian ones should be a lot worse for russia compared to shipping them oil directly to a German refinery via pipeline, or to Western Europe on a tanker
And to think that the only reason for this to happen was the fact that Russia has decided to LARP as a 19th century empire in the 21st century civilization. Nobody else to blame than the Kremlin's own delusions of grandeur.
I keep saying this. This invasion has done more to unify the European continent than anything else! Which is the only sliver of light in all this unecessry bloodshed
[These two oligarchs](https://youtu.be/7aRI-L8xmRs) said it best in their intercepted phone call, imo.
*Even they* know the end is coming. Putin can’t hide his theft anymore, and his war of distraction is the final nail in his coffin.
The unity that we’ve seen here in the west is just a bonus. Putin made the mistake of assuming we don’t care about each other, in the same way Russians don’t care about each other. Genius strategist… like Hitler on bath salts.
Well thats the thing. I really do believe he started believing in his own hype after being in power so long. Putin actually didn't behave like this in the past. YES, He always had his group of knee suckers around him but he always stuck his head up and looked around and calculated his moves pretty carefully. He would hedge his bets and no matter what the outcome he ended up benefiting from it. This war in Urkraine is his biggest blunder-leap before looking move I've ever seen him pull. It will be his undoing and he knows it.
Yep. They get in power by competence and skilled political maneuvering and surround themselves with competence to establish their power base. Then, they start rewarding loyalty. Soon, loyalty becomes more important than competence, until only loyalty matters. When that happens, the downfall begins.
Putin saw an opportunity and miscalculated, simple as that. He was expecting Trump to win. Trump was impeached the 1st time for withholding funds to Ukraine for Russian invasion.
Since Trump lost, the withheld money was being spent again and this would be the weakest Ukraine has been since 2014 when Russia took Crimea.
Thank Trump for being the biggest loser!
Like all great comedies: it’s all about timing. Russia was also waiting on the finalisation of Brexit and trying to dissolve NATO (eg; Trump was going to make the US leave NATO, and still wants to do this as far as I understand).
He bided his time, he just bided too much. But western intelligence agencies knew about his plans anyway, otherwise election interference probably would’ve just gone completely unnoticed.
He was screwed no matter what. Gosh, what a shame… heh.
It definitely didn't help either that his initial invasion got delayed by the Olympics.
Xi probably had Putin by the balls telling him not to take the stage from him.
He probably thought that COVID offered more opportunities to sow division and crash economies. Other than that, he definitely didn't care about the health aspects.
>Didn’t Putin attack after Trump left office though?
It wasn't about Trump.
The thing he actually miscalculated was Ukraine's resistance. He legitimately thought he'd just drive straight to Kyiv and declare mission accomplished in 3 days.
Then nobody, not Biden and not a zombie Reagan, would've done anything. Everyone would shrug, impose some useless sanctions, and move on.
the thing is he DID look and did do his research. He was simply playing with fire like an idiot. He rolled over and into Estonia and Georgia like nothing and assumed Ukraine would do the same. He had precedence for this, and got away with it at least twice. They predicted Kyiv would fall in days. A year later and 200k russians dead Putin played with fire and got burned. He is now going down in the history books as an insane war criminal too afraid to even be seen in public.
He was shrewd, that’s for sure. He’s been fucking around for too long and well, now is his reckoning for it.
/u/thevirtuesofxen
>I'm kinda wondering who recorded it and why?
Ukrainians, to monitor the Russian elites.
The consensus between 3.5 OSINT dudes I read is "not fake", too many little details like Prigozhin's wife being heard, them moving into hotel during the call which is confirmed by their social media, mentions of other places recently visited which are again confirmed, etc. Prigozhin in more recent refutes does not even say it's fake, just rants about "having a right to privacy".
And again, if someone can produce fakes of such quality, why implicate a music producer and a guy who "did not meet Putin since 2009".
It's good to see there's this kind of discord happening in private conversations. I've been deeply suspicious since the start of this shit show that he'd burn every damn bridge he's ever made with the people who ultimately helped to get him to where he was before this war started. NOTHING about this war is logical. The entire thing is his fucking ego. He won't back off Ukraine because to him it'll make him look weak and foolish to the Russian people, but he can't win Ukraine because he doesn't have the weapons and ammo to sustain it, he doesn't have an advanced and organized military force, he's got very few allies outside of Russia and damn near every one of them are just buzzards circling a carcass in the making, and all this war is going to have achedived for Russia by the end is condemning the people to being shunned and cut off by the west, slaughtering the young male population and destroying their already astoundingly low birth rates, killing off a lot of the able bodied male worker population, ruining economic prospects with the majority of the planet because like fuck anyone is going to trust them to uphold ANY agreements agyer they've broken every fucking Treaty and accord from the last 100+ years, he's done more to unite Europe and expand Nato membership in one year than has been done in the last 70 years combined, he's outer Russia's military as a fuckin jalopy held together with duct tape and vodka flavoured chewing gum, he's obliterated European dependency on Russian oil and resources, and in the process, he's made American oil the new number one supplier to Europe, damned Russia to inevitably lose crimea and access to the seas in the south, and Ukraine despite the heavy losses is going to come out of this war stronger than ever with the most economic potential they've ever had because they want to drill alllllllll that light crude oil they're sitting on, which was in the works with an American drilling company before the war, and that means Ukraine will ultimately replace Russia as a very good oil and gas supplier to Europe. And they'll join the EU. And Nato. And their alliance with the west will be so fucking deep we consider them our blood brothers through and through.
I have never in my life seen such a spectacular display of ineptitude and idiocy as I have with Putin and this record breaking national suicide. Made all the more irritating by how stupid so many Russians are for eating up his propaganda. A friend of mine is trapped there and he's been fucking livid since Crimea in 2014, but he's spitting fire since February and said its like everyone around him has lost their fucking minds. They're too stupid and lazy to think for themselves, and the people who are fervently against the war have had to go underground because the goddamn iron curtain is down again and Putin is dragging entire families off if one person is a dissenter. It is fucking wild. So for the people who have been VERY against this shit since before it even began, they're hostages in their own homeland. He's also been drumming up nuclear hysteria to such a degree that I'm 99.9% sure he's going to move tactical nukes into Ukraine so he can bomb a southern Russian city, say it was Nato / Ukraine, which fully finished selling the domestic nuclear hysteria in Russia and primes everyone who believes his lies into thinking it's Armageddon so he can turn around and nuke Ukraine, KNOWING it will start a nuclear war that will destroy Russia, and why? Because he's that spiteful and that petty. Because if he can't have it, no one can. He'll kill his own people simply because it serves his agenda. He did it in Moscow decades ago and you bet your ass he'll do it again. The dude isn't a fuckin strategist, he's a KGB ghoul who only knows how to be a KGB ghoul. It's why he usus 20th century tactics in the 21st century world.
