As foreign companies leave the country, Russia has lost 40% of its GDP

Every time I see an anecdote like this, I wonder how it applies equally to MAGA:

No wonder MAGA loves Russia and vice versa. They both like to live in a media cocoon that shields them from reality as the rest of the world watches in horror. Reminds me of this:

Don’t worry, she lived and is still a despicable wretch regardless suffering from a long-lasting symptoms. Those Russians who behave as God’s gift to the world will also succeed. Or maybe they’ll just move to Paris permanently as Russia burns to the ground. Russian oligarchs play by different rules. But the ranks of the Russians? Serious trouble awaits.

Vladimir Putin may have a corrupt and incompetent military, but his economic team is one of the best. They supported the ruble by forcing local businesses to convert foreign currencies into Russian currency. Record prices have proved a boon for Russia’s huge energy sector, forcing buyers to pay in rubles. All this increases the demand for the currency. But Russians cannot convert their rubles into foreign currencies, and because of sanctions, they have less to buy with those rubles. That means conversion is a one-way street: Russia forces key industries to buy rubles, and no one can sell them. Consequently, the price increases.

Putin loves his record-high ruble, equating a “strong” ruble with a “strong” Russia. However, the reality is that all this backdoor economic manipulation cannot stave off calamity forever. The Yale School of Management has tracked more than 1,000 companies leaving Russia, which account for 40% of its GDP.

– Despite Putin’s delusions of self-sufficiency and import substitution, Russia’s domestic production has ground to a halt, unable to replace lost companies, products and talent; The disappearance of Russia’s domestic innovation and manufacturing base has led to rising prices and consumer anxiety

– The retreat of business has seen Russia lose businesses that account for about 40% of its GDP, reversing nearly three decades of foreign investment and fueling an unprecedented simultaneous flight of capital and population in a mass exodus of Russia’s economic base.

– Putin is resorting to clearly unsustainable, dramatic fiscal and monetary interventions to address these structural economic weaknesses, which have left his government budget in deficit for the first time in years and drained his foreign reserves, even with high energy prices and Kremlin finances. is in a far, far more dire situation than is commonly understood

The authors concluded that “Looking ahead, Russia has no way out of economic oblivion as long as allies maintain and increase sanctions pressure against Russia. Meanwhile, energy prices are falling on weak factory demand in China and Japan as a global recession looms, and Europe is working furiously to wean itself off Russian energy. This does not happen overnight, but within the next 24 months, Russia will be forced to sell elsewhere. Already, China and India are benefiting from deep discounts on Russian oil. If the richest countries in the world won’t buy your energy, there is little price impact.

———————–

It’s heartbreaking.

I’d love to see less of that and more of this: fathers and mothers, sons and daughters coming home forever.

That is interesting:

We have confirmed that the main bridge to Kherson from the south remains unusable. The Russian “ferry” service to and from Kherson consists of two connected pontoon segments.

If you watch the video, the focus is on civilians and their vehicles. We all undoubtedly know that the service (which reportedly consists of four such ferries/barges) is also used for military purposes, either at night or simply when the camera isn’t recording. Thus, when Ukraine sinks these barges, as it inevitably will, Russia can scream that Ukraine is attacking civilian targets. Like the conservatives, everything Russia says is a projection.

We are lucky that Russia’s efforts are so transparent and stupid.

The situation on the ground has not changed (publicly) since Mark last wrote yesterday. He’s on vacation now, so I’ll be driving until Friday when I’ll be on vacation myself, then I’ll visit Netroots Nation. Hunter will spend several days between my departure and Mark’s return.

Some other odds and ends:

We have had rebels in Kherson and Melitopol for months, but reporting on their activities has been strictly limited. It is now accelerating as Ukraine steps up its psychological measures to undermine Russian morale: roadside bombs (IEDs), targeted killings, threatening leafletsand “propaganda shells”—leaflets urging surrender delivered by artillery. As Ukraine tightens the supply loop in the region, it gives the Russians a chance to rethink whether Putin’s ambitions are really worth dying for.

Meanwhile, different things are happening in Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at the very tip of Crimea.

If Russia says five were injured, does that mean 20+ were killed? Why should they cancel their big Navy Day celebrations for an alleged minor infraction? It is very interesting in any case, because Sevastopol is located about 160 kilometers from the territory controlled by Ukraine. So some drone just lazily flew into one of the most heavily defended locations in all of Russia and actually scored a direct hit on the command and control center of the fleet? Perhaps this is why it happened in Sevastopol last night:

Another one in the morning:

The thing that excites me the most is “caught”. Russia is Ukraine’s top arms supplier.

Click here to donate to help those escaping Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.