The Brink of War?

[Dodger]

Fridman is citizen of Israel and resident of UK, Deripaska is citizen of Cyprus. What else they can say for to save own wealth?

Not to belabor this (too much), but if Fridman was born and raised in Ukraine, and his mother and father are there now dodging bombs, do you think there may be a slim possibility that he's actually more concerned about his parents wellbeing right now than he is about the $$money$$? I'm basing this on the premise that not all wealthy people are as heartless and shallow as you seem to be implying.

It's a safe bet that the oligarchs (all of them) are just as shocked and appalled as everyone else is right now. This includes a large percentage of Russian people who are risking imprisonment (or worse) for protesting against their government. Media coverage isn't as constrained as it was back in the 1920's. Video clips of the protests occurring across Russia are visible and easily accessible to the World.. This simply can't be hidden from public view...denied...or explained away as being a gross exaggeration or fake news. It's simply the truth for all the World to see.

The longer this goes on - the more a diplomatic solution seems impossible. It's starting to become clear that the Free World is simply not going to offer any of the concessions Putin is asking for, and Putin has found himself standing in the middle of a global circle-jerk...isolated from the World (and reality)...with no face-saving exit strategy in sight.

I keep hoping for the best for everyone's sake (including the Russian people), but if someone doesn't stop Putin soon this thing is going to get a lot uglier.

The update below just hit the news:

"Opposition to Putin's war is alive on Moscow's streets. But no trace of it is covered on Russian TV."

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/01/e...ntl/index.html

[cdnmatt]

Russian convoy has stalled again for some reason. Rumors are there's quite a few empty Russian vehicles sitting on the highway as soldiers realized what's up, and decided to nope out of there.

[StevieWonders]

A plunging rouble, flight cancellations and money-transfer difficulties are prompting Russian and European tourists to cancel trips to Thailand, a blow to the Southeast Asian nation’s tourism-revival efforts.
The exclusion of many Russian banks from the Swift payments network has resulted in tour operators running into problems when making transfers, according to Charintip Tiyaphorn, co-owner of Pimalai Resort & Spa in Phuket. Some flights have been cancelled following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and many European airlines are re-routing to get to Southeast Asia, she said.

Russians were the largest group of travellers to Thailand in January and top applicants for new visas under a quarantine-free entry programme relaunched last month. About 1.5 million Russians visited in pre-pandemic 2019 and spent US$3.3 billion, the third-highest source of tourism revenue for the country, according to official data.
Particularly in seaside destinations such as Phuket and Pattaya, it’s common for restaurants, spas and even property developments to have signs in Cyrillic characters in an effort to make Russians welcome in a country that before Covid-19 generated about a fifth of its gross domestic product from tourism.

But war and sanctions have once again disrupted Thailand’s efforts to jump-start the vital sector.
“We received emails from agents and sales representatives in Russia that they may not be able to transfer money to Thailand due to sanctions, so this will have some future impacts too,” Charintip said.

“We are more worried about flights from Europe to Thailand that may have to divert, and this would make it more difficult and costly for European travellers to travel to Thailand.” While the Thai government still expects Russian tourists to turn up, it’s concerned that a weakening rouble may limit their spending, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday.

Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has been experimenting with several revival plans for the sector, which in 2019 attracted 40 million foreign visitors and generated more than US$60 billion. The latest measures were the scrapping of what had been a required second RT-PCR test for travellers and the lowering of a minimum health insurance requirement on Tuesday.

Thailand may lose tourism revenue equal to 0.2 per cent of its gross domestic product in the worst-case scenario of no Russian tourists for the rest of the year, according to Krungsri Research, a unit of Bank of Ayudhya Pcl.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south...sanctions-deal

Oh dear

[cdnmatt]

And I guess over 150,000 Russians are currently stranded overseas. Can't fly home due to airspace restrictions, and their cards don't work anymore anyway.

I really hope they place their current frustration and anger on Putin, where it belongs.

[StevieWonders]

And I guess over 150,000 Russians are currently stranded overseas. Can't fly home due to airspace restrictions, and their cards don't work anymore anyway.

I really hope they place their current frustration and anger on Putin, where it belongs.

If only your bar was open, Matt, so they could fill in time there

[cdnmatt]

If only your bar was open, Matt, so they could fill in time there

Sure, as long as they'd be willing to listen to the Ukrainian national anthem on repeat, we're good to go.

[StevieWonders]

China has started evacuating its citizens from Ukraine, state media reported Tuesday, amid fears for their safety due to the invasion by Beijing’s ally Russia but also reports of resulting hostility from angry Ukrainians.

[cdnmatt]

And sure enough, a couple hours after Greztky mentioned on his sports broadcast he wanted to see the Russia team banned from the World Junior's, that's exactly what happened.

It's like a national duty to respect Gretzky in this country.

[cdnmatt]

And now Exxon has pulled out of Russia totalling $40 billion in assets, and are in the proces of evacuating employees and shutting down operations such as Sackland.

How does Russia expect to produce all this oil and gas it's so proud of? It heavily relies on Western companies, technology, and skills to run lots of its oil and gas operations. You now have BP, Shell, and Exxon all pulling out.

Hell, my brother even worked on Sackland for several years. Never actually went to Sackland, but from an office in Canada he worked on the project.

[Moses]

And now Exxon has pulled out of Russia totalling $40 billion in assets, and are in the proces of evacuating employees and shutting down operations such as Sackland.

How does Russia expect to produce all this oil and gas it's so proud of? It heavily relies on Western companies, technology, and skills to run lots of its oil and gas operations. You now have BP, Shell, and Exxon all pulling out.

Hell, my brother even worked on Sackland for several years. Never actually went to Sackland, but from an office in Canada he worked on the project.

No companies can "pull" money right now: because Russia as an answer to sanctions adopted law what nobody can withdraw money from Russia now... investors may only locally "freeze" money now in Russian banks, but can't "evacuate" from Russia. Right now it is for 3 months, but maybe it will be prolonged.

Yesterday here was poll about war. 65% support military operation, 22% against, rest are "I don't know". Putin's supporting rating grew from 64% to 71%.