How? How does a country take that much of a financial beating and still be thriving? Where is the point of being broke and not being able to fund a war anymore?

Not only that but I remember reading a lot of articles about how Russia was going to economically collapse as a result…almost two years ago.

Also a lot of articles about how weak Russia was militarily, how they lost all their troops and equipment already, how morale in their military was so poor the army was just going to run away at any moment, how one major asset after another was destroyed by the Ukrainians…for almost two years now.

Yet here they are still, not collapsed, not defeated. It probably is a good idea to take the media with a grain of salt and realize just because they’re the so-called free press doesn’t make them necessarily the truthful press.

The neo-Nazi Pootin believed in RuSSian power so much that he ordered the mafia from the Central Bank of the country to once again artificially “freeze” the ruble from falling so that the RuSSian economy would not collapse, HA. Unfortunately, it was a joke.

I can only say from the point of view of sanctions why.

Yes, many normal companies have left RuSSia (unlike, for example, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Mondelez, German Storck, Perfetti Van Melle, Ferrero, P&G and Colgate, which make their products in China, lol), yes, sanctions will put more and more pressure on the RuSSian “economy” over time…

BUT, the sanctions, in my opinion, are “soft” compared to those that the United States, Europe and their partners have imposed on North Korea, Syria and Iran.

I am sure that no one (if we talk about consumer goods at least) from European or American companies can EVEN trade in such third world countries as Iran (with their terrorist government), Syria or North Korea (the last two are also terrorist states). That is, I think, even Nestle, which is hated throughout Reddit, cannot legally trade there, but if you look, every “dirty” and unethical transnational corporation trades with/sells their goods in RuSSia.

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Some possible reasons:

1. One of their sources is Sudanese gold. Basically, they’re helping to exacerbate the genocide in Sudan, so they can fund their genocide in Ukraine.
2. Russia has arguably won the sanctions war. They’ve shifted trade to China and India. Or they’re exporting raw materials through third countries to Europe, or transfering oil at sea, bypassing sanctions at a relatively low cost.
3. Made deals with other oil producing countries to not increase production, so that prices remain stable.
4. War isn’t that expensive, unless you’re the US (and care about casualty rates). North Korea. Dirt poor country, almost entirely cut off from the world, still manages to maintain a sizeable military and even develop nuclear weapons. Russia? Old soviet stock that was rusting in a barn, North Korean shells that occasionally kill your own troops, troops you only pay if they survive if at all. Send prisoners to the front, saves money on prisons. Send people from the poorest regions, so you don’t have to pay them much, and it doesn’t negatively affect GDP that much.
5. Do like the Russians did during and after WW2. Rape and pillage. Russia is actively stealing Ukrainian resources, equipment and grain from the occupied territories.
6. Sell (or barter with) pariah states like North Korea or Iran military technology they would otherwise not have access too, like nuclear or ballistic tech.
7. War time economy means you can cut lots of stuff. Education, pensions, healthcare, drugs… all very expensive. Not as if the kids dying at the front will need an education anyway. Hell, apparently they’re sending disabled soldiers back to the front. Great way to get healthcare spending down.

In addition to stockpiling, do not underestimate the oil thing. In another few years Germany would have become independent on needing oil from them, hence their time to strike was NOW (well, you know, back then I mean).

As it was, Russia extorted people like old grandma and grandpas in northern Germany when they hiked the prices so high they consigned them to just die in the dead of winter unless they paid their life savings or the German government stepped in, handing the cash to Russia in order to keep those old folks alive.

They knew what they were doing - they are greedy and murderous but not all THAT dumb. Plus Russia takes from neighboring states too, especially their citizenry to send to the front lines - every little bit helps!? It also “helps” that they don’t mind consigning their own citizens to die if it would save enough money for the oligarchs to justify the loss of those workers - they are not like how we are used to be. But don’t worry, dead or not, I’m sure that their “votes” will still be counted, when it comes time to reelect Putin!

Oil and gas is massively profitable. Western nations have crippled that industry resulting in countries like Russia becoming energy giants. The world is consuming new records in consumption this year and let capita, developed nations are nearly a factor more then emerging nations.

They have a lot of natural resources, most of the EU is reliant on their natural gas, especially during the winter. If you live in certain parts of the world your choice is literally buy Russian gas or freeze to death.

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They’re a petro state. Attempts to keep them from profiting from oil have completely failed, as Russia can sell it to their friendly countries

Russia lived with sanctions for 70 some years as the Soviet Union, and has always been prepared to endure more. They are an economy built around raw, natural resources and can be largely self-sustaining…

And it has been pointed out, that Iran has been fighting off sanctions very successfully over the last twenty, thirty yeas…

Their secret then is Russia’ secret now, more or less:

India will trade with anybody and be neutral, and it isn’t a large task to create a shell company in India that peddles your wares throughout the whole of the world, repackaged and rebranded. At the height of Trump’s reintroduced sanctions on Iran, I was able to eat Iranian dates in South Korea - a country that followed US protcols and actually made it impossible for Iranians to start new private bank accounts unless in specific circumstances and did everything they could to place barriers on trade.

Heed you, these shell companies used to exist in places like Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., but US sanctions shut this down. It all moved to India…

Which is likely where a lot of Russian exports head when they aren’t just being imported completely independent of the Western world to places like Iran and China… China, of course, is another factor, as trade between RU and CN have increased exponentially over the last few years since the war started…

I could go on but, already, I am rambling… Suffice it to say, there’s a mssive block of countries that hate Western imperialism and/or are neutral and/or already face sanctions, and this network continues to trade with one another, and they also have begun to help facilitate one another trading with the West, either knowingly or just because they lack the will or robust enough resources to police it up.

Globalization is its own enemy when it comes to the West trying to impose sanctions, IMO.

oil and gas

Why Russia isn’t actually collapsing (RealLifeLore on YT)

It’s a bit long and I don’t remember everything, but a good part is that Saudi Arabia reduced their oil production so that the price goes up, and Russia is still selling a lot of oil to China and others

An economics student from Russia here, here’s my perspective.

First, is that a country’s economy is a lot less volatile than we expected. There is also another factor that played into it. During covid, Russian companies amassed a sizable amount of inventory that was already inflated compared to European companies due to how volatile our economy is. This has given them enough time to reroute supply chains once sanctions hit.

Basically, the so-called “grey import” plays a major role in assuring the stability of our economy. Companies either route their import/export through neighboring countries or through affiliated companies.

Second is the competency of our central bank. After most of the major banks were cut off from SWIFT (used for international transactions), they raised the key rate, limited the amount of money you can cash out at one time, and did some other stuff. Higher key rate = higher deposit interest rate, but at the same time, credit became more expensive. All of this was needed for preventing banks from defaulting. Once panic died down, the changes were reverted. Now, they’re dealing with inflation.

Lastly, the majority of our budget comes from oil and gas. Since Europe didn’t want to buy it, Russia started selling it to Asia at discounted prices. Quantity of oil/gas sold drastically increased, which mitigated reduced prices and led to a surplus budget. Not to mention that they started pushing on large companies to reduce the amount of dividends and instead re-invest the money.

I wouldn’t call it “thriving,” however. All of this has definitely led to a slowdown in growth, which, as time goes by, will only get worse. But for now it’s fine.