Voices Of The World:
You’re Going to Have To Try Harder
I wanted to write this to highlight a bit of what has happened in Russia since the economic sanctions from the West. These is boots-on-the-ground results from a local. If you appreciate posts like this please send in your email to receive our free newsletter to keep you On The Ball (no spam!)
From a Russian:
You may be shocked to read for the first time that it so happened that due to the ingenious sanctions of the West, with rare exceptions, Russia has not lost a damn thing. Accordingly, in the life of an ordinary Russian (in mine, for example) nothing has changed either. Yes, I am upset by the fact that now I need to make a transfer in Turkey to fly to Europe, and I periodically made online purchases from abroad that were a bit simpler. But it turned me away from the West more than from Russia. My suspicion was the West was hoping that the Russian people would be all upset and turn on each other. You know, cause some turmoil between us. However, Russians lack collective responsibility; no one perceives sanctions as punishment for a mistake. The reaction is absolutely the opposite. I think Putin’s support has grown now solely because of the actions of the West”
“Nobody perceives sanctions as a punishment for a mistake” is a crucial element that especially Europeans are not understanding. Russians are not concerned or “angry” against Europeans, they are merely living their lives and everything that occurs is only politically-based. It’s foolish to make them angry.
My Russian sources goes on to say:
Latest opinion polls show that attitudes towards Europe and America deteriorated after 2022. It’s worth mentioning that a website with such statistics is recognized in Russia as a foreign agent, which means that it either receives Western funding or adheres to a Western point of view. Despite it being in their favour to show that we all hate President Putin, they reported that the level of support for the Russian authorities has increased
Said another way, despite the expectation that Russians would turn on Putin and the authorities, the Western agency still reported the opposite. The latest election has showed this”
My opinion? Was there election funny-business. Probably. But the outcome would have been the same regardless. Most Russians are aware of what’s going on around them (if you read our SERBIA post you’ll see we noticed that Serbs are very down-to-earth as well) & feel comfortable that they are doing the right thing with having Putin as their leader. Moreover, it’s worth mentioned that many highly successful special ops types in the USA (now retired) have said that “if I was Russia, I would wait and let things deteriorate even further here”. Perhaps that’s the foreign policy plan for Russia & the citizens are happy with it. Okay back to the locals quotes–>
Business wise, you can see that much of the business has continued onward with a slight logo change. Here are some of the details: This is what you see if you go to the most popular websites with reviews in Russia to look at companies that were bought out by Russian entrepreneurs. Same? or different? Your viewers can decide.
Our Switzerland
Additionally, for those who didn’t simply recreate the wheel, they moved next door to operate more smoothly. It became very obvious that Russian companies started moving to Kazakhstan during the onset of the economic sanctions. Kazakhstan, a long with Armenia are neutral places between Russia and Europe with similar tax rates. They have a huge advantage now, all trade and business relations with the world are conducted through it. For example, my friend who works for an American company receives his dollars through Kazakhstan. Most of the sanctioned goods can be safely bought in online stores in Kazakhstan with delivery. When there’s a will there’s a way, right?
Sure the factory may have changed as did some of the employees, but at the end of day it was still Russian goods going into European hands for a fee.
More Comments from a Local
Some courier companies realized in time that instead of foreign online stores, they can now sell brands to Russians directly. Contrary to prior belief, Russia has not imposed any sanctions against European and American brands, they themselves “voluntarily” decided to leave this market. But no one forbids buying goods in Europe, right? The company essentially pays resellers who purchase goods in Europe and delivers goods to Russia via various logistics routes. If it had been centralized, then perhaps they would have found an opportunity to terminate the activities of this company
Now, you choose the product, the country from which it will be delivered to you and just wait. due to the fact that they already had a huge network of pick-up points, you can get your iPhone, Nike and Chanel anywhere in Russia (yes, the price for delivery is slightly higher, and the waiting time is several weeks but you do not need to fly to Turkey or Kazakhstan).
Still, to date, the USA have frozen 300B USD worth of Russian assets–it remains to be seen what is going to be done with these. Although it seems like the United States began to not only freeze it but to seize it. See our tweet below or click the link here: https://imontheball.com/a-complete-confidence-killer-in-the-us-dollar/
We have a saying in Russian, Голь на вы́думку хитра́, which says that [extreme] poverty inspires invention. Although it doesn’t fully apply here, it does speak to the ability for us (or anyone with desperation) to problem-solve. Sure, expenses have gone up, inflation has gone up, Kazakhstan received more business from us, but the reality is that essentially nothing has changed for us.
The more concerning results, in my opinion, is the precedent it now sets for the Global South holding US Treasuries who could be subject to the same sanctions of asset freezes at any moment. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, doesn’t this apply in America?
From Moscow, with Love
#StayOnTheBall
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