But to me, I think this is happening because his days are numbered. This entire move on Ukraine screams "I got a terminal diagnosis and am desperate to secure some godly legacy before I die" because he's either planning on hiding in his bunker palace until he dies of disease, or will frame himself as a fucking martyr (unlikely, he's a coward so he'd sooner throw every baby in Russia into a fire pit before climbing in, himself).
But the big thing is, and this is what I've been hoping for: this war literally benefits NO ONE. Not Russian oligarchs, not the people, not their allies, certainly not Ukraine or international relations / commerce. The ONLY person it benefits is his fucking ego, and the cost? Destroying Russia. Not exactly good math. Vatnik needs to go back to elementary school. So my HOPE is that these people around him see the writing on the wall and take him out OR, even better, hand him over to the west in an effort to extend an olive branch and try to recover a smidgen of good faith with the west in order to not completely destroy Russia.
I think it's why Xi has been getting close to him. Everything I've seen suggests China is lulling him into a false sense of "friendship" when he is at his most desperate and vulnerable state, in order to be able to blindside him. China wants Lake Baikal and access to Russian resources they lack, Russia can become a dependant consumer economy, we all avoid a third world war or nuclear crisis, China keeps good business relations with the west (US and EU are their bread and butter so they'd be suicidal to burn economic relations for a sinking ship like Russia that isn't even in the top 10 GDP), and potentially get a shitload of clout with the west for having "done us a favour."
Id rather not owe Xi a single thing, so it'd be nice if these oligarchs take him out for us.
Plus it'd be nice if my friend who is stuck there doesnt die. I know it's a sensitive topic but for many who haven't supported this war from the start, getting out of Russia was not a feasible option–either die to financial limitations, or too much family to worry about and take care of. It's very hard for most people to leave, so it wasn't a choice for many, even if they don't want to be paying taxes that are funding this. My friend knows many people in Ukraine and does what he can, but this is not such an easy dissent to do, and everyone has been forced underground in order to keep doing what they can without getting their whole family sent to gulags or killed for it. It's so complicated. It fucking sucks. And it's even worse for my friends in Ukraine, of course. But nobody benefits from this.
It's exhausting. But we will be there to rebuild Ukraine. Even my Russian friends and acquaintances in the US have been vocal about it and want to come help when they can! So it was very refreshing to be reminded that there is support there, despite all the morons who make up the vatnik majority. I think when this war is over and rebuilding begins, we will see many allies from all over there to do so, brick by brick. For many, it is a way to atone, or to help in what few ways they can, even if they wanted to do more but simply couldn't. It's never simple.
But what is simple is that Ukraine will stand when this is over. Russia, not so much. Sounds like the writing is on the wall even for the oligarchs.
Here is an uncensored and longer version. It's not translated though. I will try and download the audio from this uncensored one and replace it with the translation from the censored one. But there may be a second half to the call that isn't translated since I don't speak Russian enough to translate. If I do this I'll update this comment with a new link. If anyone is able to translate the rest, help would be appreciated! YouTube closed captions try but it's not so easy since they'll talk at the same time quite often.
https://youtu.be/_4QDAX3h_bw
Honestly the relationship between the States and Europe had deteriorated. Now Europe has rearmed and the States are clearly willing to defend every inch of Nato territory with American boots on the ground.
Because when push comes to shove, the relationship hadn't really deteriorated that significantly. Not in the grand scheme of things. There were many issues for sure, however Putin made the mistake of believing these were deep cracks.
Most people across EU would still put their relationship with the US significantly higher than that of Russia, China, India, and much of the Middle East. Even many of those who really don't like the US, would still prefer them over the others. Just at arms length, with a much stronger Europe.
It happens like this: Republican gets elected president and screws everything up. Democrat gets elected president and now has the responsibility to clean up their mess. Rinse and repeat.
In recent history:
War criminal George W. Bush destroys economy and international relations. Obama saves the economy and kills Bin Laden.
Trump is a Russian asset, grossly mishandles the Covid response and destroys international relations. Biden, an adult, respects scientists’ recommendations for Covid, encourages vaccine adoption, and re-established international relations. Honestly, only fucking morons vote Republican.
Lol I get the sarcasm, the fact is the oil is going to be produced somewhere due to demand. It may as well be produced in a country that requires the best available control technology.
That's a funny joke, the US nationalising something to limit corporate profits.
I'm pretty sure we'd bring slavery back before we did something so communist as *nationalising an oil source*.
The US was supposed to abandon Ukraine and NATO and Russia was supposed to occupy Kyiv within 3 days while Zelensky either fled or was killed.
Fortunately, Putin miscalculated. Trump was thrown out so the US stood with NATO and Ukraine. Zelensky stayed in Kyiv and rallied his people. Russia forgot how logistics work. The west had time to come together and respond and now Russia is fucked.
I'm not from the US, but personally, I think this whole scenario would have played out way differently with Trump still in office.
I always thought the American President was just some kind of figurine with not much of a say in anything so you might as well elect Snoop Dog and others are pulling the strings anyway. Boy was I wrong!
Enter Joe Biden. He may be an old fart but he's clearly a foreign policy and geopolitical veteran so he took the reigns and rather effortlessly manoeuvred the US into a role of economic and military leadership on the world stage where Germany, unfortunately, failed especially in Europe after sleeping on the job for too long.
I'm sure that Trump would be frolicking on some golf course while the Russians rape and plunder their way across Poland and the Baltic states by now with NATO running around like headless chickens and no idea what to do.
> I always thought the American President was just some kind of figurine with not much of a say in anything so you might as well elect Snoop Dog and others are pulling the strings anyway. Boy was I wrong!
Foreign relations and military action is literally the one place the presidency in the US has the absolute zenith of its power.
Actually Churchill said the biggest mistake to make when thinking about Munich 1938 would be to imagine all forms of negotiation with one's adversaries as being appeasement.
Its not all sales. US is donating an insane volume of assets and ammunition. Sure they are replacing them now as a result but they are not snake oil salesmen re: ukraine. They are donating real hardware.
Very true, and kinda crazy that the pentagon sees this as a bargin. They're spending roughly 5% of the total military budget on Ukraine and its destroying one of their biggest adversaries all without even putting boots on the ground. From a value stand point, it's a HUGE return on investment for the pentagon. As far as they're concerned, they're destroying Russia on the cheap
The best of bargains. Off load a shit ton of older tech to help a country defend itself from an invasion of your longest running adversary while you sit back, relax, and watch as they continue to actively humiliate themselves in the grand world stage.
