Not Russia. 100% of their reserves are stored in-country.
It’s remarkable that The French president is speaking so bluntly. Macron is saying the same things we’ve discussed in this thread. Trump is playing a shell game and can’t be trusted.
I’m relieved, Volodymyr Zelensky is being warned security guarantees from Washington have little or no value. It’s even worse because the Ukrainians are reading translations. That makes it even easier to double-speak and deceive Ukraine.
Long article. I only quoted some of Macron’s warning to Zelensky.
The Europeans are not stupid. They know trump is a de facto Russian agent. Or at minimum is simply a self-dealing extortionist and Ukraine ain’t signing up to be extorted.
The question is whether they’re willing to bear the full costs of Ukraine’s defense indefinitely. Brave words are cheaper than brave acts or even just generous ones. Democracies famously have shorter attention spans for arduous tasks than do the authoritarians they’re contending with.
These sorts of speeches are certainly better than the alternative. But let’s wait for deeds before declaring victory over Putrumpism.
No doubt Volodymyr Zelensky can smell Trump’s bullshit.
Ukraine already got betrayed with the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, signed on December 5, 1994. Not much has changed in thirty years.
Well yes, of course he can. Literally everyone on Earth who’s not a MAGAnaut can.
The problem isn’t Zelenskyy unknowingly stepping into a trumpy trap. The problem is getting the rest of the world to actually step up and replace the USA’s contributions, not just talk about doing so. All in the face of US treachery emanating from the White House.
He is a de facto Russian agent because he’s self-dealing extortionist.
I recall my boss told our group, You better not come back sunburnt We went for software training and to meet other Universities that used the software.
Russia has lost 1 percent of its men to take just 1.45 percent of Ukrainian land.
And although old news, HIV rates are skyrocketing in Russia, too.
To be honest, Russia controls more than 1.45% of Ukrainian land. The article is miseading and too optimistic. And HIV kills them too slowly to be militarily relevant. Let’s not fall for propaganda: as long as trump is in Russia’s pocket, Ukraine has a problem.
Agreed, but I think the article was not saying that would be the case - they were saying that this problem is going to reverberate in Russia for the next 40 years, no matter what happens in Ukraine. Russia already had a problem with declining population and shitty health before the war; It’s a lot worse now.
You think Zelenskyy doesn’t already know that even better than Macron?
Yeah. I think the point was simply a crude, almost joking, comparison that at that rate the last Russian will be infected or dead from AIDS before they finish conquering Ukraine.
Clearly that’s a comparison of two inherently incomparable things. But it makes a great graphic or tagline.
On Sunday I came across this piece on Facebook.
indicating that Russia is having trouble paying its military. A sampling:
Roman Sheremeta writes:
“Russia can no longer afford to pay its soldiers.Yakutia has frozen all military bonuses after running out of funds — the first openly acknowledged budget collapse directly caused by mobilization. Finance Minister Ivan Alexeyev admitted: ‘Unfortunately, this is indeed our situation.’
Yakutia was one of the main sources of contract soldiers after 2022. To sustain mobilization, the region offered $29,000 for signing a contract. Now, officials cannot even estimate how much they owe military personnel.
[snip]
At the same time, Russia’s defense industry is cracking. The Yaroslavl Shipbuilding Plant, which manufactures landing and patrol vessels, has not paid salaries to 850 workers since late September, as the Ministry of Defence stopped settling contract payments. The plant has been under sanctions since 2019, further restricting financing.
Russia is trying to sustain a large-scale war using regional budgets — but those budgets are no longer holding.
The first wave of financial collapse has begun in the very regions Moscow has traditionally used for cannon fodder.
The piece concludes with "translated and adopted from Tymofiy Mylovanov” and I have no knowledge how reliable this source is. But it does tie in with reports of Russia selling off its gold reserves.
This would be the end for Russian expansionism but is too good to be fully true.
My understanding is that bonuses meant to be paid by local government are often delayed. But basic pay is paid.
Gaza phase 2?
What are the US security guarantees?
No one on Earth is stupid enough to believe a US security guarantee, existing or new, has any meaning whatsoever under trump.
WTF are you talking about?
I was asking about the purposed peace plan. US and Ukraine representatives met in Florida for three days and security guarantees was a big topic.
Of course, I realize Trump has no intentions to honor any agreement that he offers to Ukraine.
What’s in the peace plan could be interesting if Putin is dumb enough to reject it. Because it is supposed to be heavily biased in Russia’s favor.
This is what I don’t understand. If I’m Putin, why not just accept the peace deal to look good and curry favor with Trump, and then promptly keep attacking Ukraine again once Trump’s back is turned? There’s no reason not to do so.
Being THAT blatant about it would probably mobilize at least some countries in Europe (France especially) to intervene a lot more directly than they’d ever consider otherwise.
And you risk Trump deciding you made him look stupid and wanting to take revenge, not for the sake of Ukraine but for the sake of his wounded pride.
I’m sure Putin could easily persuade Trump, “We wanted to keep the peace deal, but the Ukrainians started attacking us and violating the deal, so we had to defend ourselves.” Blatant lying, but when did that ever fail to fool Trump.