Here we go again-Ukraine once again

[Jimbuna]

Ukraine is on the brink of surviving its war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Italian MPs

But, in a video address, he warns Russian forces want to break in to Europe and calls again for more sanctions from Western countries.

He has spoken to Pope Francis, and suggests the Vatican has a mediating role to play.

At least ten hospitals have been completely destroyed and fierce fighting is continuing around Kharkiv and Mariupol, Ukraine says.

Russian naval forces have started shelling the outskirts of Odesa, as part of efforts to cut Ukrainians off from the Black Sea.

US President Biden warns Russia's Vladimir Putin's "back is against the wall" and fears he may use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[mapuc]

Then I hope the Russian military will remove Putin before he gives the order to use chemical or nukes in Ukraine and before Belarus join the party.

Markus

[Skybird]

Meanwhile, calculations show that due to the last years, averaging across all economic branches and product and service groups, costs of production have risen by one quarter, generally. The consequences of the Ukraine war are not even priced into this. Its relevant due to shortages in Ukaine and Russia exporting wheat, and fertilizer, as well key ressources and ore.Most of theses rises has not fully added to the prices yet, but it will happen.

You think you must complain about the risen prices and inflation rate we see already now? Wait until winter or so, you will get wet eyes then. I predict inflation rates clearly in the two-digit range. In the long run I do not rule out inflation rates above 20%, due to several desastrous developments all coming together in time, some of them were not wanted, but some are politically even wanted.

The nice years are definitely over. The best I now hope for, is stagnation. More realistic is: decline. Hopefully not at the speed of a completely uncontrolled slide. But dont bet on it.

More and more of our politicians start to make suggestions and use arguments that were heard before, in the mid-20 of last century form the German Reichsbank. More and more its monetarian "recipes" from back then get openly repeated and demanded today.

We know where that ended back then: Hyperinflation. Social turmoil and economic collapse. Political radicalization.

All what happens today has happened before. All what happened back then will happen again.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Then I hope the Russian military will remove Putin before he gives the order to use chemical or nukes in Ukraine and before Belarus join the party.

Markus

Not if below is to be believed.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Ukraine is on the brink of surviving its war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Italian MPs...

This whole mess is a gigantic lesson 101 in proxy "brinkmanship" from 1950's Korea thru 'Nam, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria et al. The blow to Russian invincibility propaganda has yet to be computed... including what further atrocities they will commit to redeem it. Clearly there are no rules; including the defunct Geneva Convention. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-Ukraine.html Case in point: the leader of the russian neo-nazi Sparta Battalion, Vladimir Zhoga, has been killed. Inasmuch as Putin has made this a war to elimnate Ukrainian nazis as part of his propaganda; he has omitted using nazis of his own...

[Skybird]

Russia's attack on the Ukraine takes the whole world and global economy hostage. It has not caused the root problems triggering the crisis, but it served as a catalyst speeding it up by factors.



Achse des Guten writes:




This crisis began before the war

Most recently, the political approach to nutritional status was more about creating new world-improving sets of rules. Now, suddenly, as in the distant past, the basic supply of all essential food is the issue.

Prices are rising everywhere: At the gas station as well as in the supermarket. Political leaders are preparing citizens for further price increases. Normally, it is difficult for a politician to openly announce to people that they will now gradually become worse off and poorer. But there is Putin's criminal war against Ukraine. What can be attributed to the indisputably dramatic consequences of the war, logically no domestic ruler bears any responsibility for. A responsible person, who would have had to explain and justify a crisis without war and his crisis management, can hardly resist the temptation to attribute the part of the loss of prosperity, which would have come even without war, to the war.

And signs of severe economic losses and even imminent emergencies are appearing every day. Late Sunday evening, for example, orf.at reported:

"The price shock for grain is followed by the price shock for fertilizer: the war in Ukraine has also highlighted the dependence of global agriculture. This is because Russia exports more nitrogen fertilizer than any other country in the world - and the Russian government has already ordered manufacturers to suspend exports. That could set off an economic chain reaction.

If fertilizer manufacturers comply with the Russian Trade Ministry's recommendations and actually halt international exports, it would cause significant problems in agriculture worldwide. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Russian Federation was the largest exporter of nitrogen fertilizer in 2021."

Without fertilizer, anyone can figure, there are lower yields and poorer harvests. Food that was always and everywhere available at a small price as a matter of course for the young in this country could now become scarce and expensive. Hardly anyone knows what reactions it triggers in today's population when there are supply crises for some foods. But as long as the blame for this is put on Putin's damned war, perhaps no one will ask about the share of the domestic responsible parties for the disastrous situation. But there must be, because already last fall, when hardly anyone seriously expected Vladimir Putin to let his troops officially invade Ukraine, the fertilizer crisis was already a topic in German media.

"Rising gas price: fertilizer producers cut production" was the headline on handelsblatt.com at the beginning of October last year. And what the colleagues wrote at the time sounded sufficiently dramatic even without a war.

"The massive increase in the price of natural gas is having a severe impact on fertilizer manufacturers. Now SKW Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz is also cutting back production. The chemical company from Saxony-Anhalt is the largest German producer of ammonia, the basic product of fertilizers. Other major suppliers from all over Europe have already shut down their plants because of the expensive natural gas.

