Is Russia Trying To Hedge Against Sanctions?

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As the pandemic hysteria comes to an end it seems as if it's left countries with a gaping hole and a realization that their economies are fucked. Whenever economies start to wobble and stimulus is not enough, opportunists seek to galvanize support with populous movements. We're seeing it happen all over Africa, the Middle East, and even in Europe with the likes of Russia and Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Bosnia, and Kazakstan.

Traditional peace enforcers like the US and the UK and other English anglo countries have their hands full with their issues at home so they're not about to step in anytime soon. We've seen the country with the biggest stick actively pull out of countries like Afghanistan, and it seems like the US isn't interested in being the world police force any longer.

I always said shit was finna pop off after the covid crisis and that we'd see economic and political instability afterward.

The beast of the East

Now that the US seems to think Europe can look after itself, it's up to NATO to protect it, basically France and Germany and with Putin's popularity fading, he's looking to make a big statement. Nato and the threat of the West have always been an issue for Putin and honestly its all a big dick competition with the rest of us caught in the middle.

Ukraine seems like the ground for a proxy war, Russia wants its Finlandisation of Ukraine, while NATO wants it to join them and gain autonomy. The issue here is trade routes, not only for energy but food in the area are heavy dependant on the overlap between Russia and Ukraine and Russia don't want to risk those routes or reduce their buffer with the west.

It all gets complicated since we've had the time of "peace" for so long countries have made many agreements to work together despite incidents of unrest. Europe relies a lot on natural gas from Russia and with their greener mandates it puts even more strain on that relationship. A relationship Germany would not be quick to sever, as it powers their industrial economy.

I can't say if this will turn into a hot war situation, but it's clearly a game of chicken at the moment, and if Nato were to back off, what message does that send to other former Soviet states?

As the situation intensifies, you can be sure that financial warfare is on the cards first, and sanctions have been threatened. This is not barking, and can pose serious dangers, we saw what happened when sanctions were placed on Iran and Venezuela, their economies have never recovered, and Russia doesn't want to make the same mistake and is trying to reduce the surface area of attack.

russiasanctions.png

Russia has been getting its finances in order

Elvira Nabiullina the head of the Russian central bank diversified from third-party risk such as European and US bonds and has been stockpiling gold like it's in a race against time. While normies don't see the need to hold gold and everyone loves their fiat currencies and paper claims, gold in its physical custody is not a popular means of diversifying one's balance sheet.

Having gold uncontested and the price suppressed through the paper gold market, allowed Russia to increase its reserves. Russia has even overtaken China to become the world’s fifth-largest official sector holder of gold. The central bank bought 8.8 million troy ounces of bullion in 2018, beating a record 7.2 million ounces set in 2017, and data proves it hasn't stopped.

Russia holds around $739.5 worth of gold for every citizen in their country with 2298.53 Tonnes of gold.

We've also had word that the Kremlin are working on a bill to recognize bitcoin as a currency and start to actively support bitcoin operations within the country.

They've also started to agree energy contracts settled in Euros instead so they can reduce their dependence on the dollar and I think all these actions are an attempt to limit the impact of US sanctions on their economy.

The spoils of war is always hard money

As a bitcoiner I hate to see it made political, but bitcoin is money for everyone, friends and enemies, and in times of war, the hard money is what people are after. If we look at World War 2, every time the Nazis took over a country, they pillaged gold reserves to keep their army growing, and if it wasn't for nations offshoring their gold to the US who knows how long the war would have lasted.

War is indeed the last thing we need right now, even if it ends up being a little scrimmage. Supply chains are cocked up, labour force participation rates aren't great the world over, and yes in the past war has been used as the "great reset" but I think or rather hope our reset won't be as painful as the last.

Have your say

What do you good people of HIVE think?

So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."

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25 comments
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I don't know much about this but I'm interested in Russia and Ukraine future I hope we don't see blood bath

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Me too! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Been following it over the news..

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Well let hope for the best.
We don't war when there are nuke involve but if both sides have it it's little peace full cause they know in the end nothing will be left

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Totally agree! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I still remember the 2014 thingy between Russia and Ukraine too. I was living in Rotterdam that time. And it's just scared me a lot. And now, it's back again. They're just so many things happening in the world.

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Seems like a lot of click bait content too, but I am also following the story

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I don't know which way it would go, but I don't think this issue will be unique to Russia and Ukraine, as inflation and financial repression continues to put pressure on citizens around the world, the anger will spill over either into the streets or focused on an external enemy

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War isn't what the normal citizen would like. The only ones who want that are the warmongers amongst the governments. I have been reading a little bit about the situation but Biden itself is showing that the US is quite weak politically. They have been moving around troops but I don't want this to blow out and become an even bigger issue.

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Indeed a small minority are interested in war, and usually, those are the ones looking to profit from it, i am no fan of nationalism and fighting over imaginary lines

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When all else fails, they take you to war...

Meaning it's only a way to scapegoat it all. They're (western politicians...not alone in this but weakest of all) failing the economy, their ratings are dropping, and that would be a move to provide them some distraction and income.

WHYDOTHEYALWAYSSENDTHEPOOR?

— S.O.A.D.

We can only hope reason prevails and the masses are more pacifistic than usual, and more focused, less easily distracted from the issues that matter. Some senile puppet dictator-wannabes politicians are so deep in cow manure, though...

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That's exactly how I see it, I am no nationalist myself I couldn't care less about any country, these are imaginary lines we draw between one another to create enemies of normal people. I think as the citizens feel pain they anger is directed at their government and if they are not overthrown which can lead to a civil war and a power vacuum as we see in many African countries, it can turn into a war with neighbouring countries.