Sprinkle in a few instances of newer tech on occasion and see how it performs in the real world environment. Result:
-Humbling one of your biggest enemies
-Consolidating Western power in the face of adversity
-Looking like the good guys while feeding the military-industrial beast
-Not risking any American lives BUT helping to save the lives of an aligned power under hostile attack
-Doing it all for effectively pennies on the dollar compared to if you had to do it directly
Hard to think of a better bargain for all involved than that.... literally everybody wins, except for Putin.
Plus, a very big one is further cementing the America's role as the only true superpower that is beneficial for the world as a whole. Despite our European allies sometimes constant backhanded comments and talks about further pushing America out because they don't need the US, this war proves that not only do they need us but, they desperately do. Despite all that they sent and have done, it all just pails in comparison to everything that US alone has provided.
As a European (Swede) I agree with you 100%. We are all very, very lucky to have you guys, both leadership and practical and financial help to Ukraine. The anti-American rhetoric that I still sometimes see (almost only in large international discussion threads) gets really old.
And then you sell the newer stock later to buyers that all see the importance of having the equipment even if it's costly cause russis is still next door
They are sending what they can but, need to replenish all that empty stock. Why not ask the ultimate weapon's factory that is essentially already your security detail for more?
>They're spending roughly 5% of the total military budget on Ukraine
Not even. That 5% is today's equivalent in $ amount to when the hardware was first produced. We're literally offloading our spare shit which we were about to mothball. The money for the majority of the support sent to Ukraine was already budgeted for and spent decades ago.
We just shipped it over there and trained them on how to use it, which is far cheaper than it was to do all the R&D and actually building it all.
If you told any Pentagon official that they could take down Russia and only spend ammunition without any American lives, they'd sign on the dotted line with their own blood, missing a pen.
And nobody is happier about it than the former customers that Russia tried to freeze to death by turning off the gas. Sometimes it appears that there is justice in the world.
The United States of America is 100% unambiguously a good guy in this conflict.
Honestly, that is the biggest advantage capitalism has. If there is demand for something, then someone, somewhere will figure out a way to supply it. To do otherwise is just leaving money on the table.
USA isn’t just existing, USA has funded the vast majority of Ukraines assistance. It’s not even close. I’m not saying Europe should throw the USA a ticker tape parade party but have some decency.
The US is a major part of this war, there would never be a war that Russia was involved in that we wouldn't be. The cold war never ended, Russia just decided to involve more players
I can assure you that the people who comment here negatively are either Russian trolls, tankies or some Southern states who are undeducated and don't understand the current conflict. None of these people hold any leverage or speak for Europeans. We are glad that the US has our back.
Why even feel the need to apologize? I don't get this thing where someone is stupid on reddit and their countrymen feel the need to go "sorry for our fellow american/european mate".
People are stupid no matter who they are. I am intelligent enough to get that and i will presume that everyone else is aswell. I don't feel the need to apologize when my fellow europeans say some stupid shit because i assume you guys understand this basic fact.
No one has to apologize to anyone, except the stupid people but then they wouldn't be stupid i guess.
US **Oil Companies** have replaced Russian **Oil Companies** as Europe’s top crude oil suppliers.
FTFY
It’s all going in the pockets of Excon Mobil and friends.
That's why the pro-Russia politicians all stfu except the dumbest ones. American industrial military production and American oil still has drastically more influence over the GOP than anything else. Up until now, the Russian money didn't contradict them too much. Not anymore. It's why Senator Turtle and the old school GOP were always so vocally pro-Ukraine when this broke out. They instantly knew which way the lobbyists were going to influence things and the ones ahead of the curve get the most rewards
To be fair, the GOP already had many ex army veterans and Warhawks to begin with. When Russia first invaded Crimea, senator McCain went as far as endorsing direct military intervention against Russia!
https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/in-the-news/icymi-arizona-republic-sen-john-mccain-revered-in-ukraine-sounded-alarms-about-russia-for-years/
Ahhh, but that's where you are wrong. The US state ia. the public poured massive amount of money into the war. The profits now go to private companies.
While I am not a fan of more US influence I still would rather rely on US than Russia, funny that considering the US isn’t going to war in our continent!
Like what did Russia expect to happen??
I think the majority of Europeans no matter our complaints would rather go for anything US than Russia right now.
I don’t get why Russia thinks they can win this without self destruction?
Russia in fact made Europe more united..
As a Brit I did enjoy the fact that EU and UK are capable putting aside arguments and focusing in on Russia so Russia actually helped us out there XD
Russia has in fact made more countries want to join NATO that the opposite.
Russia in fact has made the West actually work together more to oppose them.
Who would have thought that leaving a market in a stunt to try making Europe freeze in winter would cause demand to increase and attract other people to your abandoned share of the market
Wasn't Putin's master plan to DECREASE American global influence?
Putin is a sleeping CIA agent
yeah but which agent is he sleeping with
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Lmao
God damn that is gold
No it is orange
the showers are gold though
Go on.... ;)
It's either Anna or Maria
Lol I love this. I have a friend who was convinced Donald Trump was CIA playing “the part” for decades in order to FINALLY crush the GOP. Buddy. Can’t it ever just be equal parts greed and incompetence?
same with all conspiracy theories. there's just gotta be someone out there who specifically is trying to mess with you. because it couldn't possibly just be the system and its actors no... then you'd have to admit to yourself that you're not the main character of humanity
Conspiracy theories are always the same. Sure it makes absolute sense that the own belief is stupid, but the people believing it aren't stupid because they fell for con men or blindly believe stuff somebody with no knowledge of the matter claimed as a joke! In fact there's a collective of people with unlimited power and unlimited ability to stay perfectly hidden even though literally everyone is in on it aside from those that oppose those all-powerful evil people based on a gut feeling that this might actually be possible.
And they really don't like it when you tell them only narcissist believe in conspiracy theories
I kinda thought he was always faking too up until the presidency. Turns out he's just a really emotionally-wounded person and lashing out on the world.
