The Demolition of Russia's Economy

LOL

Where is Cuddles? He's not been around lately.

 

I heard that he has opened a cat house in Nevada but is running it "by hand" to hold expenses down.

Tough economy you know but Cuddles is bringing his genius to it.

 

I thought he might have changed his name again!

 

Yeh. I hear ya.

Everytime he changed his name I had to/have to change his name on my ignore list.

 

Heh. Pretty funny.

Kazakhstan finds a sudden need to stop labeling its oil as Russian Export Blend.

Just say hello to Kazakhstan Export blend.

Marketing and all, ya know.


Exclusive: Kazakhstan renames its export oil to avoid Russia sanctions risk

https://www.reuters.com/business/en...t-oil-avoid-russia-sanctions-risk-2022-06-03/

 

With 1/3 less calories.

 

We can stipulate in advance that my knowledge of Kazakhstan history is a little hazy but clearly that country's response to the Ukraine invasion was Vlad's first sign that this was not going to be easy.

Putin had done K-stan's leader the little favor of sending troops to put down a rebellion there and prop up the government. So the first country Putin called on to send troops - after Belarus- was K-stan. But then they said no. OOPS. Other little things that pissed Vlad off along the way was when K-stan cancelled their Victory Day celebration in protest of the Ukraine invasion. OOPS on steroids.

Yeh. Things that piss Vlad off. Never good when your plan to put the Soviet Union back together consists of Russia and Belarus. Not saying that Belarus is not zippy and special mind you. And that would be the same Belarus that still has not sent Belarus soldiers across the border yet, in spite of all the posturing.

Vlad has a new buddy now. Who is also his new master.

 

Russia is winning the economic war - and Putin is no closer to withdrawing troops

There is, though, no immediate sign of Russia pulling out of Ukraine and that’s hardly surprising, because the sanctions have had the perverse effect of driving up the cost of Russia’s oil and gas exports, massively boosting its trade balance and financing its war effort. In the first four months of 2022, Putin could boast a current account surplus of $96bn (£76bn) – more than treble the figure for the same period of 2021.

 

Yep. It's doing so great its GDP is going to contract 12% in 2022.

 

Longterm, is Vlad going to be able to get the spare parts needed to keep his oil production humming? And ships are going to ship the oil without insurance? Or if the U.S. and Europe tells the shipping companies that they cannot do business with both Russia and the west?

Asking for a friend.