The West preparing to self-fulfil their prophecy about the invasion of the Baltics?
They are empty and worthless and are just doing this because they are ordered to by Washington.
That´s an old myth. It looks like that because Gorbi and Jelzin let it all break apart. After that all of the investment was lost. But the same would be true for any part of Russia declaring "independence". Then people would say that all the money spend in Wladiwostok or Krasnodar was a drain for the rest of the country.
Not the same.
A good example would be the Crimea... a popular holiday destination for Russians... when it was under the control of Kiev money was extracted from their economy and not invested back into infrastructure and investment in the region... they were bleeding it dry of revenue and stealing assets.
With the Crimea part of Russia it is no longer being bled of funds so as the boss in the Crimea remarked he had 10 times more money to spend on the Crimea than he had under Kiev because Russia was not taking the income away from them.
With the Baltic states being ports and rail lines used by Russia to send things to that part of the world lots of goods and trade went through there that could otherwise have gone through other Russian ports and rail lines, but when the Baltic states jumped ship and started being hostile to Russia and changing history to suit that narrative Russia has stopped sending their freight through Baltic Ports and so the ports and the rail lines have suffered... which they obviously blame on Russia and not their own short sighted policies.
When they were part of the Soviet Union they were a connection to the west, but now with the west and Russia splitting apart they are becoming a dead end attraction at the end of a very long dirt road that most people have no interest in seeing.
They are now doing all this to show the west how to hurt Russia and Russians and for a short while the west will think they are relevant but once everyone has done their part and Russia adapts its communications links with Kaliningrad, then there is only a slow lingering death for those little outposts of democracy, peace and justice.
Why invade when they are dead already.
They also have a coal power plant for backup.
And in good time they could float nuclear power stations there as required to boost electrical power supplies as needed...
If the ruble still remains stubbornly overvalued you might see a further increase in pensions and minimum wage. Say by 5%.
The government will thus increase money supply and put it directly at the bottom of the pyramid. Those hardest hit by price hikes. Not the top.
A very sensible thing to do... normally in the west money injections into the economy are normally directed at the already rich and big business with the intent that they increase wages and hire more staff... but they never do. Most of the money disappears into bank accounts for a rainy day...
The 750 billion the US paid to US banks who fucked up and would have gone bankrupt meant most of their CEOs got big bonuses that year... people who don't pay for anything... company car, company parking spot, company health insurance, company lunches, company holidays, etc etc that extra money probably just went into the bank and did nothing.
Paying the unemployed and elderly means it is more likely to be spent... when bank interest rates are so small it makes more sense to buy things you might need over the next 5 to 10 years... your oven on its last legs... your car a bit worn out and getting expensive every visit to the mechanic... washing machine making funny noises... even if you don't start using it right away it will be cheaper to buy a replacement now than in 5 years time, and if you put the money in the bank it will just get spent over time anyway...
Here in New Zealand, with the value of our dollar and the low price for fabrics we lost our fabric making industry and reverted to a fashion industry where we make designs and get companies in China or Asia to make the products to our specification and standards... they can simply make the clothes much cheaper than we could so it makes sense... they make them for a few dollars and charge us a few dollars more so they make a profit and then we get to buy the clothes for 10 times that price to pay the fashion designers...
We sometimes even provide the raw materials like Merino wool for instance is sent to China to make clothes by our design and then sent back to New Zealand to be sold to customers.
If Russia can make it cheaper than China can then why not do it... but that is not the profitable end of the game... it is the designer labels and cut and design that results in value and the price of clothes.
Of course for most people clothes are just clothes... I would rather have more pockets than for pants or tops to hang nicely...
I dont agree here. Baltics location is dangerous for Russia geographically as US weapons can be just placed there/ military or intel.
Turkey is closer to Moscow and Finland is closer to St Petersberg... anything threatening they put there is far enough away to be dealt with using nuclear weapons... so actually no danger at all.
Baltics shall be "recovered" from NATO to either friendly countries or...those who dont lik ecan emigrate somewhere else isnt it? (taht's what now Russian speaking population is going through)
Why... let them sink in the ship they have chosen...
Russia should not attack them, but equally should not offer them a hand out of the sinking ship they are throwing rocks from.
Respect their choices. Tell citizens of the Baltic states they can go through a vetting process and if they speak Russian and want to remain Russian they can get a plot of land somewhere and start again in Russia. Elderly can be given flats and full pensions if they want to move to Russia too... and then when all the ones who want to be Russian or are Russia friendly have left Russia can safely ignore those countries moving forward.
It is not Russias problem to fix their problem or help them regarding the choices they have made... the EU solution to their loss of population could be more immigrants... both the EU and the Baltic States would love that solution.
The problem is that this all has to go through SWIFT and EUROCLEAR. SWIFT afaik works only in USD... so until new system is created money can be stuck...
No it does not, but even if it did we are talking about EU countries getting two bank accounts in a Russian bank... one bank account they can pay their money for gas payments and that might be in Euros or US dollars, but their other account in that same Russian bank is in Rubles... so they pay in their western currency and it is converted by the Russian bank into rubles and paid into the ruble account which Gazprom is paid for gas in rubles from.
The problem mentioned is that this will result in that Russian bank... which ever they decide to use, to end up with lots of western currency that they are initially paid in.
It also means the Russians control the exchange rate, which is also a good thing.
That Russian bank getting western currencies could then take ruble dividends from Russian companies and pay out to foreign investors in those western currencies they received for gas payments directly bank to bank... they can work out their own means of money transfer, but suggesting the west could freeze the money from the Russian bank will simply result in that bank refusing EU money... Gasprom wont get paid and the gas supplies to the EU will stop... I don't think the west is ready for that just yet.
Sure but you need swift/Euroclear to move anything ... so you can have a lot in balance and cannot use it.
SWIFT was only put into practise in 1973... international inter bank transactions took place before then, and now that the west is abusing its power over that system alteratives will be created for use where it can not longer be used.
It is just a communication system of codes that idenfies every bank and every region to facilitate notification of transactions... it is not magic.