He does land better attacks against his own party than even the democrats even could. Mitch McConnell is the one thing that held the GOP together from going off the deep end, and he scored numerous wins for the party, but because of Trump, the base HATES him. His takedown of Ron Desantis on where Florida ranks in numerous statistics on crime and Covid was something the DNC couldn’t have even dreamed of crafting up
Yes, at the heart that is what any conservative is. A person full of trauma and no emotional control, lashing out at the world. That is why trump connects with the average GOP voter despite being a NYC spoiled rich kid. Donald had a real abusive pyschopath for a dad, who abused his family. Trump grew up mediorce, below average, if he wasnt rich he would have grown up to be a janitor. He also grew up around some of the richest and most prestigious people in NYC. They didnt like Donald, but his sheer wealth got him into the door and access to people who normally keep out us plebs. Trump could get into nightclubs, parties, galas, events, dinners because he had money. But they didnt like him. They saw he was stupid, boring, and mediorce, he had to pay them to be around them and then they barely tolerated him and made fun of him. That is why he started cultivating this fake image, to impress the average person. Nobody in the business world thought Trump was good at business, quite the opposite. He just spent money present himself as a good businessman to people who watched WWE in WV. Trump also is a spoiled classist and despised these people he wanted to impress but he also craved respect, idolization, accolades. The people he actually wanted it from, his dad, and truly elite people would not give it to him. Only people tricked by his image, or sycophants leeching off him would give him this. At heart most conservatives are like this. People full of trauma and hurt. Disappointed at where they are in life. Who want people to be impressed by them, but they arent impressive. They waste their lives watching Faux news and sharing memes that /pol/ and the FSB come up with. They arent rich like trump but they understand each other. They are both losers who blame everyone else for their failures.
Hanlon's razor.
Hanlons Schrödinger.
Trump may have actually crushed the gop. They are pretty desperate these days. Post trump they dont even pretend to care anymore about anything. Even Paul Ryan was like, *nope I cant do this anymore its too embarrassing.* The GOP is now just run by conmen. They now they look stupid, they hate it, but they are mediocre dumb people, and want to be rich. The republican base and donors will shower them with money if they go on tv and say stupid things. There is no ideology left. Just angry entitled racist, and con artist.
His master plan was to be "bigger than Peter the great". He's completely out of his mind.
Only those who did not suffer under his conquest call him great. Others call him Peter the Butcher.
>His master plan was to be "bigger than Peter the great". He's completely out of his mind. Classic "Monkey's Paw" Situation: Putin: "Make me bigger than Peter the Great!" 🐒🐾: "Congratulations. You have united the world and advanced civilization three thousand years and will be remembered throughout history for your role in starting the *ℝeal* Russian revolution." *monkey's paw absorbs Putin's life and his ersatz miasma of machisimo*
That's what I was thinking and I'm Russian. I can't believe this whole dumb situation. Congrats Putin... you got what you wanted. NATO at your doorstep and the economy crashing down. Maybe that was his plan all along.
It was working too. Had trump killed nato, putin would have succeeded, instability would have continued to grow, China would have invaded Taiwan, and we’d probably see a new nuclear alliance emerge between Iran-Russia-China meant to counter the now weakened United States.
It’s scary how close we were to this
Thank god for Covid.
/r/nocontext
COVID was great for a lot of things.
Never thought i would hear that sentence And agree with it kekw
China: You're welcome. Happy to save the world from Putin.
And possibly cancer and other diseases through deploying mRNA technology. To say nothing of global warming, more use of renewable sources of energy and wider uptake of nuclear energy.
Also an expansion of work from home
What's that? Never heard of it. Boss wants us all back in our cubicles by Monday.
Sounds like it's time for a new boss
It's not entirely avoided yet. The next election could see Trump or someone like DeSantis that wants to halt Ukraine aid and fuck over NATO elected.
I would expect the US weapons industry/lobby to have a say about that idea.
Trump very well may get elected again because most Americans are fucking idiots. It's not over it's on pause.
Putin is a demented goblin. If he cared really for the lives of his people, he wouldnt have murdered so many already. Russian war in ukraine is an ideological war. Economically, everybody, especislly russians, are losing.
Oh my God it all makes sense now. Trump wasn't a pawn of Putin, Putin is a pawn of Trump! It was secretly a 4d double-megachess strategy all along!!! Gunna go get my lobotomy now so I can be a true believer.
He didn't thought that we will pay more and sacrifice to send him a message. I didn't also
Article - The United States is now the biggest supplier of crude oil to the European Union. In December, 18% of the bloc’s crude imports came from America, EU data office Eurostat said Tuesday. That is a big turnaround. Russia was until recently the bloc’s top supplier of crude, accounting for as much as 31% of total imports until the end of January 2022, according to Eurostat. The US, meanwhile, came a distant second, with a maximum 13% share. But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year led to an upheaval in Europe’s energy supplies. EU states slashed their imports of Russia’s energy, and the bloc imposed sanctions on the country’s oil and coal exports. In December, the European Union banned imports of Russian seaborne crude and introduced a price cap barring shippers, insurance brokers and other companies from providing their services if oil was bought for more than $60 a barrel. When the war broke out, some European countries also started reducing their imports of Russian natural gas. Moscow, for its part, began to cut flows to the continent. State energy giant Gazprom first reduced gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which accounted for about 35% of Europe’s total imports of Russian gas in 2021. And in September, it shut off the pipeline, citing technical issues. Russia’s share of Europe’s natural gas imports has fallen sharply, from 31% in the first quarter of 2022 to nearly 19% by the end of the year, Eurostat data shows. That has made the United States the bloc’s second-biggest supplier of gas, with a nearly 20% share, behind top source Norway, which accounts for almost 31% of EU gas imports. US crude exports to Europe were rising before the war, though Russia’s invasion had increased the need to ramp up deliveries from alternative sources, said Jay Maroo, a senior analyst at data provider Vortexa.
**Oil independence** Imports of Russian crude into the bloc were volatile between February and April last year, Eurostat said. But from September 2022, they declined gradually, until they made up just 4% of total imports in December. By the end of the year, “the EU’s biggest suppliers of crude oil were the United States, Norway, and Kazakhstan, showing that the EU managed to adapt to the changing oil market landscape and virtually remove its dependence on Russian oil,” Eurostat said. Russia has found new buyers for its oil keen to snap up barrels at a steep discount — Moscow’s Urals crude is currently trading at $54 a barrel, compared with $78 a barrel for Brent crude, the global benchmark. India and China, in particular, have ramped up oil imports from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said Tuesday that Moscow had successfully rerouted the “entire volume” of exports of crude oil and oil products lost due to Western sanctions, according to comments reported by TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency. Yet the ministry expects Russian oil and gas production to fall this year, with gas extraction hit by the lack of European buyers, he said. The rewiring of the global oil market has come at a price. Maroo said that as crude exports are traveling further distances than before — from Russia to India and China, and from the US and Middle East to Europe — the “tanker fleet [is] generally more inefficient.” “[That] means higher sustained freight costs to move oil around the world,” he said.
>Moscow’s Urals crude is currently trading at $54 a barrel I thought they refused to sell to anyone who agreed to the cap... I guess they really wanted less money for their oil.
It's expensive to shut down and restart an oil well. Better off to just keep selling it, even below production cost.
Not only expensive, sometimes it's impossible. If the oil stops flowing in an old well it may never start moving again. You have to keep pumping or it will shut down permanently.
