More Bad News for Russia

[Chelseaboy]

Yes Doll,unlike in your Russia,this is an open forum with freedom of speech within reason.

When you buy this forum then you can control what people say.

So,until that highly unlikely event happens,if i  say things you don't like..tough....got it ?

[Doll]

Yes Doll,unlike in your Russia,this is an open forum with freedom of speech within reason.

When you buy this forum then you can control what people say.

So,until that highly unlikely event happens,if i  say things you don't like..tough....got it ?

http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=16877.0
If you need any sort of definition- call me
You need to learn what freedom of speech means

[Boethius]

What kind of question is it? What if i say yes to all?
The gun is relevant because ak 47 are widely spread all over the world, leave alone FSU

I have no idea why the availability of AK47's is relevant to the topic.  I don't know what you are trying to say.

[Doll]

I have no idea why the availability of AK47's is relevant to the topic.  I don't know what you are trying to say.

I am talking of weapon that is similar in FSU countries unless it is provided by other countris buy i doubt it  regarding Russia. You' re right, Russia  has very powerful weapon.
modern

[lordtiberius]

Who is Edward?  Is he another honest Russian?

[Boethius]

I am talking of weapon that is similar in FSU countries unless it is provided by other countris buy i doubt it  regarding Russia. You' re right, Russia  has very powerful weapon.
modern

I still don't know what you are trying to say. 


My original point was that the weaponry available to the Ukrainian army was Soviet era Kalashnikovs.  It was not the modern weaponry the terrorists are using.


Whether AK47's are available widely throughout the FSU is irrelevant to that point.

[Photo Guy]

Russia does have powerful weapons. But, does Russia want the world to fear the Russian government? Why? How does that help the Russian people? It doesn't help them. The government of Russia looks barbaric. Putin is ruining Russia.

[Misha]

What kind of question is it? What if i say yes to all?
The gun is relevant because ak 47 are widely spread all over the world, leave alone FSU

Yes, but it is no longer the standard issue for the Russian Federation Army. They now use other machine guns instead of the AK-47.

[Doll]

Who is Edward?  Is he another honest Russian?

hahahahahahahahah
I guess now

[jone]

Finally:  Among Bad News For Russia, there is Some GOOD news for Russia.

Russia's lower house of parliament rescinded the ban on advertising over the airwaves for Beer and Wine!

Apparently the original ban was created to curb the endemic and rampant alcoholism in Russia.  The rescission of the ban indicates a willingness on the part of the State to allow viewers to find their favorite beverages again.

Essentially, when things get bad, having a drunk and stuporous populace is an easier way to maintain control.  Now there's legislation I can really get behind!

[AC]

No, i have the direct connection to Edward

Edward Snowden?   

[AkMike]

Sociologist: Russians in biggest cities feel the most pain from crisis
2014/12/23 • Russia


 
Article by: Paul A. Goble

Russians living in the largest cities, the people who benefited the most from the oil-driven boom of the last decade, now feel the greatest concern about the impact on their lives of the economic crisis because they are better informed than those in smaller ones and rural areas, a pattern that suggests how Vladimir Putin may now proceed.

On the one hand, the Kremlin leader cannot afford to have social unrest emerge in Russia’s megalopolises, the places from which revolutionary movements have most often come, and thus will be compelled to take measures to try to limit the impact of the downturn on these places while putting in place the forces to suppress any risings.

But on the other, this pattern suggests that Putin may look to Russians in smaller cities and rural areas as a base of support, a turn that could lead him to adopt an even more traditionalist, nationalist and Orthodox set of policies than he has done so far in the hopes of shoring up his political base lest he lose support from this sector.

The Kremlin has been successful in retaining support, Gudkov says, by an “unprecedented” propaganda campaign which has “convinced Russians that “in the south-east of Ukraine a genocide of the Russian population is taking place and that the rulers of our country are doing everything possible to defend [those people].”

Russians really continue to believe the Kremlin’s version of events, but the economic crisis and the worsening of the standard of living in Russia is gradually leading ever more of them to reassess what they are hearing from government outlets, and that trend will continue as long as the economic decline does, the sociologist says.

Few Russians ( and a 'few flat line' Brits from another venue) get reliable information about sanctions and other events because “approximately 94-95 percent of them” get it from state television. Only 18 percent go on-line for news. But even the Internet is not the accurate source many believe: the government has blocked many sites and put up its own as well.

