Karmadhi

Why is Russia being held to a higher standard than the US

139 posts in this topic

1 minute ago, Karmadhi said:

Their interest need to be within international law. The more a country disregards international law the worse they are in my eyes. This is me judging countries foreign policies. 

Yes. 

Though in a two pole system, who decides which laws we are following?

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7 minutes ago, BlueOak said:

Though in a two pole system, who decides which laws we are following?

International law is universal

All countries are in UN

If UN says you are breaking law, you stop it

 

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6 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

International law is universal

All countries are in UN

If UN says you are breaking law, you stop it

 

Law is only upheld if backed by force.
The UN has none.

China polices its alliance; the US polices its alliance with a possible agreement between the two, and a lot of friction along the border states.
That's the best we'll get, and less than that if America keeps isolating from NATO, or if BRICS doesn't turn into a full military alliance with a dominant presence. With say India rivaling China in military and economic strength.
 

Edited by BlueOak

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53 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Breakingthewall But why are you acting like it's okay to annex part of another country? Especially when you know the annexation will result in a million deaths.

If you are against the Iraq war you should also be against the Putin war.

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

 

 

 

 It's very different. I don't support Putin's war, but I understand it. Ukraine is tied to Russia, then the eternal radical Ukrainian nationalism appears once again, and a civil war begins.

Then the Americans arrive and start giving weapons to these radical nationalists. And finally, they announce that Ukraine will join NATO, which they know perfectly well is pissing in the face of Russian pride.

Russia is much weaker as a nation. If this happens, it's a national humiliation, and the Americans know it perfectly well.

Russia is unstable. Putin thinks it's essential that this doesn't happen, and he acts. And he do with the support of all Russia.

Russia is stronger now than before. That's a fact. Then Putin movement is successful in many senses

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2 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Russia is stronger now than before. That's a fact. Then Putin movement is successful in many senses

You will believe this even when you use up your last man, machine and oil barrel. With no ability to pay for anything, no military left, no food, and no way to fuel or move around your own lands. Russian propaganda is the best in the world, bar none.

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4 minutes ago, BlueOak said:

You will believe this even when you use up your last man, machine and oil barrel. With no ability to pay for anything, no military left, no food, and no way to fuel or move around your own lands. Russian propaganda is the best in the world, bar none.

 

Russia’s Wartime Economy: Collapse Averted, Isolation Deepened

🔹 1. GDP and Growth

Russia is not bankrupt. In fact, by 2024 its GDP had recovered to pre-war levels, growing around 3.6%, driven by:

massive military spending,

import substitution programs, and

a complete trade reorientation toward Asia (China, India, Turkey).

The ruble has stabilized, though inflation remains high (around 9–10%).
Russia continues to produce and export energy, metals, and grain at record levels.

👉 The result: a functioning war economy, not prosperity, but far from collapse.

🔹 2. Foreign Trade

Before the war, 45% of Russian trade was with Europe; now it’s less than 10%.

Major new partners: China, India, and the UAE.

Russia sells oil at a discount but in huge volumes, offsetting price losses.

It imports microchips, machinery, and electronics through Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Armenia, bypassing sanctions.

👉 Russia has built a parallel trade network, slower but effective.

🔹 3. Industry and Employment

The civilian sector (cars, aviation, tech) struggles,
but the military-industrial complex now absorbs millions of workers.

Unemployment is at historic lows (around 3%), though many jobs are low-productivity or military-linked.

The economy is now heavily nationalized — almost all key sectors are under Kremlin control.

👉 This model works in wartime, but would be unsustainable in long-term peace.

🔹 4. Sanctions and Resilience

Western sanctions failed to break Russia because:

it is self-sufficient in energy and food,

holds large gold and yuan reserves, and

its population tolerates austerity far more than Western societies.

However, costs are real:

collapse of foreign investment,

brain drain of skilled workers,

and financial isolation.

🔹 5. Living Standards

Prices have risen sharply, but the State keeps subsidies and jobs flowing.

Moscow and St. Petersburg remain relatively stable,
while rural areas face scarcity of imports and poorer healthcare.

Private consumption has fallen, but there is no famine or social chaos.

🔹 6. Summary

Russia is not collapsing — it is reconfiguring.
The country has become more closed, militarized, and authoritarian,
yet remains economically functional thanks to natural resources, state control, and Asian partnerships.
It is, in essence, an armed autarky — not a failed state.