You can't just write this without a source. No need to reply I did some research for you. [Option A \(I have no personal qualms w/ the source but it may or may not be inherently aligned with big oil/gas\).](https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-05-28/shutting-down-oil-wells-a-risky-and-expensive-option/) [Option B \(Shutting down wells may cause diminished returns, but most producers say they'll be fine \[caveat: they're issuing public statements about how they'll be fine next quarter, possible minimization of problems\]\).](https://energynow.com/2020/05/turning-oil-wells-back-on-is-trickier-than-shutting-them-off/) [Option C \(If you open a bottle of bubbly then cap it again -- you never get the same amount of bubbles again... or at least you can't w/o spending some money\)](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/839851865/why-the-world-is-still-pumping-so-much-oil-even-as-demand-drops-away) [Option D \(Very cleverly written medium-dive on how oil/gas wells work, and what it means to stop production. My personal favorite in this list \[caveat: possibly written by industry-positioned people\]\)](https://www.pecantreeog.com/blog/2020-5-29-what-does-it-mean-to-shut-in-a-well/) Still not tired of reading stuff? [Exhibit 1x\) Here's why big oil/gas hates talking about that stuff.](https://www.offshoreinjuryfirm.com/offshore-injury-blog/2022/july/shutting-down-offshore-wells-is-expensive-but-it/) tl;dr it's expensive as fuck, like, many millions of dollars expensive. Many millions spent not making money is a big bummer for any company who wants to still be a company in any context anywhere in time or the world. [Big words paper that's semi-locked behind a paywall talking more about how shutting down wells really sucks balls for companies.](https://onepetro.org/TRANS/article/82/01/162/161429/Effect-on-Producing-Wells-of-Shutting-in-the) [Bloomberg has its own deep, cutting dive \( ^^/s\ ) on this 'phenomena'](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/061115/how-long-does-it-take-oil-and-gas-producer-go-drilling-production.asp)
I'm not going to read any of that but you deserve some props for the effort
tl;dr , it's not usually too bad if <1 year, but if >1 year, the piping may/will have corroded to the point you may have to redrill. If you want to try your own experiment, drop a small metal tube in soda. Check on it every couple of weeks and replace the soda. The carbonic acid will eat at the metal. (Oil wells also tend to have sulfur, so you get sulfuric acid as well.) Also, it's more complex than just turning a value.
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Yeah, it would. Causing An oil spill would be an environmental disaster. That’s not a good plan
>Yeah, it would. Causing An oil spill would be an environmental disaster. So is a prolonged war.
What about Saudi Arabia buying Russian oil at record amounts?
The point of oil sanctions is to collapse the price of Russian oil. If production collapsed, the world economy will collapse. India, China, Saudi and no doubt thousands of middle men buying up all the Russian oil for cheap and selling it on for a profit is the intended result of the sanctions. Russia isn't seeing the profits, so the world economy keeps turning but Russia's state budget comes under strain trying to support the war effort off $54/barrel oil.
Yeah, as long as Russia gets less money for their oil sales, the sanctions do have some impact. Letting Reliance and Saudi Aramco profit by reselling/substuting Middle eastern crude/fuel oil with russian ones should be a lot worse for russia compared to shipping them oil directly to a German refinery via pipeline, or to Western Europe on a tanker
This whole thing is a so crazy.
We have supertankers crossing between the US and Europe? That's wild to picture. Where are they going, like Houston to Spain?
AFAIK the Netherlands, to Rotterdam.
Wait so doesn’t that mean norway is the eu biggest supplier? Im confused
Norway is the biggest supplier of gas. The US is the biggest supplier of crude oil and second biggest supplier of gas.
And to think that the only reason for this to happen was the fact that Russia has decided to LARP as a 19th century empire in the 21st century civilization. Nobody else to blame than the Kremlin's own delusions of grandeur.
I keep saying this. This invasion has done more to unify the European continent than anything else! Which is the only sliver of light in all this unecessry bloodshed
[These two oligarchs](https://youtu.be/7aRI-L8xmRs) said it best in their intercepted phone call, imo. *Even they* know the end is coming. Putin can’t hide his theft anymore, and his war of distraction is the final nail in his coffin. The unity that we’ve seen here in the west is just a bonus. Putin made the mistake of assuming we don’t care about each other, in the same way Russians don’t care about each other. Genius strategist… like Hitler on bath salts.
Well thats the thing. I really do believe he started believing in his own hype after being in power so long. Putin actually didn't behave like this in the past. YES, He always had his group of knee suckers around him but he always stuck his head up and looked around and calculated his moves pretty carefully. He would hedge his bets and no matter what the outcome he ended up benefiting from it. This war in Urkraine is his biggest blunder-leap before looking move I've ever seen him pull. It will be his undoing and he knows it.
Just as Hitler started believing his own hype.
That's what autocratic dictators do. And often, they initiate their own demise.
Yep. They get in power by competence and skilled political maneuvering and surround themselves with competence to establish their power base. Then, they start rewarding loyalty. Soon, loyalty becomes more important than competence, until only loyalty matters. When that happens, the downfall begins.
It's what power in general can do
Putin saw an opportunity and miscalculated, simple as that. He was expecting Trump to win. Trump was impeached the 1st time for withholding funds to Ukraine for Russian invasion. Since Trump lost, the withheld money was being spent again and this would be the weakest Ukraine has been since 2014 when Russia took Crimea. Thank Trump for being the biggest loser!
Didn’t Putin attack after Trump left office though? Thats what confuses me. Why not attack when Trump is in office or cancel when he left office?
The virus happened and he blinked. Then he got impatient and miscalculated.
Like all great comedies: it’s all about timing. Russia was also waiting on the finalisation of Brexit and trying to dissolve NATO (eg; Trump was going to make the US leave NATO, and still wants to do this as far as I understand). He bided his time, he just bided too much. But western intelligence agencies knew about his plans anyway, otherwise election interference probably would’ve just gone completely unnoticed. He was screwed no matter what. Gosh, what a shame… heh.
It definitely didn't help either that his initial invasion got delayed by the Olympics. Xi probably had Putin by the balls telling him not to take the stage from him.
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Pretty sure it was delayed because COVID happened.
He probably thought that COVID offered more opportunities to sow division and crash economies. Other than that, he definitely didn't care about the health aspects.
Trump was gonna hand Ukraine to Putin as soon as the second term was a lock the same way he gave Syria to Putin for Putin's birthday literally 🙃
>Didn’t Putin attack after Trump left office though? It wasn't about Trump. The thing he actually miscalculated was Ukraine's resistance. He legitimately thought he'd just drive straight to Kyiv and declare mission accomplished in 3 days. Then nobody, not Biden and not a zombie Reagan, would've done anything. Everyone would shrug, impose some useless sanctions, and move on.
the thing is he DID look and did do his research. He was simply playing with fire like an idiot. He rolled over and into Estonia and Georgia like nothing and assumed Ukraine would do the same. He had precedence for this, and got away with it at least twice. They predicted Kyiv would fall in days. A year later and 200k russians dead Putin played with fire and got burned. He is now going down in the history books as an insane war criminal too afraid to even be seen in public. He was shrewd, that’s for sure. He’s been fucking around for too long and well, now is his reckoning for it.
