The Ukraine Question

[Kurt Gabin]

>>it prints money

And this is exactly what led to inflation and higher rates when printed money was distributed in the form of benefits during covid

>>so it has no need to borrow

At all?) How convenient, perhaps you even patented a perpetual motion machine?

>>The US dollar is currently rising compared to every other major currency. That tells me that people are betting that the US will be able to provide them in the future with something more valuable than any other country can provide, and that the US does not really have any problems with getting people to accept the dollars that it prints.

Of course, when Europe is in crisis, dollar is rising.. Because capital is fleeing from the collapsed euro

>>If anything, the US would like to see happy and contented consumers in every country, who can afford to buy US products.

It would be great, but instead, the United States has a trade deficit and, as a result, growing external debt.

>>Incidentally, Kurt, have you mobilized yet?

Nope. Now they are mobilizing those who have experience in combat operations or have concluded a special contract with the Ministry of Defense. This is called a reserve, according to official information, there are two million people in it – 10 times more than number of contractors currently used in Ukraine. In addition to the reserve, there is also a standby (IDK how to translate this correctly, but you get the point) – all other physically and mentally healthy men, about thirty million people. These thirty millions are divided into three stages, I am in the second and it is unlikely that my participation will be required. And, in general, I expect that now that Russia has a multiple advantage on the side, Kyiv will finally agree to start negotiations.

[Adam Strange]

>>it prints money

And this is exactly what led to inflation and higher rates when printed money was distributed in the form of benefits during covid

Every major country in the world is experiencing higher inflation. Even the ones which didn't print money for benefits during covid.

>>so it has no need to borrow

At all?) How convenient, perhaps you even patented a perpetual motion machine?

Capitalism is a man-made system, not a natural law, so the first and second laws of thermodynamics do not apply. Yes, it is possible to print money forever.

Why would a country that can print money need to borrow it from its citizens? It can just print more.
Technically, a sovereign country doesn't need to tax, either, for the same reason, but they do tax, not because they need their paper back, but because taxing gives the paper value. You need to have it on April 15, or they put you in jail.

>>The US dollar is currently rising compared to every other major currency. That tells me that people are betting that the US will be able to provide them in the future with something more valuable than any other country can provide, and that the US does not really have any problems with getting people to accept the dollars that it prints.

Of course, when Europe is in crisis, dollar is rising.. Because capital is fleeing from the collapsed euro

Capital must also be fleeing from the collapsed British pound, the collapsed Japanese yen, the collapsed Indian Rupee, the collapsed Chinese Yuan, and a few other currencies. Perhaps there is a US-induced crisis in all of these countries.
Or could it be that people just think that US prospects for the future are good?

>>If anything, the US would like to see happy and contented consumers in every country, who can afford to buy US products.

It would be great, but instead, the United States has a trade deficit and, as a result, growing external debt.

Well, this is complicated, but the US is not harmed by this. Or you could simply say that the rest of the world is willing to stack up dollars in exchange for the right to export goods to the States.

>>Incidentally, Kurt, have you mobilized yet?

Nope. Now they are mobilizing those who have experience in combat operations or have concluded a special contract with the Ministry of Defense. This is called a reserve, according to official information, there are two million people in it – 10 times more than number of contractors currently used in Ukraine. In addition to the reserve, there is also a standby (IDK how to translate this correctly, but you get the point) – all other physically and mentally healthy men, about thirty million people. These thirty millions are divided into three stages, I am in the second and it is unlikely that my participation will be required.

Well, I genuinely hope that you don't have to go fight in Ukraine. I've seen a lot of pictures recently of Russian soldiers lying in pools of blood and mud in Ukraine. No one wants to die that way.

And, in general, I expect that now that Russia has a multiple advantage on the side, Kyiv will finally agree to start negotiations.

What do you think Ukraine should negotiate for, seeing as how Ukraine was invaded by Russia?

What would you negotiate for, if some country invaded Russia? Do Ukrainians have the same rights as Russians to be free of invasions from other countries?

[Kurt Gabin]

>> What do you think Ukraine should negotiate for, seeing as how Ukraine was invaded by Russia?

Apparently, you still have not familiarized yourself with the history of this conflict and do not understand what is going on, so here is the whole story

In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed and its republics became separate states. Among other things, they had to decide whether they were going to maintain their previous economic ties or develop relations with other countries. Until 2014, Russia remained the main trading partner of Ukraine. By the way, even now, right during the war, they manage to trade with us and Russia remains the third largest market for their exports.

In the 2000s, they began to discuss whether they should join the European Union. Russia, of course, did not like this, but no one forbade them to do this, and they even agreed on a plan to join the EU until 2018.

Now back to economics. The main products of Ukraine are steel, coal and grain. In the 2000s, the Chinese Party set a goal to increase steel production, and the Chinese exceeded the target so much that steel and coal prices collapsed. Because of this, by 2013, the Ukrainian economy was in a difficult state and they even had a deflation.

In the same year, their government was conducting regular negotiations on joining the EU, but officials from the EU were not very interested in accepting more beggars for maintenance and put forward additional requirements for the government of Ukraine.

Against the backdrop of a difficult economic situation, this became an opportunity for opposition nationalist parties to make a revolution and overthrow the old government. Since then, the government of Ukraine has been a mixture of nationalists and populists. They began to give out promises about how great it will be to live when Ukraine joins the EU and NATO. But at the same time, they remembered what they did to the previous government and understood that in the future they would have to explain why the EU did not want to accept them. They found a very simple explanation: the white master does not want to accept us, because the evil Russians do not let us go.