 

Edited by Breakingthewall

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24 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

 

Russia’s Wartime Economy: Collapse Averted, Isolation Deepened

🔹 1. GDP and Growth

Russia is not bankrupt. In fact, by 2024 its GDP had recovered to pre-war levels, growing around 3.6%, driven by:

massive military spending,

import substitution programs, and

a complete trade reorientation toward Asia (China, India, Turkey).

The ruble has stabilized, though inflation remains high (around 9–10%).
Russia continues to produce and export energy, metals, and grain at record levels.

👉 The result: a functioning war economy, not prosperity, but far from collapse.

🔹 2. Foreign Trade

Before the war, 45% of Russian trade was with Europe; now it’s less than 10%.

Major new partners: China, India, and the UAE.

Russia sells oil at a discount but in huge volumes, offsetting price losses.

It imports microchips, machinery, and electronics through Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Armenia, bypassing sanctions.

👉 Russia has built a parallel trade network, slower but effective.

🔹 3. Industry and Employment

The civilian sector (cars, aviation, tech) struggles,
but the military-industrial complex now absorbs millions of workers


We are evaluating pre war and post war, as unless WW3 does kick off, we are nearing the end.

Pre war you were a stable country with a healthy, strong economy. You had a lot of money saved up for the good of future generations. Good relations east and west. Strong hopes for the future. You had energy leverage over the west, and potential trading partners in the east to come. You had it good. You had demographic problems, but then in this world many do. Your commanded a level of fear that was almost mythological. Nobody dared cross you.

Currently:
You have no money left. You do things like sell endless and useless government bonds to plug the gap, you print extra money, you are kicking the problem down the road for the subsequent generations. You kill off your best and brightest to seize their funds. The rest without money left the country, taking their technical expertise with them.

  • Your economy is war. - What happens when there is no war?
  • You have no refined oil left. You are buying it in to plug the gaps.
  • Your Gas exports are being targetted.
  • You are moving to a four day work week, in some areas three days.
  • You keep pushing more and more onto the population to fund the war, from buying up their own gas to put into the tanks, to taxes.
  • You have used up over 1 million of your lives, dead or wounded. Almost killed off, frightened off, or crippled a generation overall.
  • You have isolated yourself from your biggest market, lost all your leverage.
  • You are using up now insane amounts of manpower to take almost nothing on a daily basis. Your military stockpiles have been burned through, your threats are empty and your military a ill disciplined joke.
  • You are no longer feared or respected by your enemies or friends. When in the past you almost had a mythos that nobody dared speak out or cross you, now Putin is down in Central Asia apologizing for destroying airliners of small countries.
  • You have emptied your prisons, the remnants of which are now back in your society living large. Fortunately your best police are dying in Ukraine, so the criminals get to run the show.
  • China is buying up your infrastructure; Asian cultures are moving in to taking up the labor shortages as you kill off your own in pointless suicidal charges.
  • You war over dead burned out husks of settlements, which you yourself shell to nothing, all so Putin's ego can be satisfied that he took another 100 meters today.
  • You have single handedly destroyed the worth of nuclear deterrence, because you threaten it every 5 minutes with no consequence, when it was an unspoken threat it carried real almost mythological weight to it.
  • Your word means nothing anymore, almost every statement I hear a Russian politician say is worth nothing more than indifference or ridicule. 
  • Oh and if you don't stop hitting power plants, kiss goodbye to heat in winter for the western most Russian cities.


Russia is already toast.

Now all we wait for is how it will end. 

  • Will it splinter up into 12 regions and their independence movements?
  • Will China just buy up large areas of it ad nausem until you are a puppet state?
  • Will it pull back now and try to save itself and somehow survive?
  • Will it spiral into bankruptcy until it's literally worth nothing to anyone?
  • Will you rely on the charity of other countries to keep you afloat?


*If you are not Russian, just consider you = Russia. Its late and editing this would be a pain :D.

Edited by BlueOak

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@BlueOak

What you're saying is a possibility. The other possibility is the end of the war, and you know, memory nowadays is short. Then the deals restart, brics is growing, Germany needs gas, east Europe tends to Russia, EEUU is being unpredictable, Africa is tired of Europe, who knows the future 

Edited by Breakingthewall

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14 minutes ago, BlueOak said:

Your commanded a level of fear that was almost mythological. Nobody dared cross you.

