LOL, Zelensky sacked the Ukrainian official who propagated the rape narrative. Apparently, some lies are over the top even for Ukraine.
When little old ladies complain to the dictator that they can't afford eggs, then something is wrong with the economy. That something is inflation, which is currently at 7.5% and may soon be climbing. The sanctions were designed to minimize the pain for ordinary Russian people, and therefore were milder than they could have been. Putin is spending what money he has on the war, and there is only a limited amount of time and money available to continue this before the inflation goes exponential. Oil and gas revenues are significantly reduced. There is a lack of people (young men in particular) to drive the economy and produce products, and maintain the infrastructure, so things will eventually start to crumble in Russia. Russia will almost certainly collapse much sooner this time than it did during their nine-year war in Afghanistan.
As a whole-of-government approach, I'd love to see our economic measures against Russia be more effective. What are you suggesting we do that we have not done?
You're still parroting that tripe? Dude, Russia was outsoldiered and outgeneraled around Kyiv, and they were straight-up beaten in the field. That's all that happened. How do you expect to maintain credibility on your other points when you are pushing obvious disinformation?
The sanctions were designed to limit Putin's access to the kind of wealth that would allow him to continue to finance the war long-term, WITHOUT causing undue pain to ordinary citizens. That is a difficult goal to accomplish, because, of course, Putin will find a way to rob ordinary people to finance his war. The sanctions by themselves were never intended to win the war in Ukraine. Ukraine's military still needs to win the war on the battlefield. Russia was never a sleeping giant. I don't know where you come up with that. The U.S. before WWII was a sleeping giant in that it had the greatest manufacturing capability the world had ever known, but was not in the least geared toward being on a war footing. The Japanese (Yamamoto, anyway) knew this. Russia has certainly not been sleeping--Putin knew for years that he wanted to invade Ukraine, and has been investing in his military for nearly a decade or so to accomplish a successful invasion. His initial invasion and subsequent efforts were failures because his military hardware was substandard and his military leadership and plans were not very good. What broader war are you talking about? There is no broader war. Russia has its hands full with this one, and will require a few years to rebuild before taking on any country larger than Moldova, even if they win this war. If Poland were to send its military into Ukraine right now, Russia might easily be swept from the battlefield. Okey-dokee, you're smarter than this. As Biden would say, "C'mon, man!"
People: “Two years into a ten days war enough time to judge the war as a failure for Russia.” Same people: “Two years into sanctions not enough time to judge sanctions as a failure.”
There is a lot of truth in that video, but the one glaring error is the "10-day" part. That might have been the most optimistic goal of politicians, and might have worked if the Russian special operation to decapitate the Ukrainian government had not failed spectacularly. But the military objectives were air superiority in 12-48 hours, Kiev encircled by the two-week mark, and the major points of entry (L'vov, Odesa, etc) isolated by the two-month mark. Obviously, when you can't pull off objective number one, the other ones get exponentially more difficult.
You post stuff like this and probably, or at least should, wonder why no one takes you seriously. Bombs, tanks, missiles and jet fighters should achieve a victory over another country far sooner than economic sanctions.
Again, if you ignore to Pravda idiots in this thread, lots of good information. You should definitely ignore them though, that's how you deal with kids pitching a tantrum.
It's not my area of speciality, but there was a ton of chest-thumping, virtue signaling and predictions of imminent doom when the measures were rolled out. There are still people every now and then within this very thread who think we're crippling the Russian economy. It is Putin's area of speciality and he planned well. Results will look different with a well-schooled economist like Putin steering the ship instead of someone like Brezhnev, who was a metal worker by trade, you know.
Do you have any recent examples to cite of a large nation like Ukraine being overran and occupied by 130,000 troops? The Nazis were arrogant too, but you never saw them send only 130,000 troops and expect blitzkreig results, which is what you're suggesting Russia expected. This doesn't make any sense and has no historical precedent.
Okay, I’ll play the game. How are 2+ years and hundreds of thousands of fighters and hundreds of billions worth of weapons from 40+ countries bring Russia to its knees ?