This is not so if Putin really did not care about the sanctions of the West - he would simply ignore them, or brush them off like an annoying fly. Sanctions against Russia are unprecedented and very painful (no one in the world lost $300 billion of their reserves overnight). But the West did not seem to take into account that Russia would have the audacity to impose counter-sanctions of a similar strength. And if Russia withstood the blow of the West with dignity, then whether the West will withstand the blow of Russia is a very big question. Russia has a very simple and strong economy with a steady budget surplus and a positive foreign trade balance. The Western economy is now like a huge bubble, inflated during the pandemic by quantitative easing programs to incredible proportions. And it looks like Putin has pierced this bubble with the sharp needle of his decision to sell gas for rubles.

I usually do not give free investment advice, but today I will make an exception. Hyperinflation is coming, buy bitcoin.

Of course I understand this correctly. Russia is conducting a military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and, as part of achieving its goals, strikes at everything that shoots. If the shooters are hiding in residential buildings, strikes are made on residential buildings. The strikes will continue until the desire and ability of Ukraine to continue to shoot will not completely disappear.

The appearance of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is a farce, negotiations are going on without a ceasefire. The negotiators essentially do not decide anything, their composition makes one doubt their authority to decide anything at all. The operation will end when Russia reaches its goals in full, and the attempts of the Ukrainian side to negotiate better terms of surrender are ridiculous. I regret the losses on both sides, but it is unacceptable for Russia to show pity now, because it will be perceived by the West as a sign of weakness. Anyone who does not lay down their arms will be killed. I respect the Ukrainian soldiers who continue to fight without a chance to win, their death will be heroic, although in vain. Russia offers Ukrainian soldiers to surrender and save their lives, but cannot forbid them to die for their ideals, even if these Nazi ideals are unacceptable to Russia.

Oh no, Putin is now in exactly the position where he can demand anything, unlike Zelensky. Gaddafi was killed for less. Previously, the United States solved such problems simply - they drove an aircraft carrier and started bombing, if only the appearance of an aircraft carrier was not enough. Where are the American aircraft carriers now? They are afraid to get closer than a thousand kilometers, because otherwise the hypersonic Dagger will fly in and turn it into a pile of flaming debris.

Ukraine is just a pawn in this global geopolitical game of chess. Russia has challenged the existing world order. History is being made before our eyes.

Russia ran out of euros in gold and foreign exchange reserves a month ago, when one of the very first sanctions imposed blocked the funds of the Central Bank in dollars and euros. Translation - The West stole Russian euros.

China has not joined the Western sanctions, so the Central Bank's yuan is fine, don't worry about it. You did not understand what actually happened after the announcement of "rubles for gas". Now the ruble is the real currency, backed by (for starters) gas. Unlike the dollar and the euro with uncontrolled emission, which are essentially empty shells. It is very funny to see how the countries on the unfriendly list, which cannot refuse Russian gas here and now, will go through five stages of accepting the inevitable:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Gas for rubles

You are a very funny conversationalist, but it's time for me to sleep in the hayloft. Tomorrow morning I will get up again at sunrise, eat a baby for breakfast and drink vodka, then I will pull one European out of the cellar to feed my tame bear, then I will put on ceremonial bast shoes and an earflap with a red star, put firewood into the electric generator, turn on my analog lamp computer and I will again inspire everyone with horror on the Internet all day, telling propaganda. It's hard work, but after victory I was promised two sacks of potatoes, four cases of vodka and a dozen captured homosexual Europeans, my bear loves them very much for their tender meat.  

Glad you're having fun. For many years the United States inspired you with the idea that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are the strongest army in Europe, and for three whole months of winter you were preparing for the invasion of Russia. And when it happened, you weren't ready. And now Zelensky is running around with a burnt bottom and begging everyone in a row for more planes and tanks, and in general at least something, and "the strongest army in Europe" is fragmented, disoriented, deprived of air support and has not carried out a single successful counter- offensive. It's a shame.

Russia does not need euros, but the freedom to dispose of them, to buy everything that Russia needs, even if sanctions are imposed on it. One phrase of Putin's "gas for rubles" made 6,000 Western sanctions a senseless hysterical dummy. It is foolish to threaten Russia when she holds you by the balls - Europe will quickly learn this lesson.

Russia could itself overcome the sanctions through spacers and intermediaries, it has enough loyal partners in the world and enough experience. But then the Russians would have to pay overheads and commissions. Now the overhead costs of overcoming their own sanctions will fall on the shoulders of the West. This is an example of political judo, which Putin is very good at.

I'll tell you more, if now heavy Ural oil is sold at a significant discount to light Brent oil, then the situation will probably soon change to the opposite and heavy oil will become significantly more expensive than light oil. Because although it is needed relatively little for the regular operation of oil refineries, it is produced, apart from Russia, only by Iran and Venezuela. The United States has seriously quarreled with all the suppliers of heavy oil in the world.

It seems Madeleine Albright once said that the United States would buy Russian oil for rubles only over her corpse. Well, she kept her word, R.I.P.

