No one wants to trade in the ruble and it is worthless outside Russia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr_ipI37oVs&ab_channel=JoeBlogs

India, China, and most countries trading with Russia will not accept rubles, and the ruble's value against other currencies is largely fictitious. People are beginning to have bank accounts in Russia in yuan as rubles are useless.

They will probably work around it. Russia's growth rate, despite sanctions, has risen. Say what you like about Russians, they are resilient.

The Russians still have plenty to barter with for weapons. Their credit is still good in India, China, Iran, North Korea etc. Very neighbourly of them to help out a friend with the unprovoked invasion of a democratic nation.

Hi Shadow Minister,

I keep hoping that the Russian people will eventually
revolt against Putin's regime. But look at what's
happening with the Presidential elections in the US.
Perhaps the Russian people will overcome their fears
when their economy goes down the gurgler.

ttbn,

Russia's GDP is growing, but the economy is in dire straits for several reasons:

1 Expenditure vastly outpaces income by about US$5bn per month meaning that growth is financed out of reserves which are running out.
2 About 40% of expenditure is spent on the war leaving little for health, education, welfare or infrastructure maintenance.
3 The huge war expenditure is paying military salaries and compensation for dead soldiers and producing weapons that will be destroyed in Ukraine and do nothing for the future of the country like roads or bridges would.
4 The Ruble is crashing.

Remember that Russia's economy is only slightly larger than Aus's

SM

You are clearly more interested in Russia than I am, and I accept what you say.

But, your second point is the sticker. Russia spends 6.5% of GDP on its military, whereas Australia, with a similar sized economy, spends barely 2%. I don't think that it has actually reached 2% yet, despite all the politicians’ promises.

Now, I don't think there is any Russia-Australia problem, apart from the outbreak of another world war, but Russia takes its fighting/military capability far more seriously than the West does. And, remember who their allies are. Even our pal, India, won't say boo about Russia.

FESTER makes the point on that situation

ttbn,

Russia's expenditure on the military has roughly doubled.

Prior to the war, it was estimated that 40% of the military budget in Russia was embezzled hence the cheap Chinese tyres on their vehicles which failed after a few 100km. The rest makes up 1/20th of what the US military budget is.

Russia's R&D on the military was cut thus the complete failures that were the SU57 joke of a "stealth" aircraft and the hopeless T14 Armata tank.

Even then with full mobilization, Russia is losing far more tanks planes artillery systems than it can replace.

Russia is on a clock and is getting weaker every day.

Russia is losing this war.

Russia’s economy once again defies the doomsayers
http://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/10/russias-economy-once-again-defies-the-doomsayers
>>As new trading relationships have bedded in, Russian exporters have dared to raise prices, supporting revenues and profits. The discount on oil Russia offers to Chinese customers, for instance, has fallen from more than 10% in early 2022 to about 5% today. And it is not just oil. Mr Putin boasts about soaring ice-cream exports to China, noting last week that he “treated my friend, President Xi Jinping”, to a lick.

As every Russian knows, inflation is never truly defeated. Central-bank officials continue to fret that inflation expectations remain too high. The biggest worry is that the rouble may depreciate, either because of lower oil prices, another round of serious sanctions or if China loses interest in supporting Mr Putin. These are serious concerns. Nevertheless, the world’s pariah economy is once again back on track.<<

http://youtu.be/_U0PKMWu-5w
Complete Imminent Collapse Of The Frontlines - The Hard Truth - Ukraine War Map Analysis & News

http://youtu.be/_q5oufQTSOM
Russian T-72B3 Destroys US-Made M1 Abrams as Russia's Strategy of Attrition Grinds Ukraine Down

Ukraine is out of weapons, out of ammo, out of men.
Russia are gaining territory all across the line of contact and there's dead Ukrainians everywhere.
http://www.youtube.com/@militarysummary/videos

Baldrick,

No one trades in Rubles anymore

"The price at which Russia sells its oil has declined markedly since the second phase began. The shift reflects the effects of reduced oil prices globally over this period, but also a significant widening in the discount Russia earns relative to other global oil suppliers. That discount rose from a low of $12 to $13 per barrel of crude oil in October to about $19 per barrel over the past month.

Energy market participants, analysts, and even Putin’s own oil czar have linked the rising discount on Russian oil to the Coalition’s increased enforcement activities reflected in the second phase of the price cap—clear evidence that this second phase is working.