The latter was rather stupid, especially in terms of the promises to join NATO, since Russia and Ukraine had a lease agreement for a military base in Crimea, which allows to control the entire Black Sea.

The military does not understand such jokes, they thought "What if these idiots are really taken to NATO?" And in 2014, the Russian army just came and took this base along with the entire Crimea.

In addition, as Ukraine, previously viewed as an ally by Russia, has become unpredictable and hostile neighbor, Russia has supported several separatist movements in Ukraine's border areas with it. It was assumed that when they achieved the status of republics, they would have a veto in the Ukrainian parliament and thus be able to block the most dangerous ideas of the new government.

After a short military conflict, the situation with these republics was frozen and agreed to be resolved through diplomacy. This is how the Minsk Agreements appeared.

Everything remained in this state for almost eight years. Until 2019, the president of Ukraine was the oligarch Poroshenko, who had something to lose. But you haven't forgotten about the populists yet, right? In May 2019, Ukrainians voted for comedian and actor Zelensky. It was the most foolish election campaign in history: politicians and oligarchs found this poor artist and made a series about how he becomes president and punishes politicians and oligarchs. Ukrainians watched this series and... believed!

In 2021, when inflation problems began in the United States and ratings began to fall, Americans showed up to this circus. The Ukrainian government was promised support in the confrontation against Russia, so they happily tore up the Minsk Agreements and rallied to clean up the separatist republics through military action. From October 2021, they began to demand that Russia refuse to support these republics. At the same time, the United States imposed more and more sanctions, so that in the end Putin just went crazy with the number of them and said, “WTF! If the US has already imposed sanctions, and Ukraine is going to take these republics by force, then what do I have to lose?"

I am not defending our Darkest Lord, but we need to assess the situation objectively and understand that there is no way that Ukraine will win anything in this war. In fact, there is no longer such a country as Ukraine, its politicians have destroyed it. Every third citizen left the country, the rest survive and pray that it all ends, GDP has fallen DOUBLE, their politicians have sold their grain to the West, so in winter the country will face hunger (obviously, this year Ukrainian farmers did not sow anything)... And how will they fight with Russia? Do you really think that a poor country whose name translates as "Outskirts" and which was the outskirts of the Soviet Union, after which it was plundered by constantly changing groups for two decades, has anything other than Soviet weapons of the 70s? And who will fight? I have already mentioned the numbers, you can estimate the alignment of forces. 200,000 men against a militarized country that has 10 times as many soldiers in reserve alone and 150 times as many if it goes all out? Against the world's second largest arms manufacturer? Who you want they fight for? For a comedian? For the oligarchs?

Therefore, it is obvious that the negotiations will be about anything Putin wants.

>>What would you negotiate for, if some country invaded Russia? Do Ukrainians have the same rights as Russians to be free of invasions from other countries?

Unfortunately, politicians have no morals, and in such a situation it makes no sense to talk in such categories. The only good thing they did in this war was to reduce the number of injured civilians to a minimum. Although, wait, there is still a moral here: don't vote for actors, they are not better presidents than artists.

[DogOfDanger]

And how will they fight with Russia? Do you really think that a poor country whose name translates as "Outskirts" and which was the outskirts of the Soviet Union, after which it was plundered by constantly changing groups for two decades, has anything other than Soviet weapons of the 70s? And who will fight? I have already mentioned the numbers, you can estimate the alignment of forces. 200,000 men against a militarized country that has 10 times as many soldiers in reserve alone and 150 times as many if it goes all out? Against the world's second largest arms manufacturer? Who you want they fight for? For a comedian? For the oligarchs?

Therefore, it is obvious that the negotiations will be about anything Putin wants.

Your post reads like a lifetime of political biases fostered by Russian state propaganda has crystallized into something impenetrable. You will inevitably find, in time, that so much of what you believe is slanted and rooted in state propaganda.
Fundamentally, none of what you've written justifies the violence your country has brought to Ukraine.

All I'll comment on is your battlefield analysis... The war has been going on for months now, the West has had more than enough time to supply Ukraine with weapons. Ukraine has Western weapons... they're on their home territory, their morale is very high. The numbers indicate they're killing Russian soldiers at about a 2 to 1 ratio throughout the war... they've regained about 200 square kilometers of territory in the last few weeks.

If you believe the war is going well, I recommend listening to some phone calls of Russian soldiers on the front lines, you will get a very different impression - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPz...RDpw_vLSPMHMgQ

We've seen severe dysfunctions and blunders by the Russian armed forces all throughout this war. The war was supposed to go quickly - Kyiv was going to be surrounded... it's 8 months later, what happened?
Why is Russia drafting citizens if it has so many soldiers in reserves? This achieves nothing but creates domestic problems.
Estimates are around 20K Russians killed and 60K wounded thus far, and those numbers are 1-2 months old... there have been major Ukrainian offensives in the last couple weeks.
Your scenario where the whole population of Russia joins the fight is an absurd scenario. Ukraine has citizens, too - but unlike Russians, they're joining voluntarily - that tends to happen when a country gets invaded. On the other hand, in response to the "partial mobilization" we've seen about 500,000 Russians attempting to leave Russia.

Drafted citizens who have been led to believe the war is going well, who have no real reason to be there fighting, and little training, will crumble when they realize the Ukrainian resistance is not a joke.
You're going to end up dead if you go fight this war - don't be stupid, don't believe anything you read or hear... I recommend you leave the country if you get the chance.