Russia - threadbanned users in OP

There are probably going to be several each in St. Petersburg and Moscow alone, which drastically reduces the number of stores in the "provinces" Also, I'd bet that some of these "stores" are just in-store shops in larger Russian department stores, similar to the way Nespresso operates here in Ireland with their in-store boutiques in Brown Thomas.

Also, I'd just like to point out that some "provincial" cities in Russia can be pretty large. Cities like Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk or Samara all have more than a million inhabitants in the city alone, not counting their metropolitan areas. Plenty of space for both legit and "alternative economy" rich people to both make and spend money.

good read.

 Putin’s Strategic Mistakes In Ukraine Have Devastating Consequences For Russia – OpEd​

March 5, 2022 Paul Goble 0 Comments

By Paul Goble

Vladimir Putin made five strategic mistakes that led him to his broadening of his invasion of Ukraine, mistakes that collectively will have five devastating consequences for the Russian Federation for decades to come, according to London-based Russian analyst Vladimir Pastukhov.

The mistakes are easily listed:

First, Putin had a mistaken notion about the military-political situation in Ukraine. He thought the Ukrainian regime would collapse like a house of cards because he failed to understand “the nature of the Ukrainian revolution, its anti-colonial and national liberation character” (echo.msk.ru/blog/pastuhov_v/2988207-echo/).

Second, Pastukhov continues, Putin had a mistaken idea about the military potential of the Ukrainian army. Like most Western experts, he assumed it would be defeated in two to four days. But the Ukrainian army is still fighting and fighting well. Putin’s easy victory in Crimea eight years ago has played a dirty trick on him.

Third, Putin had an unrealistic assessment of the military capabilities of the Russian army. He assumed that the cartoons he liked to show about super weapons described its reality when in fact those weapons either aren’t part of the armament of his army or don’t work as well as he thought and its officers and men are less capable than he had convinced himself.

Fourth, Putin underrated the power and unity of the international reaction. Almost everyone turned against him and his war. “Even China has shown that its relations with the US were a priority” compared to those with Russia. Putin thus finds himself in a position like North Korea and not one like that of the former USSR.

And fifth, the Kremlin leader overrated the effectiveness of nuclear blackmail. Putin has always assumed that because he has a nuclear shield, he can act with impunity. But what he has done is reduce the reputation of Russia today to that of Hannibal Lector in “Silence of the Lambs.” Everyone knows he is a threat but they will do what is necessary not to live under him.

These strategic miscalculations, the London-based Russian analyst says, led Putin to invade; and that in turn has “serious and irreversible consequences for Russia in the next several decades:

· First, from now on, Putin, the Kremlin, Russia and Russians “in the eyes of international public opinion” are equivalents. “No one is going to divide sanctions anymore between those against the Kremlin and those against Russia.”

· Second, Putin’s actions have reduced Russia to the status of “the most tabooed regimes of the 20th century.” Reversing that will require “decades.”

Third, the Kremlin leader is on his way to establishing “a theocratic totalitarian regime without any pretense of post-modern liberality.” He is making Russia into a place like those described in all the classical anti-utopias of the 20th century.

Fourth, his isolation of Russia will leave it with little chance to recover to the level of the Soviet Union but rather push it down to that of North Korea, a country with nuclear weapons but without an effective economy.

And fifth, because Putin can be counted on to try to use nuclear weapons to blackmail the West into letting Russia reenter the world, the danger of nuclear war will be “a constant nightmare for several generations” not only over the rest of the world but of Russia too.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/05032022-putins-strategic-mistakes-in-ukraine-have-devastating-consequences-for-russia-oped/

Shell.

Please correct me here if I’m incorrect but did they not very recently relocate their stock listing to London ftse? The same London that thrives on Russian money?

Again, correct me if it’s needed.

It's not though. The objective is to oust putin via impacting the populace normal function.

No one wants to punish actual Russians, in fact the EU would prefer the entire opposite. They tried trade relations for years to fix and repair any east west alliances.

But that wouldnt really fit your narrative now would it.

Reports that Mariupol has been captured on a few news outlets. Has I said earlier the Russians wouldn't agree to the cease fire and save passage for civilians because the new there were close to taking it and afraid of Ukrainian regrouping.

Odessa next. When taking. Russia will look to an end to peasant conflict.

Yes, Crimea is an interesting one. It's very possible that the sanctions against Russia will never be lifted until they withdraw from there too - it's the same illegal invasion by the same dictator.

They aren't white enough for the likes of tubridy and his kind to make it "feel real"....

What an absolute @%$%....

TBH I don't think the Crimean's would be happy if the Russians withdrew. A lot Ukrainians probably left over the last 8 years, it's a Russian stronghold.

Ukraine will probably have to concede Crimea and Luhansk. Donetsk is a different story. It's a mix of people in those areas.

It's been "Russian" since the 1700's when it was taken back from the Turks. The majority of people there identify as Russian. Russian is the official language. It's far more Russian than it ever was Ukrainian.

I don't see anything wrong with what he said or maybe how he said it; it effectively captures the mood.

It is easier to overlook wars in "far flung" places, in other parts of the world, with radically different cultures, values, places that are hotbeds of uninterrupted conflict, broadly speaking.

Regime change, civil war, conflict based on ideology, religion, whatever - we've come to accept this as a very, very unfortunate norm for certain parts of the world that are distant to us.

Yes, ultimately we're all human, but to see a war come to continental Europe in 2022, is very disturbing because we thought we were far past that - and it is disturbing people, because contextually, there's the bigger question of how far it will spill.

Context is important. Tubridy was only saying what a lot of people do genuinely feel and it has nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with being white.

I don't think anyone in the West is unaware at this point that Russia is concerned with NATO being on its borders. The problem is that we cannot really begrudge the right of a sovereign country to choose its foreign policy. Is it the first time a country has been invaded in order to keep it out of a sphere of influence? No. Does that make it OK? Not really.

Putin has completely f*cked it, here. He's ruined any goodwill Russian had with the people of Ukraine by blasting them out of it, first of all, and he's regarded as a fully rogue leader by the west. And the big fat cherry on the cake is that he has more countries looking at joining NATO and/or the EU.

He should have stuck to his previous strategy of diplomacy with a dash of subterfuge, and keeps the thumb on Crime and Donbass. But he overreached, and now hes looking at a massive own goal and possibly even self inflict the regime change to which you refer.

In fairness, if that was being actively carried out by a Western country there wouldn’t be a media blackout. Unlike Russia, we have free press, so the decisions whether to run with stories are based on public interest (for advertising reasons). Yemen has clearly failed to ignite the Wests public interest. :(

I myself have lost count of the amount of times I scrolled passed those Facebook ads pleading for help/donations. Sad really, but if UK or America was doing it I think it would be different.