Well, they did.

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6 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Well, they did.

Scared half to death. So reluctant it drove most of us mad, did you see the baby steps? Probably not from your perspective. It was like pulling teeth to get anything to Ukraine, even now its frustrating. Still now at this late stage people are afraid to shoot down drones or aircraft violating their airspace and threatening their civilian flights. 

It was only Ukraine themselves and holding the line to survive that earned them anything at all. Then years later we are almost at the point where now Ukraine can fight Russia on its own terms.

Strikes on a power plant = strikes on a power plant.
Invasions over the border = invasions over the border.
Long range missiles are met with long range missiles (well mostly drones these days)

People will disagree, but for me the Battle of Antonov Airport at the very start was the most significant of all. If Russia had won, this could have been a very different outcome. People would have pulled back, Ukraine might have fallen early with sporadic civil unrest over the years, that's what people in the west were preparing for.
 

Edited by BlueOak

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13 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

@BlueOak

What you're saying is a possibility. The other possibility is the end of the war, and you know, memory nowadays is short. Then the deals restart, brics is growing, Germany needs gas, Africa is tired of Europe, who knows the future 

Lot of people have switched to American or African gas, a lot more effort went into renewables. Many of the grids, pipes, and lines are cut to Russia. The main thing is trust. People have short memories, industries and countries, not so much. They'd have to reinvest in opening up these routes again while remembering how they were burned by Russia last time. We let our guard down giving them so much leverage over our energy; it won't happen so easily again.  - We were very arrogant and naive to believe nobody would ever 'dare', threaten our cushy energy supplies. the EU bubble in a detached nutshell.

As for africa, if BRICS keep pushing, it'll be a battleground. It's mostly split.

Edited by BlueOak

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@BlueOak what could happen now? 

Russia already has Dombass, but that's not enough. It must defeat Ukraine, demilitarize it, and force it to become an independent but neutral country.

This has enormous symbolic significance: an end to Western hegemony. A shift in polarity. That's why the West is so resilient.

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1 minute ago, BlueOak said:

Lot of people have switched to American or African gas, a lot more effort went into renewables. Many of the grids, pipes, and lines are cut to Russia. The main thing is trust. People have short memories, industries and countries, not so much. They'd have to reinvest in opening up these routes again while remember how they were burned by Russia last time. We let our guard down giving them so much leverage over our energy, it won't happen so easily again.

As for africa, if BRICS keep pushing, it'll be a battleground. It's mostly split.

The Germans are in a terrible economic situation because of the energy outage. The population thinks they've been swindled, and the AFD, with so many mysterious deaths, may have a lot of influence and is pro-Russian. The party that mysteriously lost in Romania was also pro-Russian, In the Czech Republic, the pro-Russians have won, it seems to be a trend.

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9 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

@BlueOak what could happen now? 

Russia already has Dombass, but that's not enough. It must defeat Ukraine, demilitarize it, and force it to become an independent but neutral country.

This has enormous symbolic significance: an end to Western hegemony. A shift in polarity. That's why the West is so resilient.

Someone will realise that trying to demilitarise a country with more arms in it and a more experienced army than anywhere in Europe is so much of a fantasy even the propagandists can't sell it. (Or they will just lie and tell you they've no guns anymore and that you won.)

It's never going to be a neutral country. The amount of damage inflicted on civilians over all these years will take generations to be forgotten. They usually say 3 generations in war. A large part of Russian strategy was targeting the civilians there. 

I doubt it will get in NATO, probably the EU. It may be blocked from joining the EU by Hungary but tbh Hungary is about to have a change of government, another rightwing leader might block it or attempt to, but if offered concessions for their own self-interest, will they really? I doubt it.

 

5 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

The Germans are in a terrible economic situation because of the energy outage. The population thinks they've been swindled, and the AFD, with so many mysterious deaths, may have a lot of influence and is pro-Russian. The party that mysteriously lost in Romania was also pro-Russian, In the Czech Republic, the pro-Russians have won, it seems to be a trend.

Oh I don't doubt Russian backed and funded parties in Europe are being ripped to shreds wherever possible. Its a necessity I fully support, they cannot gain influence in Europe by meddling in our elections and domestic affairs. 