The dynamics of the gas price increase are worrying, said Petr Cingr, chairman of SKW's management board, on Tuesday evening, adding, "The level we have reached in the meantime no longer enables economically viable production." Under these conditions, he said, the company would be forced to cut production by one-fifth.

This could only be the first step if the situation on the gas market does not improve. "We demand immediate action from politicians. Without government action, there is a threat of a production freeze in the near future," Cingr warns. The consequences could be far-reaching, especially for German agriculture, which depends on the fertilizers."

"Immediate action by politicians" had to wait, however, because, as is well known, they first had to take care of forming a new government in Germany after the Bundestag elections. And the problem was growing, across the EU. At the end of October 2021, the Bavarian Agricultural Weekly reported:

"Scandinavian fertilizer company Yara confirmed last Wednesday that about 40 percent of its European ammonia production capacity - or about 1.9 million tons/year - will remain down because of the rise in natural gas prices. The plants of Spain's largest fertilizer producer Fertiberia, in Palos de la Frontera, which produce ammonia and urea, will also remain closed for another month due to high natural gas prices, the Spanish fertilizer producer announced last week.

Natural gas is the main raw material for the production of nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and ammonium nitrate, which farmers depend on to produce sufficiently high yields.

"The increase in energy prices is the main reason for the increase in fertilizer prices and may also affect food prices. This is of course a very big risk," EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said at one of the EU Council meeting. EU agriculture ministers were discussing a document circulated by the Polish government that fears the fertilizer crisis could trigger "social unrest" in the European Union if policymakers don't stop rising natural gas prices.

In Poland, farmers have already blockaded a plant owned by fertilizer company Anwil to protest that the government is allowing fertilizer exports while prices are unaffordable for Poland's own farmers."

The German Minister of Economics is rightly desperate to find new gas suppliers, because it is clear from this news that gas prices and any gaps in gas supplies are about more than "just" the "freezing for peace" invoked by some. And it turns out that the problem existed when people still believed that gas was not about war and peace. There will be no quick solutions, but those in charge should probably realize very quickly how important it would be now to take care of the farming community and agricultural production. Lately, the political approach to nutrition has been more about creating new world-improving sets of rules. Now, suddenly, as in the distant past, the basic supply of all essential food is the issue.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[mapuc]

So it's not a question anymore Belarus will soon join Russia and attack Ukraine-Said by a Danish expert in military strategy from the Danish version of US West Point

Markus

[Jimbuna]

A Russian billionaire sanctioned by the UK says he no longer owns many former properties, potentially putting them beyond the reach of the law.

Ex-Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov's £82m London home and Surrey mansion were put into trusts linked to the oligarch.

This raises questions over the effectiveness of sanctions imposed since the invasion of Ukraine began.

The UK government says Mr Usmanov "cannot access his assets".

On 3 March, seven days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Alisher Usmanov was added to the list of sanctioned Russian businessmen.

His assets were frozen, he was banned from visiting the UK, and British citizens and businesses were banned from dealing with him.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “We will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war.”

The government said sanctions would cut him off from “significant UK interests including mansions worth tens of millions”.

But this is now in doubt because Mr Usmanov’s spokesman says he is no longer the legal owner of many of those assets.

Born in Uzbekistan in the Soviet Union, Alisher Usmanov, 68, owns USM Holdings, a huge conglomerate involved in mining and telecoms, including Russia's second biggest mobile network MegaFon.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60825983

[Skybird]

Saw a pretty good 45 minute documentary this evening that was shown in change of the printed programm. "ZDFzeit: Putins Wahrheit". I missed the first 15 minutes.

Its in the Mediathek of the ZDF, and not on youtube, therefore also no German subtitles and I do not know whether or not you can see it from other nations. German sound, obviously. Some people here understand German, so...

https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdf...rheit-100.html

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

A Russian billionaire sanctioned by the UK says he no longer owns many former properties, potentially putting them beyond the reach of the law.

Ex-Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov's £82m London home and Surrey mansion were put into trusts linked to the oligarch.

This raises questions over the effectiveness of sanctions imposed since the invasion of Ukraine began.

The UK government says Mr Usmanov "cannot access his assets".

On 3 March, seven days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Alisher Usmanov was added to the list of sanctioned Russian businessmen.

His assets were frozen, he was banned from visiting the UK, and British citizens and businesses were banned from dealing with him.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “We will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war.”

The government said sanctions would cut him off from “significant UK interests including mansions worth tens of millions”.

But this is now in doubt because Mr Usmanov’s spokesman says he is no longer the legal owner of many of those assets.

Born in Uzbekistan in the Soviet Union, Alisher Usmanov, 68, owns USM Holdings, a huge conglomerate involved in mining and telecoms, including Russia's second biggest mobile network MegaFon.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60825983

Slow, slow, slow. And always early annolunced os thta they cna escape in time. However, I assume many have brought their treasury in safety alreeady a year ago.


In Germany, ti doe snot go any better. Different competences of different offices block each other while the intended target of their actions get away. Stupid. Unneeded. Self-made.

[Moonlight]

I think it's intentional Skybird, some of the authorities and their civil servants are up to their eyeballs in sleaze and corruption regarding these Russian oligarchs.
If any of your lawmakers are anything like our corrupt British one's all I can say is you're as screwed as we are.

[Gorpet]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Didn't the world hear the same thing about Saddam ?

[Reece]

This is a must see, my hat is off to Arnold Schwarzenegger: