This is hilarious. Someone told me that in order to get around the restrictions on the buying of dollars, Russians are resorting to a fun trick: there are ads in the newspaper in the "Numismatist" section - will sell a $100 bill for 25,000 rubles.
This seems about right to me. People see the ruble as stabilized and the lay offs as temporary and the Russian people seem to be getting by right now. So there is a calm to the sanctions and the “military operation” for now.
What about those 160,000 conscripts that were just called up? Anyone talk with them about whether everything is looking groovy to them too? Maybe they can send tweets home to let the folks know how their "summer camp training" in Ukraine is shaping up. If they do not return home in pine box first, although the Ruskies pretty much just leave their dead by the roadside. Ukrainians are still in a tough spot, but - win or lose- there are still going to be a lot more dead Ruskies soon.
Rublegas:’ the world’s new resource-based reserve currency Rublegas is the commodity currency du jour and it isn’t nearly as complicated as NATO pretends. If Europe wants gas, all it needs to do is send its Euros to a Russian account inside Russia. Saddam, Gaddafi, Iran, Venezuela – they all tried but couldn’t do it. But Russia is on a different level altogether. The beauty of the game-changing, gas-for-rubles, geoeconomic jujitsu applied by Moscow is its stark simplicity. That’s the essence of less-is-more sophistication. Gazprombank will sell the foreign currency – dollars or euros – deposited by their customers on the Moscow Stock Exchange and credit it to different accounts in rubles within Gazprombank. What this means in practice is that foreign currency should be sent directly to Russia, and not accumulated in a foreign bank – where it can easily be held hostage, or frozen, for that matter. All these transactions from now on should be transferred to a Russian jurisdiction – thus eliminating the risk of payments being interrupted or outright blocked. https://thecradle.co/Article/columns/8638
The Russians, at least the ones in the Moscow area, seem to think the situation is temporary. Don’t know how that is going to work out and I’m sure whatever pain they are feeling is being felt farther out from Moscow. But these things have a way of having a slow creep, sort of like boiling frog. One day it’s a week delay on your meds the next youre trading your microwave and blender for an auto part.
(The Daily Upside) LABOR Russian Tech Workers Are Leaving For More Stable Pastures The costs of Putin’s war are vast and often incalculable, especially in Ukraine. But in Russia, they amount to more than just the sting of heavy Western sanctions. Increasingly, the cost of war includes talent. Young Russian workers, specifically in the tech field, are fleeing the nation in droves. In short, fears of ongoing political and economic instability have sparked a massive brain drain. From Russia, With a STEM Degree Young workers are fleeing to avoid possible conscription. Meanwhile, tech firms with international customers are relocating to avoid sanctions and the stigma of conducting Russia-related business. The brain drain is not necessarily surprising given the global hunger for tech workers, which Russia produces with almost as much vigor as it does oil and vodka. A 2020 Global Skills Index report found Russians scored highest in technology and data science proficiency. So where are these workers headed? High-end talent holding fancy European Union visas has fled to Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. Others have decamped to Armenia, Georgia, and former Soviet republics in Central Asia, where Russians don’t need a visa. In total, an astounding number of tech workers are in mass exodus: • In just five weeks since war broke out, 70,000 computer specialists have emigrated from Russia, according to one estimate cited by the Associated Press. • Through April, another 100,000 tech workers could leave the country, Sergei Plugotarenko, head of industry lobbying group the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, told a parliamentary committee last week, the AP reported. To prevent any further outflow, Putin this week signed legislation eliminating all income taxes until 2024 for Russian IT company employees. Security Concerns: The fleeing workers aren’t necessarily trusted. “The IT sector in Russia is very closely connected to the security services,” Lithuanian political analyst Marius Laurinavicius told the AP. “We risk importing parts of the criminal system of Russia.” Lithuania has since blocked visa applications from Russian firms and startups.
And one day you are President, next day you are back driving a Taxi. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59629670 Hey don't laugh, that's at least better than Commie Venez Prez Maduro a former and hopefully soon again bus-driver.
Those that think that are delusional. This is not temporary. It is permanent, as long as Russia continues on its belligerent course. Sanctions are not going away. Reserves are being depleted. They are going into deep hole and there is no climbing out. Within a few months even Russia's defense industries are going to grind to a halt. The others - sooner.
Looks like Putin has the same type of future career prospects as this guy... Afghanistan’s former finance minister now drives an Uber in Washington, DC https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...minister-uber-driver-washington-b2040793.html