Edited by BlueOak

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1 hour ago, Lyubov said:

It’s kind of obnoxious though how every criticism of Russia is always countered by “what about the west.” This is such a stupid and intellectually dishonest take. I’m surprised more people aren’t banned from this section for this. We can discuss and condem western corruption and we can discuss and condem eastern corruption without having to be tribal and take sides like a bunch of moronic normie sheep who feed this belief system.

Genuinely. I'm exhausted by the discourse surrounding Russia's actions. It's baffling the positions people hold. I'm not sure if they are genuinely pro Russia or just really anti-western. 

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1 hour ago, Karmadhi said:

Where did you get this from? Russia has annexed 20% of Ukraine for over 2 years now and nothing close to that has happened

I think the reason people do not seem to see it as a bad thing when Russia annexes Eastern Ukraine, is because in their mind Eastern Ukraine is mostly Russians and therefore it is fine if Russia gets it. I am sure they would have major issue if they took parts of Poland for example where there are no Russians.

Note: I am just explaining their though process, it is not what I think. I do not support annexations in general.

Bro, the whole of Ukraine speaks Russian. Literally Ukraine is little Russia! A little Russia that has choosen to be part of the west. Basically you could call Ukraine Western Russia. To really understand what Ukraine is in regards to Russia, it is to compare Germany and Austria. Basically Russia is like Germany and Ukraine is like Austria. And it is not acceptable for Germany to meddle in the governmental affairs of Austria, it is not ok for Germany to decide which economic or defensive alliances Austria should pursue. It is not OK for Germany to annex Austria. Last time this happened we had the entire European continent leveled to the ground.

Edited by Daniel Balan

https://x.com/DanyBalan7 - Please follow me on twitter! 

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5 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

@Kid A what you call revolution Is it to expel a democratically elected government by force without waiting for elections?

About that of true and false, then we have to assume that what one side says is true and other is false. Ok, then I will choose one side and believe what that side says. It's simple, thanks, I was bit confused but not anymore 

Man I hate westerners like you so much.

Like who do you think you are for wanting us the plebs, that live in the most corrupt countries in Europe to always be under the heavy boots of the most corrupt oligarchs that always had Russian backing? 

Like for real, do you think that only you deserve a country where you can open a business without having to pay protection fees so that your family doesn't get hit "accidentally" by a car? 

Are you for real? 

Do you think that only with "Soros & CIA coup d'etat" the people of Ukraine would want their country to be like Germany or Poland and not like Belarus? 

We deserve to have all the benefits of western democracies too. We are not third tier citizens like you guys take us for.


https://x.com/DanyBalan7 - Please follow me on twitter! 

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2 hours ago, Karmadhi said:

Where did you get this from? Russia has annexed 20% of Ukraine for over 2 years now and nothing close to that has happened

Bro, people go for shopping there and they disappear forever. Literally North Korea is child's play compared to the shit that goes down right now in the territories that Russia annexed from Ukraine. 

May the universe be gentle & mercyful to those poor souls being in that hell right now. 


https://x.com/DanyBalan7 - Please follow me on twitter! 

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36 minutes ago, Basman said:

Genuinely. I'm exhausted by the discourse surrounding Russia's actions. It's baffling the positions people hold. I'm not sure if they are genuinely pro Russia or just really anti-western. 

There are a lot of anti Western edge lords here who sacrifice their integrity by trying to leverage whatever they can to make a point about how the USA is corrupt. It is. So is Russia, so is Zionist Israel. From a conscious perspective there aren’t really sides to take. It’s about big picture understanding and calling out lies. A lie is a lie, period. 

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2 hours ago, BlueOak said:

One last go. 

This country isn't as bad as this country: Is not how countries make policy.
They don't sit here and objectively work out who is morally superior or objectively more detrimental to the interests or sovereignty of someone else.

Perfectly said. I personally think that both Russia and China are awesome countries with rich cultures nice people. There are a lot of cool and good aspects of Russian culture or Chinese culture that could be "better" than how the West does things.

We are against the governance that those countries want to export to the west. The same way those countries are against the model of governance the west tries to export to them

But my opinion is that the way western societies are ruled and governed is much better than how Russia or China is governed. I don't talk here about economics, sure China has a great economy, we could learn stuff from the Chinese about economics, but for the individual citizens life in Western democracies is literally heaven on earth.


https://x.com/DanyBalan7 - Please follow me on twitter! 

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