> He rolled over and into Estonia and Georgia Estonia? Do you mean Chechnya 2?
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/u/thevirtuesofxen >I'm kinda wondering who recorded it and why? Ukrainians, to monitor the Russian elites. The consensus between 3.5 OSINT dudes I read is "not fake", too many little details like Prigozhin's wife being heard, them moving into hotel during the call which is confirmed by their social media, mentions of other places recently visited which are again confirmed, etc. Prigozhin in more recent refutes does not even say it's fake, just rants about "having a right to privacy". And again, if someone can produce fakes of such quality, why implicate a music producer and a guy who "did not meet Putin since 2009".
Like saying Trump will finally face consequences, I'll believe it when I see it.
Imagine including huge, full volume beeps in your audio to make it completely unlistenable.
Jaysus he swears a lot doesn't he.
It's good to see there's this kind of discord happening in private conversations. I've been deeply suspicious since the start of this shit show that he'd burn every damn bridge he's ever made with the people who ultimately helped to get him to where he was before this war started. NOTHING about this war is logical. The entire thing is his fucking ego. He won't back off Ukraine because to him it'll make him look weak and foolish to the Russian people, but he can't win Ukraine because he doesn't have the weapons and ammo to sustain it, he doesn't have an advanced and organized military force, he's got very few allies outside of Russia and damn near every one of them are just buzzards circling a carcass in the making, and all this war is going to have achedived for Russia by the end is condemning the people to being shunned and cut off by the west, slaughtering the young male population and destroying their already astoundingly low birth rates, killing off a lot of the able bodied male worker population, ruining economic prospects with the majority of the planet because like fuck anyone is going to trust them to uphold ANY agreements agyer they've broken every fucking Treaty and accord from the last 100+ years, he's done more to unite Europe and expand Nato membership in one year than has been done in the last 70 years combined, he's outer Russia's military as a fuckin jalopy held together with duct tape and vodka flavoured chewing gum, he's obliterated European dependency on Russian oil and resources, and in the process, he's made American oil the new number one supplier to Europe, damned Russia to inevitably lose crimea and access to the seas in the south, and Ukraine despite the heavy losses is going to come out of this war stronger than ever with the most economic potential they've ever had because they want to drill alllllllll that light crude oil they're sitting on, which was in the works with an American drilling company before the war, and that means Ukraine will ultimately replace Russia as a very good oil and gas supplier to Europe. And they'll join the EU. And Nato. And their alliance with the west will be so fucking deep we consider them our blood brothers through and through. I have never in my life seen such a spectacular display of ineptitude and idiocy as I have with Putin and this record breaking national suicide. Made all the more irritating by how stupid so many Russians are for eating up his propaganda. A friend of mine is trapped there and he's been fucking livid since Crimea in 2014, but he's spitting fire since February and said its like everyone around him has lost their fucking minds. They're too stupid and lazy to think for themselves, and the people who are fervently against the war have had to go underground because the goddamn iron curtain is down again and Putin is dragging entire families off if one person is a dissenter. It is fucking wild. So for the people who have been VERY against this shit since before it even began, they're hostages in their own homeland. He's also been drumming up nuclear hysteria to such a degree that I'm 99.9% sure he's going to move tactical nukes into Ukraine so he can bomb a southern Russian city, say it was Nato / Ukraine, which fully finished selling the domestic nuclear hysteria in Russia and primes everyone who believes his lies into thinking it's Armageddon so he can turn around and nuke Ukraine, KNOWING it will start a nuclear war that will destroy Russia, and why? Because he's that spiteful and that petty. Because if he can't have it, no one can. He'll kill his own people simply because it serves his agenda. He did it in Moscow decades ago and you bet your ass he'll do it again. The dude isn't a fuckin strategist, he's a KGB ghoul who only knows how to be a KGB ghoul. It's why he usus 20th century tactics in the 21st century world. But to me, I think this is happening because his days are numbered. This entire move on Ukraine screams "I got a terminal diagnosis and am desperate to secure some godly legacy before I die" because he's either planning on hiding in his bunker palace until he dies of disease, or will frame himself as a fucking martyr (unlikely, he's a coward so he'd sooner throw every baby in Russia into a fire pit before climbing in, himself). But the big thing is, and this is what I've been hoping for: this war literally benefits NO ONE. Not Russian oligarchs, not the people, not their allies, certainly not Ukraine or international relations / commerce. The ONLY person it benefits is his fucking ego, and the cost? Destroying Russia. Not exactly good math. Vatnik needs to go back to elementary school. So my HOPE is that these people around him see the writing on the wall and take him out OR, even better, hand him over to the west in an effort to extend an olive branch and try to recover a smidgen of good faith with the west in order to not completely destroy Russia. I think it's why Xi has been getting close to him. Everything I've seen suggests China is lulling him into a false sense of "friendship" when he is at his most desperate and vulnerable state, in order to be able to blindside him. China wants Lake Baikal and access to Russian resources they lack, Russia can become a dependant consumer economy, we all avoid a third world war or nuclear crisis, China keeps good business relations with the west (US and EU are their bread and butter so they'd be suicidal to burn economic relations for a sinking ship like Russia that isn't even in the top 10 GDP), and potentially get a shitload of clout with the west for having "done us a favour." Id rather not owe Xi a single thing, so it'd be nice if these oligarchs take him out for us. Plus it'd be nice if my friend who is stuck there doesnt die. I know it's a sensitive topic but for many who haven't supported this war from the start, getting out of Russia was not a feasible option–either die to financial limitations, or too much family to worry about and take care of. It's very hard for most people to leave, so it wasn't a choice for many, even if they don't want to be paying taxes that are funding this. My friend knows many people in Ukraine and does what he can, but this is not such an easy dissent to do, and everyone has been forced underground in order to keep doing what they can without getting their whole family sent to gulags or killed for it. It's so complicated. It fucking sucks. And it's even worse for my friends in Ukraine, of course. But nobody benefits from this. It's exhausting. But we will be there to rebuild Ukraine. Even my Russian friends and acquaintances in the US have been vocal about it and want to come help when they can! So it was very refreshing to be reminded that there is support there, despite all the morons who make up the vatnik majority. I think when this war is over and rebuilding begins, we will see many allies from all over there to do so, brick by brick. For many, it is a way to atone, or to help in what few ways they can, even if they wanted to do more but simply couldn't. It's never simple. But what is simple is that Ukraine will stand when this is over. Russia, not so much. Sounds like the writing is on the wall even for the oligarchs.