Russian oil export volumes have remained stable in recent months. The price cap is helping maintain a steady supply of energy to global consumers and businesses. At the same time, the price cap, along with key sanctions enforcement measures, is reducing Putin’s profits from selling that oil."

http://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/phase-two-of-the-price-cap-on-russian-oil-two-years-after-putins-invasion

Russia's oil production has fallen 20% from 11BB/day to 9BB/day

gas sales have dropped 60% and Russia is not exporting refined products. Probably due to the daily hits on Russian refineries by Ukrainian drones

As for your claims of the Ukrainian army, you have claimed their complete destruction 6 times over 2 years but they continue killing Russians by the hundreds every day.

An article (not Google ravings) I read this morning suggests that, despite Russia's isolation, sanctions and more than 80,000 deaths in Ukraine, Putin still enjoys the support of a “critical mass of his people”, with whom he shares “a vision of Russia as a strong powerful nation which the West is determined to destroy”.

This, even though Putin has “made a fetish” of defending a Russian national sovereignty “that none one had attempted to destroy”. And the fact that despite his attempt to halt NATO expansion he has extended it to “a formerly neutral Sweden and Finland.

But, it is reported, the average Russian household at the end of 2023 had about “18 percent more money in the bank” than they did the previous year. In the poorest areas of Russia, where 33% of the population live below the poverty line. You would expect a cheer for Putin from them. Even though these areas provide most of the soldiers to fight in Russia, there are 5 million rules in compensation for every soldier killed.

Only Russians have ever understood themselves and their country.

ttbn,

The reality is that the families of those 400,000 Russian soldiers killed or maimed are seldom paid any compensation due to the maze of paperwork needed to claim compensation.

"Some have lost a limb or their life, others their freedom. But in multiple cases, Russian contract soldiers and their families have received none of the benefits promised by the state for signing up to fight in Ukraine -- no combat bonus pay, no pardons of convictions, no compensation for injury or death, and no documentation to prove they ever fought at all, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, has found.

The findings are based on evidence that includes conversations that Systema and Current Time conducted with soldiers, former soldiers, and relatives.

The hundreds of thousands of people who have signed agreements with the Russian Defense Ministry to fight in Ukraine play a crucial role in the Kremlin’s efforts to maintain manpower without resorting to a mass call-up like the one President Vladimir Putin ordered in September 2022. That mobilization proved highly unpopular, prompting large numbers of young Russians to flee the country, and analysts say Putin is particularly wary of such a move ahead of the March 2024 presidential election."

As for the Russian economy, the figures from the Russian Reserve Bank show the shrinking revenues and soaring war expenditures that are chewing up Russia's reserves are not sustainable. The revenues from selling ice cream to China are insignificant. It doesn't help that more than 1000,000 of Russia's best and brightest have fled the country.

Russia cannot replace the planes, tanks etc that are being destroyed while the EU is ramping up production of 155mm ammo etc, supplying F16s Grippens and other aircraft on an ongoing basis while Russia is using antique T55s and T62s.

Russia is losing this war.

The Ruble was never global currency.

Russia was and remains a third world economy with a couple of first world cities and first world weapons. It never recovered from Stalin's purges and the people have always lived a frugal life. Take yourself 30 minutes out of Moscow and you may as well be living in the slums of the Philippines.

The feed-back I get from my Russian acquaintances is that things are no better or worse than they were before the war. When you live in a frugal state there isn't much room for things to get worse and they haven't. The feed-back is that the death toll is noticeable, particularly outside Moscow and efforts to avoid being sent to the front are strenuous. But overall, the people are somewhat supportive of the war.

The Ruble will never be world currency. Russia is rushing headlong into becoming vassal state of the Han Empire.

Whether Russia is winning the war depends on how you define winning. Putin originally said he wanted to keep NATO away from Russia's borders. Well he's already lost on that front. Instead he has NATO vastly strengthened, Europe gearing up to face Russia, Sweden now in the fold, Poland racing to becoming the pre-eminent force in Europe.

Putin might end up with new territory and new peoples to immiserate, and he'll call that victory. But the war's been a disaster for the Russia's future.

