The Ruble, Food and Energy

[Yodean]

https://youtu.be/aVk4SnZaUcE

*****

45-minutes, quite good, covers a lot of different topics from the perspective of an American who has been working and living in Russia for > 15 years.

Although the interviewee at times comes off as brash, if one listens carefully, most of his comments and opinions are fairly well-considered, whether one agrees with him or not, on a particular issue.

@BJ: the dude in the video is also starting to build a bit of a Village for Western Diaspora in Russia - early days, but you mentioned you might be interested in Russian real estate at some point. He's got some interesting ideas on that topic, some experience and a bit of a plan ...

[SOL]

https://youtu.be/aVk4SnZaUcE

*****

45-minutes, quite good, covers a lot of different topics from the perspective of an American who has been working and living in Russia for > 15 years.

Although the interviewee at times comes off as brash, if one listens carefully, most of his comments and opinions are fairly well-considered, whether one agrees with him or not, on a particular issue.

@BJ: the dude in the video is also starting to build a bit of a Village for Western Diaspora in Russia - early days, but you mentioned you might be interested in Russian real estate at some point. He's got some interesting ideas on that topic, some experience and a bit of a plan ...

I can tell you that more than 30 minutes with him and no exit options would definitely result in some sort of clash. He is just too full of himself and the many things he mentions are total BS. I think this is the same video where he says it's easy to just pick up the phone and call a top official. Yeah right, it's easier to maybe call the dog catcher than the plumber who works for the official you are trying to get through to.

If were to consider a project I Would rather work with someone along the lines of Scott's personality as he knows a thing or two in areas that really matter and at the end of the day we could try some homemade samogon.

Behind his tough Facade this guy is most likely a highly decorated Drama queen

[Yodean]

I think this is the same video where he says it's easy to just pick up the phone and call a top official. Yeah right, it's easier to maybe call the dog catcher than the plumber who works for the official you are trying to get through to.

No, it's a different video - he's much more humble and considered in his statements in this more recent one. That's one of the reasons why Eli - who's extremely well-travelled, intelligent, and quite an independent thinker - has interviewed him more than once.

Look beyond the surface - he has his own YT channel so sometimes feels compelled to put on a certain "tough guy" image.

At the end of the day, you two have at least one thing in common - both of you got sick of what was going on in the USSA, and left to begin another life elsewhere. He just did it 15 years before you, give or take ... for him, the "peak" of America was the early 1980s or so.

[scott]

I get the feeling Tim (in the video) is being duped. Put his name, and responsibility, on a real estate project not his own. Удачи good luck. It happens here.

[Yodean]

I get the feeling Tim (in the video) is being duped. Put his name, and responsibility, on a real estate project not his own. Удачи good luck. It happens here.

Indeed, the Russian Federation has a civilized amount of corruption, just right.

[scott]

I get the feeling Tim (in the video) is being duped. Put his name, and responsibility, on a real estate project not his own. Удачи good luck. It happens here.

Indeed, the Russian Federation has a civilized amount of corruption, just right.

Putin said so.
Let's not forget it's fair share of fraud also.

[SOL]

In other news, things keep heating up

Russian president Vladimir Putin has already drawn his energy battle lines in Europe. On Friday, he added Asia. Russia will force the ownership of its Sakhalin-2 natural gas project into a local entity, threatening the investments of foreign groups including Shell and Japanese trading companies. It is a shot across the bows of energy producers that are attempting to negotiate exits from Russia.

Putin has threatened retaliation on unfriendly foreign groups before. But the move on Sakhalin-2 is the first clear attempt at nationalisation. Motivated by what Russia claims is the threat of an “environmental emergency”, the appropriation makes some sense from the host country’s perspective.

Russia does not want Shell to remain a phantom shareholder, providing no capital or operational expertise. From March, ExxonMobil discontinued working at nearby Sakhalin-1, which it has a 30 per cent stake in and operates. Oil and gas production there has plummeted some 80 per cent.

