‘The damage is done’: Russians face economic point of no return

Putin is making this move for largely ideological reasons.

Uniting Russian populations.

Sanctions may sting but he expected this and Russians are well familiar with a struggling economy.

 

Dems have been far closer to Putin than any republican.

 

The reality is I doubt the sanctions are going to stop him and I doubt his Allie’s will let his country collapse. This is only going to escalate. Though i hope im wrong.

 

No China won’t go to war for Russia. China will go to war for Taiwan.

Furthermore, Putin has used less than half of his forces and currently has a forty mile convoy headed to Kiev. Ukraine will fall within the month.

 

Wanna take bets on that? His forty mile convoy headed to Kiev says different.

 

Forty miles is only an hour or so to motorized transport, but it might be all Putin has.

 

Perhaps but again like Putin that takes a lot of planning, preparation and very obvious build up of military and civilian assets (ferries) a military buildup at the embarkation points. And such an operation would be many times more complex time consuming and expensive than Putin's invasion of Ukraine. And even more obvious to observers. I'm not saying China couldn't do it or might not want to BTW. Just that to date no-one has indicated there's any sign of such an operation even being commenced let alone being at or near readiness to launch.

As for the rest? Probably. I think it depends on whether Ukrainian resistance crumbles when Kiev and the other major cities in the East of the country fall. That and whether a sizeable part of the Ukrainian army has the means and ability to fall back toward the Polish border and take up defensive positions across a broad chunk of Western Ukraine blocking Russia's advance to the border. Not getting my hopes up though.

 

It is time somebody remove Putin from power, by whatever means necessary. He is a terrorist likened to many others we have seen in history.

 

I do think Putin thought this would be much easier. He thought he could take several of the large cities by now and so far he has none. He didn't anticipate this much resistance from Ukraine. I also don't think he expected what is now a global backing of Ukraine. Putin's country is going bankrupt quickly and even is he orders a ceasefire, the sanctions will not end. As the OP says, the damage is done. Some are considering the possibility of Putin being overthrown by those around him. It's these people that are suffering. Chances are probably small, but still possible.

Btw: Zalensky will go down in history as a ****ing legend!

 

Funny thing is though, for some reason the vast majority of Ukrainians are don't appear to be that keen on the idea. Guess they don't see themselves as 'Russian' anymore than the Baltic States or Poland do.

As for the sanctions side of things? The country side? Yes they are used to struggle. The big cities and educated elites, not nearly so much. Wealthy Russians - hell know. It can feed itself but if the sanctions stay it place it can't sell anything to its biggest customers. And China isn't the biggest of them and won't be for years yet (not enough infrastructure in place for one thing.) For example 70% of Russia's oil exports go west. Only 18% goes to china and Putin can't just snap his fingers and change that ratio around.

 

The lack of substance and your constant divisive rhetoric says a lot about you. Might have to start calling you baby Trump, always lashing out and always divisive.

 

I don't doubt he expected and planned on some of this but I doubt he planned on being this ineffective militarily. I'm sure he thought he would be negotiating with the West by now.

 

At minimum I would guess he's going to want to secure a large chunk of southern Ukraine so that the Crimean peninsula has a deep land bridge back to Russia via the previously captured regions. If this is so that would means something like almost 1/3 of Ukrainian territory is gone.

 

Agree the West can crush Putin and Russia right now by cutting off his oil exports. Energy is his national security; we should cut the head off the snake but I'm not sure America and Biden are willing to do it.

 

As I've said previously given enough time yes. But sanctions are slow. This hole situation is unprecedented and who knows where it's going to go next.

 

The US investment in Russian oil trade is done through private company. Many are now cutting their ties with Gazprom and other russians oil co, like BP, Shell and the Norvegian company did. It's the same with Nordstream 1. The german gov want it shutdown but the operator E.On refused. We'll see if they make a political move to force it to do it.

 

Not with the consequences that Russia is undergoing right now.

China is not willing to pay such a high price for an island that isn't even a security issue.

 

Yes I saw Shell pulled out it's 20% stake in Russian oil at an estimated cost of 25 billion. The western world governments need to finish this off and for the Russian people and Western Freedom, end Putin once and for all.

 

I agree! See, we can be on the same side sometime

 

I almost totally agree, one thing that's for sure is they are watching closely and the West standing up and uniting has to be a serious deterrent in their planning.

 

Agree 100%, and the instigators on this board and in our government need to be ignored. We all understand the stakes, we can all give a little for the better good. Most want green energy but also understand we're not quite there yet. Let's strive for the green goal and at the same time use our energy sources to inspire peace vs tyrants.

 

BP did the same as did the French oil giant, and Exxon is expected to follow the lead.

We are not, but some other countries are getting close. Norway, which is an oil producer, gets 98% of their energy needs from renewables, and Germany will be at 80% in 8 years.

 

We could be a lot Greener if we would follow the French model and use Nuclear but of course it's political. I hope Germany is 80% in 8 years, but I doubt that simply due to the fact that they're building the oil pipeline from Russia right now. I think everyone is second guessing that decision now. Hopefully we are learning the ways of a REAL Tyrant and will end this now before he or anyone can expand.

 

Germany is at 60% today, and the Russian gas covers only 7% of their total energy needs. In the end Putin and Russia will be the only ones really hurting.

 

You think the west will completely ruin their own economies by severely sanctioning China? It’s one thing to sanction Russia who has been slapped around with sanctions for years and whose only real benefit to the world is their oil production... and it’s quite another thing cutting off one of the top 2 or 3 trading partners of essentially every single country in the west.

You think the west will do that for Taiwan? Hell the west won’t even stop buying Russian oil after they invaded Ukraine.

And what do you think is going to happen if the US does so? I’ll tell you. The Chinese are going to call due the MASSIVE debt that we owe them and we won’t be able to pay.

So that won’t happen. If you think Biden has been cucked by Russia so far... let China invade Taiwan and Biden will do nothing. Because he can’t afford it.