I feel like they shouldn't block them simply because Bitcoin is above any conflicts. It should remain apolitical and everybody (which includes the murderer Putin) should have access to it. That said if centralized exchanges like Binance are banning people for breach of TOS, they can as well add Russians to their TOS and ban them. In the end it's their platform and if they are restricting people's access anyway, which means they don't feel like Bitcoin is for everybody, they could show their support of Ukraine. They are not doing it because of principles. It's about the money.

International monetary fund is a puppet of big banks and nothing more but a fiat pusher. If you've ever heard that big banks oppose bitcoin because it cuts their profits and shows people that there can be an alternative where you are your own bank, the monetary fund is like a whale among them. They'd like to regulate bitcoin into non-existence, but since they can't they'll try to make our lives harder.
The wanted to make the president of El Salvador drop Bitcoin support, but that didn't work, so they'll now try to scare other countries away.

It's a way of showing solidarity, that the world is not going to accept what's happening and that it's going to keep making Russian lives harder. I know it may not be the best course of action but it is better than being passive and better than escalating to a world war. Strong club, it's a shame they won't play, but Dynamo probably won't play too, so I guess that's fair.
Also, it's Spartak, not Spartack

What about the stigma Ukrainian athletes will bear, like for instance the feeling of losing their whole family or losing a home. One one hand we could sympathize with Russian players and say that they're facing hard times, but in comparison we have football players in Ukraine who are literally being shot at and killed. What's worse?
The bans will be lifted, but you can't bring people back to life and wipe their heads of traumatic memories.

Yes, they have VK (VKontakte) and probably their most popular communicator is Telegram. That doesn't mean they don't use FB, twitter or tiktok. There's also many youtubers and twitch streamers in Russia. All these people got blocked from making money because these companies rely on SWIFT.


A lot of Russians don't use the Internet, don't watch the news besides maybe government channels that spread lies and brainwash them. There are videos made by people who tried to show pictures from Ukraine to Russian citizens and most of them did not even know that there is war, or they thought that it's just a small military operation against some oppressors who are discriminating Russians living in Ukraine.

Everyone who invests in oil can become richer. We don't know Putin's personal portfolio, but with all that's happening I wouldn't be counting my money if I were him but rather think if I'll ever be able to spend all of it. If he is sentenced as a war criminal it's all for nothing and this is where things are going.

I wonder if these oil prices will end up destroying weaker fiat currencies in the EU. We all know what was happening to the lira and now more countries are facing extreme inflation and businesses that operate on tight margins and rely on road transport, like food delivery, will face bankruptcy due to gas prices going 2x. Bankruptcies will only speed up inflation and we'll all get stock market crashes similar to the one in Russia.

As much as i hate what Russia is doing, banning every single company and product just because it is operated by Russians is a different thing.
We should see a difference between:
a casino located in Russia and operated by Russians
a casino operated by non-Russians, just registered in Russia
a casino that uses Russian servers, but is not located nor operated by Russians
a casino that is operated by Russians living abroad, registered and taxed outside Russia

Which one of the above would you boycott?

But will they really? If their state could ban facebook today, who's to say if tomorrow they won't do the same to bitcoin exchanges. You can never be sure of anything if you live in that crazy country.
For instance, they banned fiat exchange to foreign currencies and decided that if you receive money from abroad you have to exchange 80% of it back to ruble. You can't get cash out of ATMs because they're empty and services like youtube won't pay you for videos because SWIFT doesn't work. If it happened to me I'd simply try to get out of the country, but there's very little places Russians can go that will still allow them to fly, or that won't turn them back at the border.

Putin is afraid of assassination attempts and covid. You could see him sitting far away from his guests at these long tables. It's a sign of weakness and paranoia if you ask me. I'd expect him to hide in a bunker since the beginning of the war. Also, since he's sending assassins after Zelensky, he's probably getting ready to receive the same treatment.

I've read a very interesting piece once (can't find it now though). The author addressed some important problems with solar that people forget, or just don't want to mention because they don't fit their narrative. The most important one is that the time when you get the most sun is the time when you need the least power. The peak of panel's production is usually at noon, but what do people do at noon? At work and their homes aren't running anything but a fridge. Then they come back at 4, 5, 6 in the afternoon and start everything up. Do the laundry, wash dishes, take a shower, watch TV... You need batteries to handle that and batteries make the whole green energy much less green and less affordable. Batteries are actually more expensive than panels and they give up much earlier than panels.
The other point is that solar panels used in varying temperatures can develop cracks over time and let moisture in. It usually takes over 10 years, but after that time they will start failing one by one. It has begun to happen in Germany where people actually have commercial solar setups older than 10 years.
Solar power is good as a backup but not as your only source of power, unless you live in a camper, or a boat.

Tell that to all those who sided against Hitler. Was any of them prosecuted later?
Reading your posts reminds me of those Russian web brigades. Do they pay a lot for defending Putin these days? If the life of a Russian soldier is worth just $100 to them they must be starving you guys to death out there.


So is Russia. They have no food and equipment to give to soldiers so they're releasing them from the army and telling them to go back home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSU1cMly1GM

It will survive but in what state.