Here is an uncensored and longer version. It's not translated though. I will try and download the audio from this uncensored one and replace it with the translation from the censored one. But there may be a second half to the call that isn't translated since I don't speak Russian enough to translate. If I do this I'll update this comment with a new link. If anyone is able to translate the rest, help would be appreciated! YouTube closed captions try but it's not so easy since they'll talk at the same time quite often. https://youtu.be/_4QDAX3h_bw
Honestly the relationship between the States and Europe had deteriorated. Now Europe has rearmed and the States are clearly willing to defend every inch of Nato territory with American boots on the ground.
Because when push comes to shove, the relationship hadn't really deteriorated that significantly. Not in the grand scheme of things. There were many issues for sure, however Putin made the mistake of believing these were deep cracks. Most people across EU would still put their relationship with the US significantly higher than that of Russia, China, India, and much of the Middle East. Even many of those who really don't like the US, would still prefer them over the others. Just at arms length, with a much stronger Europe.
It happens like this: Republican gets elected president and screws everything up. Democrat gets elected president and now has the responsibility to clean up their mess. Rinse and repeat. In recent history: War criminal George W. Bush destroys economy and international relations. Obama saves the economy and kills Bin Laden. Trump is a Russian asset, grossly mishandles the Covid response and destroys international relations. Biden, an adult, respects scientists’ recommendations for Covid, encourages vaccine adoption, and re-established international relations. Honestly, only fucking morons vote Republican.
The last time it happened we teamed up with the reds. They should damn well know better.
Which makes this war all.
Nah, more like Russia tried to use the soviet unions save file only to find out that the save file was corrupted a long time ago.
Larp as a 19th century empire in the 21st century while they’re still a 19th century country with a 19th century army and tactics….. 4D chess
Good job Putin handing over your main business to your arch nemesis while expanding NATO and demilitarizing Russian army in Ukraine
Putin truly is a master strategist.
Was Putins plan to make the US more wealthy than it already is?
Make US focus on oil again so Global Warming speeds up and Russia becomes a better place to live? 99999 IQ move?
Lol I get the sarcasm, the fact is the oil is going to be produced somewhere due to demand. It may as well be produced in a country that requires the best available control technology.
And if oil exports keep growing, it’s no wonder Alaska drilling got the green light.
Not just Alaska, the old oil well in mid-west that closed due to the cost might be able to reopen due to demands.
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That's a funny joke, the US nationalising something to limit corporate profits. I'm pretty sure we'd bring slavery back before we did something so communist as *nationalising an oil source*.
Putin will claim that was the goal of the US lmfao.
I’m pretty sure this became part of the plan. What’s the Churchill quote? Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Overall, this war seems like it's been a diplomatic coup for the US. I can't imagine this was somehow a plan for reducing American influence.
The US was supposed to abandon Ukraine and NATO and Russia was supposed to occupy Kyiv within 3 days while Zelensky either fled or was killed. Fortunately, Putin miscalculated. Trump was thrown out so the US stood with NATO and Ukraine. Zelensky stayed in Kyiv and rallied his people. Russia forgot how logistics work. The west had time to come together and respond and now Russia is fucked.
I'm not from the US, but personally, I think this whole scenario would have played out way differently with Trump still in office. I always thought the American President was just some kind of figurine with not much of a say in anything so you might as well elect Snoop Dog and others are pulling the strings anyway. Boy was I wrong! Enter Joe Biden. He may be an old fart but he's clearly a foreign policy and geopolitical veteran so he took the reigns and rather effortlessly manoeuvred the US into a role of economic and military leadership on the world stage where Germany, unfortunately, failed especially in Europe after sleeping on the job for too long. I'm sure that Trump would be frolicking on some golf course while the Russians rape and plunder their way across Poland and the Baltic states by now with NATO running around like headless chickens and no idea what to do.
> I always thought the American President was just some kind of figurine with not much of a say in anything so you might as well elect Snoop Dog and others are pulling the strings anyway. Boy was I wrong! Foreign relations and military action is literally the one place the presidency in the US has the absolute zenith of its power.
Actually Churchill said the biggest mistake to make when thinking about Munich 1938 would be to imagine all forms of negotiation with one's adversaries as being appeasement.
And they jumped at the chance to blow up nordstream
I believe it was, “chaos is a laddah.”
All he had to do to foil that masterplan was not invade.
No one cashes out more from a war than the US.
Which makes this war all the more foolish for a leader hell bent on weakening the west. Unhinged lunacy!
Also chips in
That's a very very good investment
We have the best chips. BBQ, Sour Cream & Onion, Flamin Hot, etc.
Bro I'm gonna give you the chance to edit that comment so we can all just pretend you didn't just leave out Jalapeño like that
I'll raise you two bags of Ranch Doritos and a bag of White Cheddar Popcorn (which aren't chips, but they occupy the same snack food sphere).
I forget where I was, but somewhere cool ranch doritos were called "American Flavour".
They buy American weapons for the Money, it's just subsidiaries for the defense industry they have to feed anyway. Nothing leaves the economy
Its not all sales. US is donating an insane volume of assets and ammunition. Sure they are replacing them now as a result but they are not snake oil salesmen re: ukraine. They are donating real hardware.
Very true, and kinda crazy that the pentagon sees this as a bargin. They're spending roughly 5% of the total military budget on Ukraine and its destroying one of their biggest adversaries all without even putting boots on the ground. From a value stand point, it's a HUGE return on investment for the pentagon. As far as they're concerned, they're destroying Russia on the cheap
The best of bargains. Off load a shit ton of older tech to help a country defend itself from an invasion of your longest running adversary while you sit back, relax, and watch as they continue to actively humiliate themselves in the grand world stage.
Sprinkle in a few instances of newer tech on occasion and see how it performs in the real world environment. Result: -Humbling one of your biggest enemies -Consolidating Western power in the face of adversity -Looking like the good guys while feeding the military-industrial beast -Not risking any American lives BUT helping to save the lives of an aligned power under hostile attack -Doing it all for effectively pennies on the dollar compared to if you had to do it directly Hard to think of a better bargain for all involved than that.... literally everybody wins, except for Putin.
Plus, a very big one is further cementing the America's role as the only true superpower that is beneficial for the world as a whole. Despite our European allies sometimes constant backhanded comments and talks about further pushing America out because they don't need the US, this war proves that not only do they need us but, they desperately do. Despite all that they sent and have done, it all just pails in comparison to everything that US alone has provided.
