thats what you took from that !?

The rest is just Pediwikia rehashed The Russian and Ukrainian versions throw in a couple of extra lines about Parubiy's grandfather- a machine gunner in the defense of Kyiv. Spoiler alert: he would have had standing ovations in the Canadian Parliament.

This post was edited by Norlander on Aug 31 2025 07:14am

still going round and round about Nord Stream. It really is incredible

Hey remember how Ukranian tourists with swastikas tattoos were hanging out in Hong Kong during 2019 riots? Pepperidge farm remembers.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-the-hell-are-ukrainian-fascists-doing-in-the-hong-kong-protests/

This post was edited by Malopox on Aug 31 2025 08:49am

Ukraine reportedly won’t let annual Uman pilgrimage proceed due to security concerns

Reports say Kyiv to enforce ban on mass gatherings enacted after 2022 Russian invasion; Ukraine, Moldova both said asking Israel to pay millions for security if religious visits take place

Source: Times of Israel

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-reportedly-wont-let-annual-uman-pilgrimage-proceed-due-to-security-concerns/

thanks Djunior, I had in the back of my mind to hear the Russian view on this point, noting Kaja Kalas has a few crack brained ideas.

most of the money as i understand it is in Belgium

The added complexity:

1) big chunks of those assets (70bn+ reportedly out of 300bn) are retail investors money, not govt reserves. Theft of those is literally theft of private property. Currently there is no affordable mechanisms to prove you are not sanctioned for individual investors to have your savings returned to you. You literally need to sue Euroclear to have your savings released (50€K endeavour).

2) theft of those assets will forever destroy the image of European markets as “investable” for the global south (think BRICS+) who are already building up a bloc of their own. Why would China or Saudis buy German or French bonds ever again if they can just steal their money on a whim?

3) many of govt reserves are in form of German and French bonds. Stealing them and liquidating to finance the war will tank yields and will affect those govts ability to borrow. Unfortunately for them they are also these reserves are also quite long dated so it will take a long time for them to mature. Hence those wierd “borrowing against future cash flows from assets” facilities they are trying to set up.

4) if stolen Russia will reciprocate by stealing Euroclear reserves which might put Euroclear out of business and it will need to be bailed out as the amount of Euroclear assets frozen by Russia exceeds its equity.

Don’t quote me though, it’s all up in the air right now and quite fluid.

PS: fun fact, Zakharova is fluent in Chinese and lived in China for decades.

PSS: in my personal opinion, judging by the precedents of recent years, those assets are gone. Similar to Lybian reserves that were never returned using all kinds of legalese and tricks. Qadaffi was killed, country ravaged by a civil war between UN supported govt in Tripoli and Langley appointed warlord in Tobruk that went rogue. It all has now been written off and forgotten by majority of (un)educated public. Oh well. Sucks to sucks.

This post was edited by Malopox on Aug 31 2025 11:34pm

It’s a two way street. The west confiscated those reserves but collectively between asset write downs of western investments and reciprocal confiscations there’s probably 150bn-200bn in value western co have lost. many of those assets sold for pennies on the dollar or outright impaired.

To be fair - writedowns were not always necessary under sanctions regime, were entirely optional and driven by public pressure / moral posturing. I didn’t see eg Booking.com exiting any other countries over wars, sanctions or military invasions.

Many western public and private corporates still operate in Russia either under direct ownership, indirect ownership with an option to buyback or just close one eye that volume of their sales to Kyrgyzstan, Turkey or Latvia have quadrupled. I mean who cares whether you buy LEGO for your kids from an official LEGO store or from ООО «МИР ВОДНЫХ ИГРУШЕК». It’s not like you can build a hypersonic rocket from black 2x8 Lego pieces.

The main question at hand then boils down to the issue of emerging multipolar world where US / EU sanctions are no longer the end of the world and you can get by just fine without Airbus planes or Mercedes cars. Yes some critical tech like cutting edge chips, hypersonics, AI require tech transfers which can be prevented with sanctions or scary men in black suits, but it is not straightforward to me who the winner would be in this new brave world.

This post was edited by Malopox on Sep 1 2025 07:43am