We can say North Korea is surviving, right? But is it doing good? No. Is it a superpower? No.
If Putin continues this stupid war it's game over for him. I've seen a nice interview with a guy who was in Putin's Inner circle before the war and he said that Putin made a mistake and showed the West how weak Russian army really is. That all those supersonic missiles, superior air power, well trained soldiers are just on paper. That Russia is a paper tiger with most of its equipment being for years stripped for parts. When a tank was breaking down they weren't making a new part for it, they were stripping another tank to patch up the rest. You could see the state those machines were when they entered Ukraine. Some guy on twitter commented that they all look like dogs were living in them with all seats chewed up and wiring ripped out.

Putin played a bluff. He thought that Ukrainians will flee when they see 500+ armored vehicles enter from all sides, but they didn't and now he had to change the tactic to total destruction. He levels cities, kills civilians and people see it all on social media. Russia was expecting sanctions but it was not expecting the world to cut ties with the country. They can't fly anywhere, can't enter most ports with their boats, even got kicked out of FIFA. They have a lot of money saved up but what's all that money if you can't buy anything. No cars will be exported there, no electronics, they won't have international credit cards, no visas. That's going to hurt all those rich people from Moscow.

They will not join hands as long as Putin remains the leader. I see 3 possible outcomes at this point.
1. Ukraine is completely destroyed to the point where there's no more military, just rubble.
2. Russia is forced to withdraw somehow by his own nation, maybe the military refusing to fight, maybe Putin's assassination.
3. Putin escalates the conflict by attacking a NATO country, or by destroying humanitarian convoys, in which case we'll have an even bigger conflict.

With so many Ukrainians dead and cities destroyed they won't back down from this. For them it's a fight to the death, no compromise. They won't give up half of their county just to make the invaders stop bombing their cities. Peace talks won't change much.

That's true. I've seen at least 5 POW interrogations including some OMON police member. They all said that they were supposed to take part in a drill starting from the beginning of February. They were moved around the Ukrainian border from place to place, some ordered to set up camps and wait for orders. One day they were told by their superiors to move out and cross the border. They did not even have to shoot because the border was bombed earlier that day so there was no resistance just dead bodies. Their families also didn't know where they were because there were orders to turn off their phones. Some companies were even confiscating phones. Most of these soldiers are in their early 20s. This proves that Putin knew the army might not support the attack, so they command decided to lie and tell troops they are going to liberate a nation that will welcome them with open arms.

That being said, the incompetence of those who planned the attack is striking. Armored units mixed at random, artillery with tanks and AA, no ground troop support to cover tanks, support trucks ordered to move forward, whole armored divisions ordered to go along main roads one by one with no intel as to what lies ahead, minimal air support from fighter jets. A recipe for disaster.

Nice euphemism. Not an invasion but a military operation.
I'm pretty sure when Wehrmacht entered Poland it was also a military operation, not an invasion to them. When the US went to Vietnam it was also a military operation. Does it change anything?
Civilians are being shot at, shelled, bombarded, their houses burn, their children bleed. Stop spreading Putin's propaganda and accept the facts. They are using artillery and planes to bombard residential areas and lying to their own citizens saying that they're using precise strikes and targeting only military objects. Russia is one big joke starting from their lying politicians and ending with their junk equipment and lack of supply lines.

Yesterday some Russian soldiers run out of fuel and went to a police station to ask for some. Of course they were captured and disarmed. The stupidity of the Russian army has no limit.

Rich people in Russia are and will eventually turn to Bitcoin. There's recent news that Putin forbid its citizens to use foreign currencies. He's trying to make them use the russian ruble which is currently at it's lowest price to the dollar ever. Even when Russia announced bankruptcy it was trading higher, so imagine how oligarchs who had billions of USD in rubles must feel.
They could buy gold but that's hard to move around and getting physical gold takes time, you can't just go and buy a gold bar at a store. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the best alternative when your fiat is tanking, so is the stock market, and you can't buy other fiat money because it's banned.

I was talking about the utopian situation, a made up world where being violent to people who offend you is actually a common thing. In such situation we'd all be threatened every day and a post on a forum would trigger an armed response.

Does it mean that next time you feel discriminated in public you will take out your gun and start shooting people?

Let's say the world functions like your tiny brain and we live in your utopia. I can make you a list of all the people that feel discriminated. For instance, BLM in USA, Native Americans, the Roma, LGBT, I'm sure in their minds pedophiles also feel discriminated... We'd be facing armed combat every day going to a store, driving to work, getting our kids to school. Literally you wouldn't be able to take a shit without worrying that you might end up being shot. Is that how the world should look like?

I feel like you're offending me. Tell me where you live I'll come with some friends and we'll burn your place.

In extreme situations that's what you do to survive.
Russians in WW2 were attaching explosives to dogs so that they'd run towards enemy tanks and explode. Women were fighting without any training, children were fighting. It was the same in China when Japan attacked. Chinese teenagers were fighting and dying to stop enemy forces. In occupied Poland kids were working as couriers, delivering orders to soldiers. Many died because Germans were targeting them to stop communication.
You don't need much training to shoot AK47 and throw grenades. Children in Iraq and Afghanistan proved it to the US military.

It's a joke. You will change name and play with no anthem, so that nobody knows you are Russian
Why don't they let banned players play under condition that they change their names and teams?
Lost drivers license? Change your name and car and you can keep driving!

I've read that regardless of FIFA's decision Poland will not play against Russia if the war continues.
FIFA doesn't care if Russia is a superpower or not, they want money and no match means no money.