https://navigatingrussia.substack.com/p/russias-hidden-war-debt
Really interesting analysis that has been overlooked. tl;dr: someone carefully looked through corporate records, and found that hundreds of billions of dollars of sketchy loans have been given to Russian defense contractors that probably can't pay them back. These aren't voluntary loans: the Russian government passed a law in 2022 forcing banks to loan money at low rates to defense contractors.
Previously it's been generally thought that about 15% of Russia's true GDP is being spent on the invasion. Taking forced loans into account, it's quite possible the real number is double that.
Yet more evidence that "ordinary Russians" are ultimately responsible for the invasion. You simply can't have this much % of GDP involved in a war without every working Russian making a significant contribution.
Western countries donating weapons to Ukraine should allow them to be used on any military or economic target in Ukraine. Destruction of the Russian electricity grid would be a good priority along with oil and gas.
Western countries donating weapons to Ukraine should allow them to be used on any military or economic target in RUSSIA (not only in Ukraine's occupied territories).
Other than that, you're a breath of fresh air. A few notes back, somebody is "just asking" how Zelensky has money to send firefighters to help in LA. 🤦
😂😂😂😂 quite the typo.
Yeah, the firefighter thing is stupid. For starters, IIUC in long distance mutual aid situations the firefighters (or whatever) coming in from somewhere else are often paid (mutual aid with neighboring communities is IIUC usually not paid, as there's a reasonable expectation of reciprocity). I'm sure the US has the budget to pay for their transportation costs and salaries.
Second, Ukraine has ~60,000 first responders. I'm sure they can spare 150 woodland trained firefighters for a few weeks who don't have much work to do in the middle of winter. Ukraine is a lot colder than LA.