"Russia cannot replace the planes, tanks etc"

Uralvagonzavod sent a new batch of T-90M Proryv tanks to the troops - March 12, 2024
http://en.topwar.ru/238189-uralvagonzavod-otpravil-v-vojska-novuju-partiju-tankov-t-90m-proryv.html

>>New party tanks The T-90M "Breakthrough" went to the troops, the equipment was shipped by Uralvagonzavod. This time, before the departure of the train with tanks, a concert was held at the plant. This was reported by the press service of Rostec.

A batch of new T-90M Proryv tanks was sent by Russian military railway. The quantity of equipment is not stated, but it is noted that the shipment took place within the framework of the state defense order, before sending the train to the military, a concert was held at the plant, Denis Maidanov, the group “Zemlyane” and other Russian artists performed for the plant workers.<<

When's Ukraines next batch of planes and tanks?
I heard the first lot of F-16s has been reduced to 6 in total.

Baldrick,

Posting Russian propaganda about delivering a handful of T90 (an upgrade on the 1970s T72s) is not a replacement for the 100s of tanks Russia has lost even in the last few months.

What Russia hasn't come close to replacing either are the ships and aircraft that have been destroyed. The massive damage to the oil refineries and storage depots (6 hits a night ago)

Russia is slowly bleeding out and the US is starting to send equipment to Ukraine.

Russia is losing this war

Don't worry about Russia.
You should be focusing on your sides ability to replace its losses.
Weapons, ammo, men...

Ukraine needs 35,000 men a month and is lucky to recruit half of that whilst Russia has a pool of some 30,000 volunteers every month.

Russia thanks the Ukrainians for attacking the refineries btw.
It immediately pushed up the price of crude and had the opposite effect of increasing Russian export revenues.

Every single plan these Western halfwits have engaged in has gone badly.

Their overthrow went bad when Putin check-mated by taking Crimea.
The Ukrainians attack on their own Russia speaking citizens went bad when Russia intervened, which the stupid West wanted.
But it was never about helping Ukraine beat Russia militarily, this was not the plan, the plan was that the sanctions would have such an effect that it would lead to Putin's ousting.

You see some of this Macron business?
He wanted to send troops but all the other Europeans backed away.
He wanted Washingtons backing but they said 'Hell No, we're not going to send US troops to save you when it all goes south'

Ukraine's done.
That's why Europe is panicking.

And America has gone back to it's old ways trying to appeal to the oligarchs to help remove Putin, but no-one in Russia is listening anymore.

Ukraine gets weaker, while Russia gets stronger.
Just like the multipolar world is getting stronger while the collective west is getting weaker.

The West can't even stop the Houthis, and somehow you think they can win a war against Russia, China, Iran, even Saudi Arabia is a part of BRICS+ and the US is engaging in an oil war with OPEC+.
They attack their own allies energy infrastructure.

They provide the weapons to Israel to facilitate a genocide
Then pretend to care with humanitarian airdrops and planned pier.
It's all bs, they could just demand Israel allow humanitarian trucks through or not give them anymore weapons.

The west is weak and morally bankrupt.
- Which is why they won't win any wars.

I see that the Pope has suggested that Ukraine throw in the towel.

That's the only wise thing that he has uttered in his career as the worst Pope in living memory.

The real villain is not Putin (who is plenty bad enough), but the Ukrainian President, strutting the world stage in a T-shirt while his country and people are being blown to bits.

"That's the only wise thing that he has uttered in his career as the worst Pope in living memory."

Lol, yes quite possibly.

"The real villain is not Putin (who is plenty bad enough), but the Ukrainian President, strutting the world stage in a T-shirt while his country and people are being blown to bits."

Do you know the Ukrainian people overwhelmingly voted against war?

- way back when -

...When Zelensky campaigned for President,
he swore to get get down on his knees and beg (Putin)
- if that's what it meant to have peace.
And then foreign interests and Ukrainian nationalists said 'No sorry you've been misinformed' you do what WE say.

true story

I may support Russia, but the West really did screw Ukraine over.
They were negotiating peace and the collective west stopped it.
Told them they'd support them 'As long as it takes'.
They've helped them to not lose completely just yet, but never enough to win.
They don't even have the ability to do so.

They're just going to keep sending men to die to try to stave off a Ukrainian loss for Biden at the polls.
It's completely pointless.
And Russia will take more territory.

Baldrick,

What a lot of bollocks. You said "The Ukrainian people overwhelmingly voted against war" They had no choice as Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Moron.

Russia has zero volunteers as all are forcibly conscripted.

