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Good for sanctions....will speed up Russia alternative economic links and capital repatriation.....Russia has enormous inequality problems but the US is the last country that can teach a moral lesson about oligarchy and benefit of the elites.
The West is 60% of the world's economy. Russia is 2%. Putin's oligarchs better get down on both knees... His job is to keep them rich and happy so this is no doubt causing them to ask what's the point in attacking the West...
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Originally Posted by saturno_v
I also suggest for Russia to start... to seize and destroy cargo ships (not harming the crew obviously).
Because you would like to see them die trying? Russian rustbucket navy not exactly known for its prowess.
Demography in Baltic countries - all of them struggle with negative natural growth of population and it has been so for years and years. Eg here in Estonia only in 2010 natural growth was very barely positive, in years before and after it the natural growth has been negative i.e. less births than deaths. The reasons are low birth rate and emigration. As you know the population is small anyway and because of that demographers here are pessimistically minded in reference to future. This is certainly a serious issue.
This was my impression too.
Ditto - all European nations are dying out, but the bigger ones still have time. For the smaller nations ( like Baltic nations in this case) this is a ticking bomb.
I understand the situation, so I don't pay much attention to DKM's claptrap on a subject.
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And what is the reason of low birth rate and emigration? The reason is economic insecurity of course. To grow up the children is not a cheap thing here. What I have noticed is that local Russians here have less children than Estonians. It is imo quite common if a Russian family here has just one kid.
Often the Soviet years here have been described (especially if something is described and explained to foreigners of former "west bloc") with negative undertone but in my opinion it is ironical that during those allegedely dark years the natural growth of the very same Estonians was positive.
I think EVERYONE's natural growth was positive during Soviet times ( I thought for a moment that Latvians were the only exception, so I checked and no - their numbers were visibly higher during Soviet times, comparably to "post-liberation."
The difference is of course, that Soviet State was a welfare state when it comes to women/children issues, guaranteeing women jobs/free medical care, day cares and so on. That's why, since women had economic security, ANY woman in the Soviet Union could afford to have a child, with no fear of some "child protective services" to take a child away, ( as it's a case in post-Soviet Russia and as I've heard in Baltic countries too.)
So it's not like Russians had many children back in those days, but as I've said, ANY woman could afford to have a child. That's why the birth rate in the USSR was steady.
For Moscow one-two children were a norm back then, but may be in the country side they've had more children.
Many Russians prefer warmer climes it seems to me. Where are the greatest concentrations of the Russian diaspora? Warmer climates. Russia is not for everyone even if you were born there.
I prefer mountains, fields of snow and pine forests than a stifeling hot beach no matter what though.
You are not the only one.
Here is some prose on a subject by my favorite Dmitry Olshansky ( loosely translated)
"There are very few things in the world that I hate with such passion as good weather, when summer is around, with heat and sun.
Good weather is a huge humiliation for a learned man; it brings the flair of desperation, it smells like gloom.
Because this weather teases you by the imaginary world, where you'll never be anyway, it shows you the opportunities that you'll never use; it mocks you, demonstrating to you that the world is big, the world is open, but what do you care, if you are a misfit.
I won't see your seas, good weather, I will not climb your mountains good weather, and I won't be jumping, flying, falling and running with your ****ty sport gadgets. I don't want to be covered with your beautiful tan good weather, and I don't know how to take pictures of all your flowers, shores, beaches and patios. I won't fly to those enticing far-away lands, that your travel bloggers are raving about, and I actually hate your flip-flops, good weather. I prefer my black shoes.
And your half-naked maidens have husbands by the way.
But you are not eternal.
There will be a day, when the cold winds will blow on your beaches, and your patios will close, your seas will be engulfed by storms, your ideal blue skies will darken and the endless rain will pour down, then hail, then snow, and all your ****ty sport gadgets will break. Your maidens will bundle up, your travel bloggers will go to hell, and for the nearest thousand miles there will be no flip-flops, only black shoes.
And we'll finally have a break uncle Vanya, we'll see the diamonds of cold, the diamonds of darkness, and minus ten in diamonds, and ice, and snowstorm, and our dirty, dearly beloved snowbanks."
I like seasons. Variety is the spice of life even if it does bring inconvenience at some times life is better with snow a few months of the year. Falls colors are never the same patterns twice and the feeling of life waking in spring is invigorating.
I like beaches hot beaches too but not year round.
Yeah using your foreign spokesperson as an agent of propaganda is so... Russian. The factory it came from was identified. Oh look, they took down a tweet, so lets attack the country we just killed someone in ha ha ha. Now its on to the pets right? Oh look, the Brits won't give us the dead pets so they are hiding a false flag attack. On and on and then Russia complains its the West's fault for bad relations.
New sanctions today including on a man who gained billions from Russia's national resources just for marrying Putin's daughter. Mnuchin today: “The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.â€
Got a link? Which factory?
About time the US and others started going after the theives but why are they doing such a half arsed job about it? There's a LOT of people in the west who have stolen from the Russian nation and it's people. It's a good thing, we can agree on that one.
As I've said before, the US is trying to get the oligarchs to stage an incident that can be blamed on Putin. It is similar to what they've done with other governments and even with terrorists in Syria per the red line directives. Some writers have started to point fingers at the oligarchs for their connections to the British banks. There's still no investigation of who they met at the restaurant that might have poisoned them. They were walking around half the day with this supposed military-grade nerve agent that acts in seconds, yet there's little suspicion cast on the period after the restaurant. People that came in contact with them were basically unaffected with contradictions cropping with each story.
As I've said before, the US is trying to get the oligarchs to stage an incident that can be blamed on Putin. It is similar to what they've done with other governments and even with terrorists in Syria per the red line directives. Some writers have started to point fingers at the oligarchs for their connections to the British banks. There's still no investigation of who they met at the restaurant that might have poisoned them. They were walking around half the day with this supposed military-grade nerve agent that acts in seconds, yet there's little suspicion cast on the period after the restaurant. People that came in contact with them were basically unaffected with contradictions cropping with each story.
Has anyone ever seen someone overdosing on the street? Passed out on a bench in a park drooling? Skripal took money from someone in exchange for information. I was taught in the service how recruiting spys works. They find some means to blackmail you, find some weakness that makes you vulnerable. When that's done they own you. This whole thing seems so filled with holes, so many other possibilites in this hysterical mix you just can't discount anything and you certainly can't take what you're told as the truth.
What we're seeing now in the Russian Oligarchs is a play on their vulnerabilities. A lot of their money and investments are in the west. What if they're lost? Frozen assets and confiscated pr operties? Greedy people aren't the smartest and most intelligent people around. Skripal betrayed Russia, oligarchs and other rich people have done the same thing to a lesser degree and now they're vulnerable to intimidation and exploitation. Every rich Russian in the west is vulnerable.
You better think twice before you sell the farm for what you think is greener grass across the pond. It may look greener but what kind of grass is it?
Finale of the sad story with thallium: telegra.ph/Obizhen-na-ves-mir-Kak-i-zachem
The man added thallium to the water cooler to take revenge on his boss for refusing promotion. But it was common water cooler. 30 people were poisoned.
The difference is of course, that Soviet State was a welfare state when it comes to women/children issues, guaranteeing women jobs/free medical care, day cares and so on.
btw, I found an interesting map a couple of days ago:
The entire territory of Soviet Union has literacy above 97%, including Central Asia. In contrast to the territory of European Union.
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