You think irrationally, what is the point of him wanting the euro if they are under sanctions? What to do with them - look at the frozen numbers on the screen? The European Union is now in an extremely difficult life situation for anyone in their right mind to want the euro. Uncontrolled price increases, strikes, an influx of refugees and strong internal divisions. My forecast for the European Union is that it will collapse in one or two years, and in a month one euro will be cheaper than one US dollar.

I think with a probability of 90% Poland will try to squeeze out the Lviv region. They have a national idea "from sea to sea" there that constantly itches, but here is such an opportunity.

Well, yes, I think Putin has enough rubles. But there is a nuance, now Germany, Austria, Japan and all other unfriendly countries that buy gas from Russia will want rubles. And in order to continue buying Russian gas, they will have to learn how to get around their own sanctions, which they have so generously imposed on Russia. And they will have to support the Russian economy, which they have already declared "torn to shreds."

Walked now to the store - the shelves are full of products, including sugar. I didn’t buy it, I still have more than enough stocks from the pandemic. Prices for office paper are also artificially inflated, a pack of A3 paper is cheaper than a pack of A4 paper, although it is enough to cut an A3 pack in half at the nearest printing house and there will be two A4 packs. Maybe this is a good reason to reduce the bureaucracy in Russia and introduce electronic document management not together with paper, but instead.

Russia has been living under sanctions for a hundred years, this will not scare us. We are Russians - God is with us.

Elon Musk recently launched a factory in Germany and even danced at the opening. To hell with gasoline, progressive Europe will soon drive only electric cars! And electricity for them will be generated by wind turbines. The main thing is that the wind does not blow from the east, from the territory of backward Russia. And then scientists will invent household teleporters and the problem of movement will be solved in a radical way. Just to live until brighter days! 

Buddy, it's better for you not to know the alternative scenario, because instead of houses with broken windows on your video there would be only craters from rockets and air bombs and nothing else. During the month of the special operation, the losses of the personnel of the Russian troops exceed the losses among the civilian population. You seem to have problems with propaganda, because instead of understanding that the Russians are trying to minimize civilian casualties, screams are heard that the blitzkrieg failed. There would have been even fewer losses if the Ukrainian army had defended its people (and why else would an army be needed?), and not hide behind their backs. If Ukraine does not understand such simple things, well, it will no longer have its own army.

Russian warship fuck you? Go fuck yourself.

You are calling the West to economic suicide. The big economy of the West really means that the West has a lot of debt and well developed derivatives. But futures and options are not edible. The strength of the dollar and the euro is based on trust in them, which is now undermined by the freezing of funds from the Central Bank of Russia, and once undermined trust is very difficult to return back. Germany alone needs more LPG tankers to replace Russian gas than there are anywhere in the world. Once again, if all the tankers in the world drop their business and take gas to Germany, this will not be enough. Try to turn on the brain before demanding the impossible from the West.

It is interesting that you remembered international law now, and not a month ago, when the currency accounts of the Central Bank of Russia in dollars and euros were frozen, as well as after the parade of economic sanctions and the withdrawal of many companies from Russia with the refusal of their obligations. There is no more international law. And yes - this is primarily a blow to Germany, as the locomotive of the European Union. Now Germany will support the Russian ruble, or plunge into medieval darkness without heat and light. Perhaps the decision of the UK to leave the European Union was wise, because the fate of the European Union is very vague, it is likely to face an inglorious collapse into small European states - tolerant of refugees and decarbonized. Europe will get what it wanted and what it deserved.

У Соединённых Штатов Европы сейчас объективно очень сложная жизненная ситуация, возможно вскоре мы увидим череду экстренных катапультаций тире брекситов, а то и вовсе распад ЕС и возврат к национальным европейским валютам. Первая же серьёзная контр-санкция России это ни что иное как выстрел Европе точно в голову.

Я бы сейчас больше переживал за евро, потому что зависимость ЕС от российского газа очень сильная и преодолеть её возможно минимум за пять лет в самом оптимистичном раскладе, но направление мысли в целом правильное. У Путина стальные яйца, Каддафи убили и за меньшее.

There is a good saying that might be relevant here. "The rhinoceros has poor eyesight, but with its weight, this is not his problem". 

English is not my native language, although I have a decent command of it. I do not quite understand the meaning of your message, what exactly do you want to convey to me? That there are people who adhere to ultra-right views in the People's Militia of Donbass? Well, it is possible - eight years of life under shelling from Ukraine probably contribute to the radicalization of views. As Domitius Ulpian said, "a way of thinking is not punishable." Inside your head, you can hold whatever views you want, whether right or left, and you can even go as far as you want in your ideological radicalization. In Russia there is no Ministry of Truth, which indicates how to think. It is not thoughts that are punished, but illegal actions. If there are illegal actions on the part of the people's militia of Donbass, they will also be punished. If these actions threaten Russia, they will be punished by Russia. Otherwise, this is an internal affair of the people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.