When people perceive resources as scarce, they don't think rationally, why would going to war help with resources, it's destructive of resources, if anything collaborating with other countries would be a better option. But hey, humans aren't the most rational when under stress

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Ukraine's demanding to know where Biden's getting his information that a war is imminent. If they aren't in the know this may be a move by democrats to ensure Russia keeps it sway over Ukraine. It's long been suspected that the 2016 election interference was really Russians posing as Ukraine's to pass the blame off onto Ukraine. During Bidens term as vice president Ukraine had a pro Russian president, the gas flowed from Russia into Ukraine into the pockets of the Bidens than to Europe. The people of Ukraine ran that president off right before Trump came into office. Now there's claims the people of Ukraine are getting restless with this president because he's started leaning toward Russia after making promises of stopping the corruption. It's quite feasible his turn around could have been influenced by the change of administrations here. Thing is he's up for re-election here soon and the democrats knowing it's likely they won't survive the midterms or the next presidential election there looking for a pro Russian getting into office to guarantee the dirty deals keep coming. With an election oncoming the time is right to either let Russia invade and/or move the goal post toward a Russian backed presidency for Ukraine.

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You clearly know more than me on the nuances, I don't really keep up with political debates and changes, I normally just follow what they money does, the money always seems to bring out the truth faster tahn anything else

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Seems like a million years ago deep diving into all that, that time period where diving was for fun out on the blogs, now it's become a deadlier dive to stay one step ahead of diabolical not fun political games. The majority of the time you are right it's about the money, particularly with Ukraine. Don't know if it's blessing or a curse they were granted the gift of just about any natural resource on the face of the earth. In most cases it's not just some but an over abundance, especially in the Donboss region. With the move away from petroleum and natural gas resources Ukraine is the Rolex country of minerals. They have so many different types of minerals that mineral charts should be made out of the shape of Ukraine. What's that old saying....one should be so blessed. With the move toward "green energy" technologies that rely heavily on the use of metals you know this is more than just a cripe over the flow of oil and natural gas into Europe.

Like I mention also sometimes it's not about the money. It could be political influence on world council boards, you vote my proposal or I'll higher your gas price or shut your lights off. In another instant it not who all gets to profit but what could be done with those profits, Syria comes to mind in that regard. That may also hedge into why China has a sudden interest with buddying up to Russia. With China it's a race to the top in technological advances, with Syria it was sharing the wealth with forces who could use it to the detriment of society.

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But that's just following the money with extra steps isn't it? Political power to get favours, resources or crushing alternatives is all motivated by money and power!

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I was watching some reports on the current events unfolding over the whole Trump Russia dossier stuff. Sort of refreshed my memory a bit. It wasn't Russians acting like Ukraine's as I stated earlier to you, it was the other way around, it was Ukraine's using Russian dialect.

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I stick head in sand a lot because I find it stressful and upsetting but I just had to stop my husband shouting at the telly about this. It's all fabricated for the money machine and we will all suffer for it. Like you said the knock on effects of pandemic and what comes next is going to be intense.

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I only pay attention to it all because we live in such an interconnected world that disruptions in other countries can affect different economies and investments. It's all a money grab, it just seems like politicians had a free run at the money printer for so long they're just becoming more brazen

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What gets me us the masses just let it happen as they either are brainwashed or have given up..a bit of both maybe. As my man was saying, we should be taking to the streets about it but we don't.

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I've given it some thought and I think its a combination of what you say and that we don't want to risk our modern comforts, if I look at how it is here and in the past, it was really when things got uncomfortable before people took to the streets. We've been dosed with modern comforts, internet, streaming, and all sorts of distractions.

If I look at my friends who still focus on traditional social media, they can't be bothered with anything more than what series is coming out or just silly meaningless things

Protesting is also a young person's game, when you have a family, kids, job, a mortgage to pay, you are far less likely to get out there and make your voice heard. You want to offshore change to voting as if it makes any real difference, it's the illusion of change well at least it is here.

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If I look at my friends who still focus on traditional social media, they can't be bothered with anything more than what series is coming out or just silly meaningless things

Yes. And it sometimes - probably is - feels like 'their' plan all along. Distract the masses, keep them doped up with entertainment, alcohol, comforts - in that way, they are too 'happy' to protest or dig deeper.

I totally agree what you say about people with mortages, family etc - we're in that position too, and exhausted - the thought of starting or attending a protest makes us go cold, but still, we shout at the television and feel despair.

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I am grateful that I got out of that cycle and I am starting to take note and question what I am doing and thinking and that I am not just living on autopilot

I completely understand I am not really a nationalist myself, so i never bothered with most of the protests but now as it's starting to affect everyone regardless of what you believe, I am starting to reconsider my position, some of my friends here have already left and hope to build somewhere else and I can appreciate that, I just don't see people here standing up to fight just yet and I don't want to wait for it to get THAT BAD

I at least store money outside their system in bitcoin and keep using cash so they cannot track what I'm buying

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It's not in the best interests of governments to have people think critically. Sometimes ignorance is bliss too - it's upsetting to see things go to shit and know that they are orcestrated to benefit particular people whilst the rest suffers. It's a hard one for you - I mean home is home, right, and it's unfair to have to leave but you also have to protect you and your family at the same time.

Yeah, I use as much cash as I can because I hate teh thought of being tracked. I am blown away with how much people just give away without thinking about what data is being used for.

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