Two-Thirds of Russians Felt No Impact of Western Sanctions

________________________

According to poll results released on Wednesday, most Russians polled by the all-Russia Public Opinion Centre (VTsIOM) (67 percent) felt no impact of anti-Russian sanctions whilst 24 percent of respondents said the restrictions affected their financial position. In its report, VTsIOM said:

The respondents assessed more unambiguously the impact of Western sanctions on their family’s financial position… 67 percent of them didn’t feel their effect. However, there can be clearly seen the share of those who spoke about negative implications… 24 percent across the sample (reaching 36 percent in respondents who assessed their financial position as low).

As the poll suggests, Russians are divided on the benefit or the harm of the sanctions for the Russian economy… 34 percent of those polled believe that sanctions had a beneficial effect compared to 30 percent of the respondents who held the opposite opinion whilst 20 percent of respondents saw no impact of sanctions on our economic development. Responding to a question about positive consequences of the sanctions, Russians noted a boost in the country’s economic development (50 percent) and import substitution (20 percent). Amongst negative implications, respondents singled out growth of prices and taxes (22 percent) and economic decline (9 percent). Generally, the issue of sanctions remains topical for Russians… 57 percent of those polled paid attention to it. In reply to a question about Russian counter-sanctions, 73 percent of respondents said that they supported an unyielding foreign policy without concessions to the West whilst 17 percent of those polled disagreed with that. Most respondents (78 percent) believed that Western countries suffer more from anti-Russian sanctions. Commenting on the poll results, VTsIOM head Valery Fyodorov said:

Almost four years after their imposition, anti-Russian sanctions don’t cause any special fear. Moreover, a considerable part of our respondents sees mostly positive economic consequences in them. Nevertheless, every fourth respondent sees negative implications from the sanctions for their own well-being and for the well-being of their close relatives.

The poll was on 10-11 June 2018. The error margin is 2.5 percent with a 95 percent probability.

In 2014, the EU and the USA imposed sanctions on Russia over developments in the Ukraine and Crimean reintegration with Russia and often broadened and extended them. The EU suspended talks on visa-free travel and a new basic cooperation agreement, imposed a ban on entry to the EU for officials from Russia, and froze their assets, as well as introducing restrictions in the trade, financial, and military spheres. Overall, the EU blacklisted 151 individuals and 37 companies. It imposed sanctions against 20 Russian financial, energy, and defence structures. In addition, the USA imposed a ban on the export of US goods, technologies, and services to the Crimea. It also banned US investments in the Crimea.

20 June 2018

TASS

http://tass.com/society/1010277

Advertisement

28 April 2018. The American Record of FAILURE Against Russia

DNR soldier holding up an American MRE pack captured in Debaltsevo… the mortar-location radars and anti-tank weapons went to Russia for examination.

******

May Day 2015 in Donetsk… America’s intervention DEEPENED the commitment to the Soviet legacy; it didn’t supplant it.

________________________

You hear much rot from Americans that “Russia needs to change its ways”. They act as though they’re the uncontested global hegemon. Nothing is further from the truth.

Let’s start with 2008… the USA used its puppet-state client Georgia to attack Russian forces in South Ossetia. That war started with a surprise Grad bombardment of the Ossetian capital, Tskhinval, at 2200 in the evening. The Georgians learned well from their American mentors. The American way of war is to strike civilians in preference to dealing with a state’s military forces. Of course, they use “remote means” such as aircraft, missiles, and drones… since they don’t face their victims, you see, it makes it less culpable (in their eyes, that is). Most Americans aren’t as honest as Curtis LeMay, who admitted that if the USA had lost World War II, he would’ve faced trial as a war criminal.

The South Ossetia War ended in disaster for the USA. Russia didn’t call up any reserves; it used two divisions in the Caucasus and two airborne divisions from the strategic reserve to rout the Georgians. Another opening act of the war was an attack on the Roki Tunnel, a transportation bottleneck. Russian regular forces smashed American special oppers disguised as PMC mercs. In fact, the Russian advance to Gori chased the US “advisors” to the Georgians out of their lair, leading to a treasure trove of intel falling into Russian hands (the Russian advance was so swift, the Yanks had to abandon everything, including their computers). The USA bleated that the Russians got nothing of value, but the photographic evidence belied that.

What did Russia do? It didn’t boast. Instead, Russian commentators noted all the problems that surfaced in the operation. This was wrong, that needed repair, and they needed to put this other right. There was no American-style chest-beating and posturing. Russia simply buckled down to work on correcting what it saw as mistakes. After all, the USA and its proxies threaten Russia; it doesn’t have the luxury of secure borders, as the USA has.