The move appears to be less about attacking Japanese investors Mitsui and Mitsubishi, which together own 22.5 per cent. Both have said they want to continue as customers. Russian liquefied natural gas accounts for nearly a tenth of Japan’s needs.

Shell is well aware of the risk. In first-quarter results it wrote down more than half its previous $3bn book value for Sakhalin-2. Most brokerage analysts will not have much in their financial models for the project. Jefferies puts the value at 20p in a £21.68 share price. For Bernstein it is less than 2 per cent of next year’s ebitda. Shell’s shares initially rose on the day.

But if Shell hoped to sell its stake to, say, Chinese oil producers such as Cnooc or CNPC, that now looks a lot more difficult. BP, which owns a fifth of state-owned Rosneft, and Total Energies of France, which has large investments in Russia’s gasfields, have plenty to ponder. Expect more asset grabs to come.

https://www.ft.com/content/d8cc2479-06a ... hoo/auddev

[Yodean]

*****

The new 100-ruble banknote introduced recently by Russia's Central Bank, featuring the Soviet Soldier Memorial, cannot be introduced into circulation as ATMs & cash registers cannot be updated to recognize new notes due to sanctions. 100% of Russia's cash registers are imported.

There's something funny about this that I can't quite put into words.

[scott]

Central Bank deputy chief Sergei Belov said it would take between six months and a year for Russian ATMs and cash registers to update equipment that would recognize the new banknotes.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/07/ ... ant-a78175

[SOL]

The new 100-ruble banknote introduced recently by Russia's Central Bank, featuring the Soviet Soldier Memorial, cannot be introduced into circulation as ATMs & cash registers cannot be updated to recognize new notes due to sanctions. 100% of Russia's cash registers are imported.

There's something funny about this that I can't quite put into words.

Priceless you come out with a note but you don't check if you have the equipment on hand to process the new currency.

[Budge]

The new 100-ruble banknote introduced recently by Russia's Central Bank, featuring the Soviet Soldier Memorial, cannot be introduced into circulation as ATMs & cash registers cannot be updated to recognize new notes due to sanctions. 100% of Russia's cash registers are imported.

There's something funny about this that I can't quite put into words.

Priceless you come out with a note but you don't check if you have the equipment on hand to process the new currency.

In a previous lifetime in a different galaxy, I worked at IBM when a customer engineer was dispatched to fix a bank ATM. He put a sign on it saying it was temporarily out of service and he had the misfortune that day that an old woman couldn't read, was short-sighted or just in a hurry. Needless to say, she kept jamming her card in the slot to no effect from her standpoint but causing the mechanism to jam the engineer's fingers.

Subsequently, the bank got a letter of complaint from the old dear that she got no money, and they should fix this machine and while she approved of the introduction of talking ATMs, she didn't appreciate it cursing her.

[Yodean]

*****

[Budge]

*****

And, the geriatric twat plans to cap Russia's oil price:

"The G7 plan to create another economic sanction against Russia by capping the price anyone could pay for Russian oil has a serious downside. If Russia slows down the export of oil, global oil prices will jump dramatically. That policy outcome would mean a massive increase in the price of gasoline for U.S. consumers.

Because the consequences are horrible, that’s precisely the reason Joe Biden might push to have the Russian price cap. Every policy Joe Biden has historically supported, has been the exact opposite of what should have been done. Biden has a profound and innate ability to screw up anything."

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/bl ... to-happen/

Just gets better and better!

[Yodean]

Every policy Joe Biden has historically supported, has been the exact opposite of what should have been done. Biden has a profound and innate ability to screw up anything.

This is precisely what concerns me a bit - it's almost like the PTBs are purposely setting up Brandon for an epic fall in the global public's eyes - for some nefarious reason.

I expect the worst is yet to come ...

[SOL]

They always said Trump was Putin's man, but if you look at it closely it's almost as if half of Brandon's team including himself went to FSB and KGB boot camp on how to destroy America. In fact, one can get CCP boot camp to the list. Almost everything they have done has been to the detriment of America and the benefit of Russia and China. The next leg of this crash will not be caused by technical factors but by geopolitical (GP) issues and then the TA will match the GP narrative