Peter wrote:
It makes his current adventure even more of a puzzle. He had it all, and he threw it away.
Yes, that is also what a lot of Russians are perplexed with. Russia was on the way to be integrated into almost everything, they had a very good income from trade with the West and the people were quite happy with the possibilities that opened, travel, goods, whatever.
Of course that was also the tactics of Merkel and the EU in general, allowing Russia to become it’s prime supplier of gas, making the price for misbehaving pretty darn expensive. The problem only was that in the end, Putin did not care, which for most people was beyond belief.
Capitaine wrote:
Russia is unaffected by sanctions. The port of Astrakhan is being built up, as is the Volga-Don canal, to handle all the extra imports from Iran. There has been an explosion in domestic production: manufacturing, food, and tourism.
Unaffected is not the term I’d choose, they know how to circumnavigate a lot of them. Still, they do have massive problems such as their airline industry and obviously they are no longer free to travel, have lost a large part of imports and most exports to “the west”. Of course they can do a lot of stuff with their new friends in India and elsewhere and they can travel to Iran and places like this. But I would not say that they are unaffected. It has cost them very dearly and continues to do so.
that is also what a lot of Russians are perplexed with
I doubt no more than 5% has been thinking about this, since the big re-organisation and the subsequent nearly-whole-population brain-transplant 
Of course they can do a lot of stuff with their new friends in India and elsewhere and they can travel to Iran and places like this
I really think all wealthy Russians want to travel to Calcutta Even if they could find an alternative source for their entertainment (girls from Ukraine was the usual choice) they will prefer Montenegro. I am glad we did the Tivat fly-in before all this blew up
Calcutta or Kolkata has seen incredible modernisation, like many other Indian cities, over the last 5 or 6 years.
Anyone who visited the large cities over 6 years ago would not recognise them now.
Like him or not PM Modi has changed India so much it has overtaken the UK to become the 5th largest economy in the world.
I don’t think Putin will be taking Modi for a ride. More likely the other way round.
For sure India and China will be screwing Russia as hard as they can, because Russia has nowhere else to sell their exports to but the 3rd World
Peter wrote:
I really think all wealthy Russians want to travel to Calcutta
I was being sarcastic.
So was I
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Yes, that is also what a lot of Russians are perplexed with.
Surely Putin’s plan was not to rebuff the level-playing field with the west that Russia had and grovel before China, India, Iran, North Korea etc. to sell oil and buy ammunition/drones – sunk cost fallacy analogy comes to my mind.
Does anyone know if this is real?
@Peter, I cannot vouch it’s not fake, but at least it’s typical Runglish, painfully familiar to me.
I cannot vouch for that particular poster but there is on very similar in India in Hindi and regional languages.
There is a big argument about this in India as many men from poor families joined up because they were told they would not be going to the front to fight but would be logistics staff and cooks. When they arrived in Russia they got one day training and were immediately sent to fight.
Families haven’t heard from these men and have been pressing Modi to tell Putin where to get off and to send the men home.
Whether it will happen or not is another matter but Modi does have a degree of strength in relation to Putin and is not afraid to use it.