 
Nonetheless, Gudkov continues, public attitudes about the war in Ukraine are changing. “Earlier 74 percent of the residents of the country supported the participation of Russian forces in military actions on the territory of Ukraine. Now [only] 35-38 percent do.” And the number supporting the annexation of Crimea has fallen ten to fifteen percent as well.

More to the point, only five or six percent of Russians are prepared to make any material sacrifice for the annexation of Crimea or military actions in Ukraine now, the analyst continues.

Approximately 80 percent of Russians are now feeling the impact of sanctions and counter-sanctions, he says, although most do not recognize that they suffer more from the latter than the former. “The residents of the megalopolises are already beginning to understand this because such cities are more dependent on imports.”

“The highest level of concern is found in Moscow, the most educated and informed city. Here,” Gudkov says, “people clearly recognize the causes of the crisis and its dawning sad consequences.” But two-thirds of the Russian population live in small cities and villages, and there, people “continue to believe” the Kremlin’s notion of a Western conspiracy against Russia.

But and this may matter in the future, even in these places, “an awakening is beginning.” So far, most of those outside of Moscow are taking things in stride but that will change as the crisis spread, although Gudkov said he would not predict when it would embrace a large fraction of the country.

The Levada Center head stressed that what he was saying is being found by all pollsters. Pro-government ones like VTsIOM and FOM may try to put the best face on things, but even they are going to report this because the Kremlin has to be concerned about what is going on in order to be in a position to take action.

In any case, he concludes, sociologists aren’t “capable of forming public opinion. It has been formed by government propaganda” up to now, but in the near future, it will be shaped by something else: “the worsening economic situation.” And that change presages serious problems for the regime.
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/12/23/sociologist-russians-in-biggest-cities-feel-the-most-pain-from-crisis/

[AC]

excerpt
Unnecessary Sacrifice


24 November 2014   Alexander Podrabinek     
 
"Two-thirds of Russian citizens continue to support the food embargo imposed by the Russian government in August 2014 despite its negative impact on the country’s economy. According to writer Alexander Podrabinek, this phenomenon derives from a legacy of Soviet thinking, upbringing, and way of life."


http://www.imrussia.org/en/opinions/2091-unnecessary-sacrifice

[Doll]

Edward Snowden?   

Sure

[Doll]

Yes Doll,unlike in your Russia,this is an open forum with freedom of speech within reason.

When you buy this forum then you can control what people say.

So,until that highly unlikely event happens,if i  say things you don't like..tough....got it ?

UNLIKE  IN MY RUSSIA I AM surprised that here , in the BLESSED country with a  bunch of freedoms )))))) it is possible to openly call for killing a politician.
You need to really careful .
I am not kidding

[Misha]

UNLIKE  IN MY RUSSIA I AM surprised that here , in the BLESSED country with a  bunch of freedoms )))))) it is possible to openly call for killing a politician.
You need to really careful .
I am not kidding

Actually, he was merely surmising what the Russian populace would do if the economy collapses, which is not the same as "to openly call for killing a politician."

[Photo Guy]

I think bad politicians should be voted out of office, not killed. If Russia was a democracy, the citizens could theoretically vote Putin and Medvedev out of office. But, that's a joke, because Russia has a pseudo-democracy. It's really a dictatorship, like North Korea. If the politician is REALLY bad, death can be a good thing. For example: Hitler. 

[sleepycat]

UNLIKE  IN MY RUSSIA I AM surprised that here , in the BLESSED country with a  bunch of freedoms )))))) it is possible to openly call for killing a politician.

No one is advocating for the murder of huilo, because then huilo will become a martyr to all his crackpot supporters.

However there is no law against hoping for huilo to die in some painful or humiliating manner, is there?

[mendeleyev]

I am reminded of a couple of elderly women near the Lenin burial monstrosity on Red Square. They were saying prayers for Lenin and Stalin, and were asked how they could expect God to forgive two mass murderers. From the wisdom of their years they explained that no one is beyond God's mercy and forgiveness. All of us are sinners.

Personally the only prayer that I can muster for either man, and especially Stalin, is that the fires of hell burn brightest and hottest in their corners. However, as an Orthodox Christian I can also understand the principle of which they spoke.

[ghost of moon goddess]

Russia does have powerful weapons. But, does Russia want the world to fear the Russian government?

The answer is obviously yes. In general Russian population remain faithful to their deep-seated belief that respect can be gained by dishing out fear.

Why? How does that help the Russian people?

It would appear that for the Russian people, the fact of having a strong leader, who has influence on world affairs and who is feared (=respected), is of greater importance than the goals he pursues by using his power.