Baldrick,

So you think it's wise to let Putin enslave your citizens? Apparently, no one else does, which is why the pope is desperately trying to rescue his credibility by backpedalling at 100 mph.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has been attacking Russia's fuel depots and refineries with their new drones with a >1000km range. With fires burning wildly as far as St Petersburg and Moscow, damage from a few $m to a few $bn and about 13% of Russia's refining capacity knocked out. And that's only in a week.

Luckily Ukraine is churning out a few 100,000 more.

Putin after stealing yet another election is looking weak as Russian patriots capture Belgorod and his refineries are burning

Russia is losing this war.

You two blokes have a weird fixation on the Russia/Ukraine business: something you can't do a damn thing about. You might enjoy your sparring, but it’s all a waste of time.

The country where you actually get to vote has enough problems for you to "solve".

And, no, AC. I don't know if they voted against war. Do you?

Macron ‘panicked’ over leaked Ukraine reports – Marianne
http://www.rt.com/news/594168-french-military-reports-ukraine/

And yes, Zelensky campaigned on a platform of peace with the Russians

I don't see anything a out voting against war.

The leaked French report above says 30,000 volunteers in Russia per month btw.

"So you think it's wise to let Putin enslave your citizens?"
What exactly are you referring to?
Impositions of an autocrat have both positives and negatives, one of them being opposition groups and Western NGO's and free speech need to be kept on a short leash because the west uses them to conduct overthrows.

America screams 'They hate us because of our freedoms'
So the country in question tries to give its citizens freedoms, and then America uses this as weak points for which to drive a wedge and create protests and civil unrest. Then the autocrat cracks down on these movements, and the heavy handedness required is plastered all over western tv's as proof they're 'evil dictators' and the liberal intervention is justified, for the people, when it was just a large minority they stirred up to get out on the streets.

If you don't understand the lay of the land then you're an idiot.
It's just conquest and imperialism by another name.
- And the West are warmongering weasels trying to conquer the whole planet.

"Putin after stealing yet another election is looking weak as Russian patriots capture Belgorod and his refineries are burning"

Putin didn't have to steal anything.
The Russian people support their leader more than our citizens support theirs.

Here's your refineries - Supply shocks increase the price of crude for Russia - Think of it as an OPEC+ production cut.
(And increased US gas prices will see Biden out of office; andTrumps vowed not to give a penny to Ukraine, and Europe can't keep it afloat on its own.)
Watch 2 minutes of this...
http://youtu.be/qk8Y5ItjRoE

And here's your 'Russian patriots' dead all over the place and a few running away getting hit by drones
http://www.rt.com/russia/594352-belgorod-ukraine-incursion-kozinka/

Hi ttbn,
"I don't see anything about voting against war."
- It wasn't in the link sorry.

But it is well known that Zelensky campaigned on a platform of peace with the Russians and an end to the hostilities in the Donbass.
He apparently stated he would kneel at Putins feet and beg for peace or something, and then he won and became President.

Ukraine’s leader stood on platform of peace, but finds himself on brink of war - 20 Feb 2022
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/ukraines-leader-stood-on-platform-of-peace-but-finds-himself-on-brink-war

"When Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to become Ukraine’s president he stood on a platform of peace. Zelenskiy promised to sit down with Vladimir Putin and to reach a deal with Russia. He would end the unpopular war in the east and concentrate on important domestic reforms. These included ridding the country of corruption and oligarchs."

- Zelensky won on a platform of peace - promising an end to the hostilities in the Donbass.
This is what the Ukrainians voted for in 2019, (but the West had other plans)

"The country where you actually get to vote has enough problems for you to 'solve'."
- What am I supposed to do with Albo, Dutton, and the Greens?
Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?

AC

“But it is well known …..” is an old trick, used even by academics who should and do know better, in the hope that the claim will be accepted.

But, I don't think that any “campaign” by Z is well known at all.

But our problem here is that you used a ‘junk’ reference that had nothing to do with your claim that the war was voted against; which brings us back to ‘did they actually vote against the war’.

Your Guardian reference is an un-attributed report, full of quotation marks, but nothing on how it was derived - if you like, no evidence that there's a word of truth in it.

Also, it is too long for the average reader to take time over.

I know you like using references. But you could be in trouble if someone actually reads them.

References to third parties must come with information about what research they did to back what they say.

