Russia's Achilles Heels (Plural)

The Americn Thinker ^ | April 27, 2014 | Kim Zigfeld

[No One Special]

Whenever the horrifyingly precarious fundamentals of the Russian economy are pointed out to its apologists, the response is always the same. “Russia has low debt and high reserves, so it can weather any storm,” they chant, and the melody of the anthem of the USSR can be heard in the background.

This is the opposite of the truth. Far from being a strength, debt and reserves are Russia’s main Achilles heels. In Ukraine, they may prove Russia’s undoing.

Russia came under withering economic fire last week as it geared up for a broader war of aggression in Ukraine. Its stock market lost over 5% of its value, crashing through the 1300 barrier on the MICEX exchange, and the U.S. treasury secretary boldly stated that the U.S. would target Vladimir Putin’s personal assets if he launched an attack. S&P downgraded Russia’s credit rating due to massive capital flight, and every day that passed brought new revelations about measures at U.S. disposal to wreck havoc in the Russian banking sector.

World leaders piled on Putin with genuine zeal. The secretary-general of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation called Putin a “ridiculous hypocrite,” and the U.S. secretary of state called Putin a liar and a cheat who had “refused to take a single step” to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis. Russia found itself in the world’s financial cross hairs, with few defensive measures available in response. The Russian Central Bank panicked at the prospect of runaway inflation and clamped down hard, risking putting the economy into a death spiral as loans dry up and growth peters out.

As the Russia economics guru Anders Aslund points out, it’s simply mythology to imagine that Russia’s currency reserves are squirreled...

[wetphoenix]

Yep, bad economy, poverty, occupy Moscow and communists getting back to Kremlin on waves of public unrests.
What not to dream about?

[wolf78]

Aslund writes: “One month ago, the Western discussion on possible sanctions against Russia focused on whether they could be effective. During the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington April 12 to 13, the question was turned around: Do we really want to destroy Russia that fast?”

Yes. The time has come.

[elhombrelibre]

"Russia came under withering economic fire last week as it geared up for a broader war of aggression in Ukraine. Its stock market lost over 5% of its value, crashing through the 1300 barrier on the MICEX exchange, and the U.S. treasury secretary boldly stated that the U.S. would target Vladimir Putin’s personal assets if he launched an attack."

That's what I'm for. Take every penny that punk has that he's stolen from the Russian people. Put him on bread and water!

[elhombrelibre]

"Writing in leading Russian newspaper Vedemosti, economist Yevsey Gurevich points out that in its desperate bid to vie with the West, Russia is spending nearly five times more on its military as a share of GPD than does the average NATO member, and is planning even more dramatic increases. What this means is that just as in Soviet times, Russians are shouldering a far greater burden in the guns-or-butter tradeoff than those nations they are competing against. Gurevich warns: “[O]nly a highly developed country can act as a super power without harm to itself.” Russia isn’t a highly developed country, but rather one that relies on exports of raw materials to such countries in order to sustain itself."

I guess the Putinista cheerleaders never thought of that.

[Dubh_Ghlase]

They (the Russians) still have a lot of nukes, and the means to deliver them. Desperate, powerful people go to desperate measures when backed into a corner. Pooti-Poo may have just done that, and he’s just crazy enough to try to take the rest of the world down with him...

[primatreat]

We housed an Russian exchange student about 8 years ago. Her statement that “50 miles out from and big city the country is a waste land in absolute poverty” I confirmed this statement from a Russian family that keeps a boat at the same marina as my family keeps ours.

He 100% confirmed the students take on the state of the USSR. It is a Wild West!

[No One Special]

Check out the eyes:

[logi_cal869]

I honestly don’t understand the conservative take on undermining Russia.

GW (no conservative) squandered 2 terms’ worth of opportunity to reengage the Russians.

The Puppet is on track to repeat that, spearheaded by the Shrillary ‘Reset’ debacle.

Everyone can agree that China is the greatest threat on many levels, yet our government continues to encourage doing business there, shipping jobs/manufacturing (not to mention secrets...thanks Bill and, by consequence, GW, for not securing our network) and, worst of all, ignoring the most basic precept of all in regards to strategic thinking...

I’m not going to state what should be obvious. IMHO, bone up on Sun Tsu.

And insofar as all the hysteria about Russia’s actions on its borders and its own security & economic interests...eh, I’m just not going to address the hypocrisy. I have better things to do.

Creating a new Cold War just because the government wants it is, frankly, just plain stupid. We should be so lucky that when the day comes that it’s time to invade Mexico that Russia ‘winks & smiles’...

.02

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks No One Special.

[elhombrelibre]

You think he’s not one of the richest men in the world?

[elhombrelibre]

Who is creating a new cold war, the US and the rest of the nations who don’t want to be dominated by Putin, or Putin?

[elhombrelibre]

Putin really hurt Russia when it should have finally evolved to a free and democratic country he took it over for his own personal agenda. For that alone, he should pay.

[bert]

so long as oil and minerals are sold with a side of weapons, the rest is just temporary disruption.

[elhombrelibre]

"Putin’s KGB-state kleptocracy has 111 billionaires. Russia’s kleptocrats uniformly belong to Putin’s inner circle. They are owners of nominally private companies, members of his administration, or directors of state enterprises. These oligarchs operate behind a fog of secrecy and obfuscation that defy detection. International accounting firms have learned not to ask too many questions if they want to earn Russian money.

Among these kleptocrats, Vladimir Putin could well be the richest, but his wealth is carefully hidden. It is taboo and dangerous even to talk about. Forbes has not been able to estimate his fortune." http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/03/03/want-putins-attention-follow-his-money/

[bert]

No, Russia is unable to make the transition to modern society.

They had the advantages China has capitalized on
and just blew it away. The Russian society is defective

[elhombrelibre]

I used to think it wasn’t. But recent events and the inability to turn the corner away from autocracy in one form or another has made me wonder if their isn’t something very wrong in their culture.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I think conservative thinking is running about 10 years in the past right now.

It made big sense to build up China, while China was a laggard giant, with a massive population ready to be whipped into a conflagration of some sort by their (still communist) central authority.

There is a massive change now though, which nobody is yet recognizing: China is now on top.

China is now the largest exporter on the entire planet.

China’s unemployment rate is far lower than America’s unemployment rate.

Go into any store in any city, in any state in all of America. Find something you like, and pick it up. Look at it, it will very likely have been made ... IN CHINA.

America was not long ago, the world’s manufacturing kingpin.

What we have now, is the Republican Party has been taken over by a small set of very wealthy globalist sell-outs, who want all Americans to buy things from China.

The problem with that is: China gets stronger rapidly, that way.

To heck with that. America needs to get stronger.

Now.

Bring back manufacturing to America.

America is being sold out, by both parties.

We need to stand up strongly for our own country. America needs to lead once again.

That means, America needs to make things once again.

Return manufacturing to America.