[mendeleyev]

There is a deep fear based on the knowledge that they lost the "Cold War." That fear is unfortunately reinforced by the "rape and pillage" of Russian assets by Western individuals and corporations in the period immediately following the fall of the CCCP. They fear that the West is just like the Nazi's in the idea of robbing Russian resources and forcing Russians into cheap labour.

We may scoff, but the fear is real. Unfortunately, Western corporate and financial actions when Russia was on her knees has fed into this. We earned some of this reputation, sadly.

[Anotherkiwi]

It would appear that for the Russian people, the fact of having a strong leader, who has influence on world affairs and who is feared (=respected), is of greater importance than the goals he pursues by using his power.

Part of the problem, of course, is that "his" people don't actually know what he's doing to achieve those goals.

[AkMike]

Russia's Natural Gas Sales Plummet: Is Russia Captive To European Buyers?

The received wisdom is that Europe cannot offend Russia because it depends so much on Russian natural gas. We have this backwards. It should be: Russia cannot offend Europe because it depends too much on sales of natural gas sales to Europe.

The third quarter  2014 audit report of Gazprom , the Russian national gas company, shows a substantial decline in sales of Russian natural gas to Europe. The audit report hides the magnitude of the 2014 third quarter decline by reporting only sales for the first nine months of 2013 and 2014, not third quarter to third quarter figures. But analysts can readily separate out the third quarter results by subtracting out the first two quarters for each year.


Here are the results: In Europe, Gazprom sold 6 billion cubic meters less in the third quarter of 2014 compared to third quarter of 2013 (from 40 billion cubic meters to 34 billion, or a loss of 15%). The smallest decline was for France (3%); the largest was for Rumania (a whopping 93%). Sales to Germany, Gazprom’s largest buyer, fell 14%. Notably, the delivery declines in those countries that engaged in back-flow sales to Ukraine, like Slovakia and Poland, were not greater than in other countries.

At average European prices, the 15% decline in sales means a third quarter decline of $2.2 billion from the European market.

Russian gas exports to Commonwealth of Independent States countries fell by 8 billion cubic meters (by 62%). This drop is explained by the collapse in third quarter sales to Ukraine from 8.5 billion cubic meters to zero. At a price of $300, the decline in revenue from Ukraine equals $2.5 billion for the third quarter.

The decline in Gazprom’s deliveries and revenues cut deeply into Russia’s export earnings. For the year 2013, Russia earned $73 billion from natural gas exports. If the third quarter declines in sales were to continue at the same pace for a year, Russia’s earnings from natural gas to Europe would fall by $10 billion, which equals 15% of gas export sales worldwide. The Russian budget and the financially-strapped Gazprom can’t afford dollar losses of this magnitude.

Gazprom’s auditors’ discussion of risk factors should send chills down the spines of its shareholders. They warn that if Gazprom must conform to Europe’s requirement that its production and transportation divisions be broken up (and its pipelines opened to third parties), Gazprom will lose its failing monopoly hold over the European market. The Gazprom report warns about the risks of transporting gas through Ukraine (without mentioning the war going on there), and offers the South Stream pipeline as a solution without mentioning that this project has been shelved.  Moreover, the auditors do not mention that Russian propaganda had flooded European media with warnings of the unreliability of transport through Ukraine. With respect to sanctions, Gazprom warns that they might “somewhat” complicate relations with partners, but that Gazprom is undertaking measures “to protect its business reputation.”

Russia’s dependence on the Ukrainian natural gas market (despite current complaints of nonpayments) has gone largely unnoticed. In the past, Gazprom sales to Ukraine have equaled about 20% of sales to Europe, making Ukraine a trading partner roughly equal to Germany. As the accompanying chart shows, Gazprom’s Ukraine gas market would disappear if Ukraine reformed its energy market to eliminate the waste that makes it one of the world’s least efficient energy users. It appears that reform of its energy market stands high on the to-do list of the new Ukrainian government.



http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/12/24/russias-natural-gas-sales-plummet-is-russia-captive-to-european-buyers/

[AkMike]

New Freshly updated satellite image of Krym w/o electricity !

[AkMike]

Warning! Contains Graphic Images !

Merry Christmas VVP.


Ice Cream, Corpses, and the Big Bear: Repatriating Dead Russians From Ukraine

http://news.vice.com/article/best-of-vice-news-2014-ice-cream-corpses-and-the-big-bear-repatriating-dead-russians-from-ukraine?utm_source=vicenewsfb