On your second post, the characters you refer to ARE the problem, not just part of it.

You ask what you are supposed to do with them.

Don't vote for them. There are other choices. I have no trouble in casting a formal vote by putting the three you refer to on the bottom.

Baldrick,

Every time you mention a "leaked report" I know that you are lying especially when there is no other link to this "report" on the web Virtually no one is volunteering to die in Ukraine, and none of Putin's promised money ever appears.

This is your source: http://www.quora.com/From-the-leaked-French-reports-Ukraine-cant-win-this-war-militarily-and-Russia-has-over-30-000-volunteers-a-month-while-Ukraine-cant-get-half-that-number-Shouldnt-peace-negotiations-start-soon-before-Ukraine-loses

Secondly, it is the Russian soldiers running away from the Russian patriots, with plenty of dead Russians as the patriots advance.

Thirdly, as Russia wasn't exporting its refined oil the destruction of the refineries was destroying local supply. P.S. 3 more refineries were hit last night. Russian oil prices and sales have plummeted since the West has been given huge fines to shipping companies that have paid more than $60/barrel.

Volensky did stand on a platform of peace, it was Putin that illegally started the war.

The West is now confiscating 10s of $bns of Russian assets in the West including all Russian refineries in western Europe.

Russia is losing this war.

I see that Putin won 88% of the vote. However, given the level of rigging and outright fraud, Putin could have published the results ahead of time.

No way can Putin consider himself legitimately elected.

Only 88%. Most dictators get 98%.

Why do non-Western countries bother with the election shams, when the result is a foregone conclusion.

The end of the war is the most dangerous part.
The Ukrainians are getting desperate.
Still a few months maybe until Ukraine collapses.
Your arguments that Ukraine is achieving something are actually an advertisement that things aren't going well.

I'll tell you all something.
If everyone keeps running around saying Putin is the second coming of Hitler and that the west cannot negotiate with a terrorist....

Speaking like this - those same people saying that are making WWIII inevitable.
Think about it.

Only a fool would risk a nuclear war.

And as for Ukraine, there's now almost zero men left in the villages.
Seems the Kiev regime decided to take them first, to minimise pushback in the populated centres.

Its only "illegal" because the West decided 'to say' it was.
What about Syria, I'm sure you'll tell me that's perfectly legal too?
Why not just take the whole country? (military intervention)
Ahhh, that was the plan wasn't it?
Tell me it's legal.

How many times must I explain it.
The DPR and LPR wanted independence.
Putin supported them in a wish for 'autonomy'
(i.e - internal right to self determination - Minsk agreements)
Kiev kept bombing them and calling them terrorists
They lost any right to rule over these people
Russia accepted their call for independence.
(external right to self determination)
Then Russia entered the war under the 'right of collective self-defense' on the side of the DPR and LPR.

Who set this precedent?
The US / NATO did themselves years earlier
- When it went into Kosovo / Serbia / Yugoslavia under the same pretext.

Watch this
The West has been active in placing agents in Ukraine to undermine Russia (then USSR) since the end of WWII, this was is more or less a culmination of that, than something actually new.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EZg8mPatv4

China Braces For EU Bombshell As Russia’s Oil Revenues SURGE By 80%
http://youtu.be/yeYo3zaGxfY

Baldrick,

You always manage to post the biggest collection of bullsh1t. I see that you have posted that Ukraine is collapsing for the 9th time in 2 years yet Russians are still dying in their 1000s, their planes are still being shot down and their tanks and APVs are still blowing up with their passengers. Ukrainian drones hit another 3 refineries last night and an s400 battery this week.

How stupid and gullible can you be to claim Russian oil revenues are climbing by 80% when oil pumped has dropped by 20% selling at a nearly 20% discount, refined products are not exported and gas sales have dropped by > 60%.

Russia is losing this war.

I don't even bother talking about Ukrainian territory lost, or the amount of Patriots and HIMARS Ukraine has been losing lately.

Keep targeting the refineries, it makes no difference.
Well all be paying through the nose, Aussie businesses will go bust, as will Biden in November, and the war will be over as Trump has pledged 'not one penny to Ukraine'.

You're flopping around in your quicksand SM
Stop struggling or you'll make your situation worse.

Every military analyst in the world worth a crap knows Ukraines military position is futile. Unwinnable.
They don't have the weapons, they don't have the men.