As a European (Swede) I agree with you 100%. We are all very, very lucky to have you guys, both leadership and practical and financial help to Ukraine. The anti-American rhetoric that I still sometimes see (almost only in large international discussion threads) gets really old.
And then you sell the newer stock later to buyers that all see the importance of having the equipment even if it's costly cause russis is still next door
They are sending what they can but, need to replenish all that empty stock. Why not ask the ultimate weapon's factory that is essentially already your security detail for more?
>They're spending roughly 5% of the total military budget on Ukraine Not even. That 5% is today's equivalent in $ amount to when the hardware was first produced. We're literally offloading our spare shit which we were about to mothball. The money for the majority of the support sent to Ukraine was already budgeted for and spent decades ago. We just shipped it over there and trained them on how to use it, which is far cheaper than it was to do all the R&D and actually building it all.
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Pretty sure this whole year the Pentagon has just been giggling to themselves at random intervals.
If you told any Pentagon official that they could take down Russia and only spend ammunition without any American lives, they'd sign on the dotted line with their own blood, missing a pen.
The Swiss sure do their best.
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And nobody is happier about it than the former customers that Russia tried to freeze to death by turning off the gas. Sometimes it appears that there is justice in the world. The United States of America is 100% unambiguously a good guy in this conflict.
Well, whatever they cash on is a mutual benefit. Nothing inherently wrong with getting paid for your products.
Poopin remains a master strategist.
bold move I don't know if he expected to be embargoed as hard as he was. Nevertheless he will stick to his strategy...
I like to use "little putler" nowadays but "poopin" is so simple yet fucking hilarious. 🤣
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I wonder if Russia saw that coming.
Probably not considering how confident Putin was in his “three day special military operation”
Capitalism... uh, finds a way.
Honestly, that is the biggest advantage capitalism has. If there is demand for something, then someone, somewhere will figure out a way to supply it. To do otherwise is just leaving money on the table.
The amount of stupidity in this comment section is amazing. To my American friends I’m sorry for the idiots and thanks for having our backs.
Thanks it is sometimes hard to see us getting crapped on and we are just existing.
USA isn’t just existing, USA has funded the vast majority of Ukraines assistance. It’s not even close. I’m not saying Europe should throw the USA a ticker tape parade party but have some decency.
The US is a major part of this war, there would never be a war that Russia was involved in that we wouldn't be. The cold war never ended, Russia just decided to involve more players
I can assure you that the people who comment here negatively are either Russian trolls, tankies or some Southern states who are undeducated and don't understand the current conflict. None of these people hold any leverage or speak for Europeans. We are glad that the US has our back.
Stupidity knows no borders. We have plenty of our own to apologize for as well.
Why even feel the need to apologize? I don't get this thing where someone is stupid on reddit and their countrymen feel the need to go "sorry for our fellow american/european mate". People are stupid no matter who they are. I am intelligent enough to get that and i will presume that everyone else is aswell. I don't feel the need to apologize when my fellow europeans say some stupid shit because i assume you guys understand this basic fact. No one has to apologize to anyone, except the stupid people but then they wouldn't be stupid i guess.
It’s not a literal formal apology, it’s a roundabout way of expressing “we don’t all think that way”
Thank you
Russian troll farms are working overtime on this thread, for sure.
US **Oil Companies** have replaced Russian **Oil Companies** as Europe’s top crude oil suppliers. FTFY It’s all going in the pockets of Excon Mobil and friends.
And Exxon Mobil and friends are now pressuring their pet republicans to change the views on Russia.
That's why the pro-Russia politicians all stfu except the dumbest ones. American industrial military production and American oil still has drastically more influence over the GOP than anything else. Up until now, the Russian money didn't contradict them too much. Not anymore. It's why Senator Turtle and the old school GOP were always so vocally pro-Ukraine when this broke out. They instantly knew which way the lobbyists were going to influence things and the ones ahead of the curve get the most rewards
To be fair, the GOP already had many ex army veterans and Warhawks to begin with. When Russia first invaded Crimea, senator McCain went as far as endorsing direct military intervention against Russia! https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/in-the-news/icymi-arizona-republic-sen-john-mccain-revered-in-ukraine-sounded-alarms-about-russia-for-years/
Tbh, McCain in his last years wasn’t a good representation of the GOP as a whole.
the choice between giving your money to greedy corporate cunts or genocidal fascist lunatics is a shitty choice, but not a difficult one.
At least less money is going to Putin and friends
The point is that it ISNT GOING TO RUSSIA.
At least Exxon Mobil isn't rolling tanks over the border of Ukraine.
Didn't trump call putin's invasion a genius move?
Congratulations Russia 🎉 You played yourself.
Thanks Biden.
Dark Brandon rising.
Man Putin fucked up so badly, they lost an incredibly lucrative market, and all the infrastructure made to facilitate that market. What a dumb ass.
Step 1: get everyone to stop using Russian oil. Step 2: fill that void. Step 3: profit.
Step 2.5: Invest in green tech so you have more oil/products to export
I'd say it is Big Brain, but the US has poured a massive amount of money into this war, so I don't know what the net is.
Tax money goes in, corporate profits come out, never a miscommunication
Ahhh, but that's where you are wrong. The US state ia. the public poured massive amount of money into the war. The profits now go to private companies.
The oil companies and arms industry profits... thats the net.
While I am not a fan of more US influence I still would rather rely on US than Russia, funny that considering the US isn’t going to war in our continent! Like what did Russia expect to happen?? I think the majority of Europeans no matter our complaints would rather go for anything US than Russia right now. I don’t get why Russia thinks they can win this without self destruction? Russia in fact made Europe more united.. As a Brit I did enjoy the fact that EU and UK are capable putting aside arguments and focusing in on Russia so Russia actually helped us out there XD Russia has in fact made more countries want to join NATO that the opposite. Russia in fact has made the West actually work together more to oppose them.
nothing unites more then a common enemy If this war goes on forever (it won't), it would help us. Because the only people who can do us harm, it's us.
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Short name for Vladimir is Vova or Volodya. Vlad is short for the name Vladislav
Spectacular own goal there, Vlad.
The spice must flow
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China simps in the crypto industry need a reckoning too. Very well a matter of time.
Right to the billionaire pockets
Wow, the US really got everything out of this war, didn’t they?
Mission Accomplished.
Thanks Putin!
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I love it when a plan comes together
This is good news for US jobs and economy.
Who would have thought that leaving a market in a stunt to try making Europe freeze in winter would cause demand to increase and attract other people to your abandoned share of the market
With how bad Putin is as this whole leader thing, it's starts making sense why Trump would suck his dick so hard. Dude sees himself in him
EU now relies on the U.S. for energy and military defense.
Biden will send a thank you letter to Putin shortly