FFS mate, the West including 31 countries of NATO + more send hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine and talked up their great counteroffensive.

And what did the West achieve?

Robotyne.

A piece of crap abandoned village, with about 2 dozen houses in it tops.
A village that probably doesn't even have gas connected, nor running water or sewerage.
- That's it, that's all you achieved and half a million dead.
Oh and btw, Russia has mostly recaptured Robotyne last I checked.
So you achieved nothing, just got all the Ukrainians killed for the hell of it.

And I told you 2 years ago, China won't let Russia capitulate because they will be next.
If they don't hang together they'll hang separately.
You think Russia, China, Iran will lose BRICS and everything over a war in Ukraine when NATO and the Collective West is already on the ropes and out of ammo, can't keep up production, and at point of sending their own troops.

Told you, the wars already lost, and plenty of others concur.

You're in dreamland.

Baldrick

In 2 years Russia has damaged 2 HIMARS and 2 patriot missile carriers (zero patriot missile detector systems) and Russia has now lost over 400,000 soldiers 4x that of the Ukrainians. You have been claiming that Russia has won many times but have been lying all the time.

The only Russians in Robotyne are dead and 6000 have been killed in the last week in the East.

New weapons from the US and EU are flooding into Ukraine.

Russia is losing the war.

New weapons from the US and EU are flooding into Ukraine.

http://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3704975/biden-administration-announces-urgent-security-assistance-for-ukraine/

"U.S. leadership is essential to sustaining the historic efforts of some 50 allies and partners from around the globe that have committed more than $87 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked, full-scale invasion in February 2022 – a war of choice that continues to undermine global security and stability.

Security assistance for Ukraine remains a smart investment in our national security. It deters potential aggression elsewhere in the world, while strengthening our defense industrial base and creating highly skilled jobs for the American people. The current supplemental request includes over $50 billion that could be invested in the United States. Funding from previous supplementals has enabled DoD to invest over $30 billion across nearly 40 states."

War in Ukraine has created 30 bln in investment across 40 states?
And hopefully another 50 bln more?
Great way to prop up your profits and economy this war, don't forget good ol Blackrock buying up everything in Ukraine for cents on the dollar.

Good for Jobs, Good for the economy, Great for Western bankers.
Great way to attack your competitors / adversaries and expand your empire, this war.

Not to mention blow up Nordstream
I can't figure out how they convinced Germany to commit economic suicide and not say a damn thing about it, and I can't understand how they managed to convince all the stupid multinationals to leave Russia, like they were promised the government would collapse or something.

Like somehow Russians were going to kick Putin out without access to McDonalds, Starbucks and expensive french handbags and designer clothes.

Baldrick,

As thick as a plank. It has taken you 2 years to realise that the Western world is ramping up its military equipment and ammunition production. The 51 countries supporting Ukraine have more than 50x the GDP of Russia's pathetic economy which is why Russians are being massacred now.

As for Nordstream, just before it was destroyed, 2 Russian naval ships and a submersible were being tracked (with their transponders switched off) just above the explosion site. This is why Russia is strongly suspected of the sabotage and the insurers have refused to pay out on the Russian insurance claim.

Germany is doing just fine with natural gas from Norway and LNG from the rest of the world at rates similar to those from Russia. Germany or Europe will never allow Russia to threaten them again and Russian gas will need to find a new home.

Russia's nationalisation/theft of the assets of foreign companies means that no foreign businesses will return to Russia for many decades as Russia's ethics stink. Russians haven't kicked out Putin mainly because he has a gun to their heads.

Meanwhile, Russia's oil refineries and other facilities are being bombed by Ukraine daily causing $bns in damages.

Russia's economy is circling the drain and Russia is losing this war.

Putins approval rating was 84%
He won the election with 87% support
And 77% of Russians voted, none with a gun to their head.

There were 4 candidates running.
How many candidates can we choose from to pick our leader?
None worth supporting and both want wars with Russia and China and a million immigrants per year.
No bloody choice at all, they're both lying scum.

Don't criticise Russias democracy when we don't even have anyone worth voting for, we don't choose who runs the political parties do and our choice is idiot #1 or idiot #2

You are just a western shill who wanted Navalny to sell off all Russias resources to western funds managers.

You're on team 'overthrow elected governments, sanction and undermine your competitors and steal from and murder those you claim to want to liberate'.