In 2014, the USA fomented a coup in the Ukraine. The point of this was not only to put a lickspittle puppet client regime in place in Kiev; it was to seize the Russian naval base at Sevastopol, which controls the Black Sea. In fact, the latter objective was far more important than the former one. The USA managed to put its clients in power in Kiev. However, the Ukraine has been a somewhat lawless anarchic entity since its formation in 1991. The Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts resisted the coup plotters and their pseudo-government. These three areas were the strongest supporters of the Party of Regions and the KPU, two political entities banned by the American puppet junta. In addition, the Crimea had only been part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic since 1954; it was in the RSFSR before that… it’s never been “Ukrainian”. Therefore, it surprised no one but the ignorant that these three entities refused to obey the illegal authorities installed by the Americans.

The new junta proved itself ineffectual. It couldn’t call the many thousands of reservists to the colours. It didn’t… perhaps, because it couldn’t. Unconfirmed reports indicate that hackers fucked up the Voenkom (military conscription body) computer system… a report that seems true, considering the chaotic recruiting situation since the coup. Russia sent no troops to the Crimea. It had no need, the forces onsite proved sufficient to the task. Indeed, most of the Ukrainian troops cowered in their barracks… if they didn’t rally to Russia outright (as did the commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Berezovsky). After the initial stages, Russia sent the Ukrainian soldiers home with money in their pockets (if they didn’t choose to rally to Russia… most did). There was no combat whatsoever. To put it short, the USA failed in its main objective of dislodging the Black Sea Fleet from its main and most important base. That is, the coup was a failure insofar as attacking Russia went. That’s the real reason for the sanctions… the USA hates it when another power either defeats it or stymies it. The Cubans know all about that.

Now, the Americans wanted to crush the patriotic elements in the new Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) and Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR). The new American plan was to seize the Donetsk airport and fly in junta troops stiffened by American special oppers (again, disguised as PMC mercs, a common Langley ruse). Scratch local forces and Cossacks checked the junta troops tasked with taking the airport. As they couldn’t prevail, the USA fed in “mercs”… this didn’t turn the tide, as the Peoples Republic forces had high morale, motivation, and cohesion (they were fighting for hearth and home, after all, and knew that the Galician Uniate nationalist pigs wanted to kill them). Then, the USA did something abysmally stupid. The only other NATO state willing to help in the American operation was Poland. That caused an uproar in the LNR and the DNR… it was 1612 all over again. The battle at the airport ended in total victory for the DNR forces. It was hard-fought and bloody, but the Americans and Poles, along with their clueless Galician allies, had to abandon the airport and its environs. Another American plan bit the dust!

Then, the American plan was to help the junta forces defeat the patriot forces in a battle around Debaltsevo. The USA trained its lackeys… but it proved ineffectual. Whenever the Galicians ran into serious opposition, they’d resort to frontal attacks, leading to horrific casualties. They were also inert, showing no aptitude for mobile operations. They sat in isolated pockets; the DNR forces defeated them in detail, as the junta forces laid still in stunned cowardice, refusing to withdraw to safety. Did they tell the junta troops that the Americans would rescue them? Perhaps, but we have no evidence that the USA planned such. Rather, I think that the Americans decided to cut their losses and let their allies rot… it’s what they did in China and Vietnam, after all. Like South Ossetia, Debaltsevo was a treasure chest of intel; much of the matériel sent to the junta troops ended up in the hands of the DNR forces, who sent them off to Moscow.

Today, the USA makes Sturm und Drang… but do look at the record. It doesn’t do well against Russia. It simply lacks the ground forces necessary (it isn’t and wasn’t ever a “hyperpower”). If it were to use NATO allies to make up its lack of ground forces, it’d either lead to stiffening Russian resolve (if Germany or Poland came in) or to having half-hearted ineffectual allies holding the flanks. Remember, Romania, Hungary, and Italy held the Wehrmacht’s flanks and failed… their grandsons would do no better (like their grandfathers did, they well understand that this isn’t their war and they’d crumble at the first serious push).

Mike Pompeo is a self-important overconfident asshole, full of braggadocio. Does he believe the drivel that he spouts? I don’t know… neither does anyone else. If he does believe it, we’re in for “interesting times”, and you know what the Chinese mean by that.

BMD

13 January 2018. V V Putin on Russians and “Ukrainians”

________________________

The post-1991 “Ukraine” is a fictive and notional entity with no real existence in the real world. The Soviets merged three very different major regions… Malorossiya, Novorossiya, and Galicia into a fanciful “Ukrainian SSR”. This is not to mention the Crimea, which was never “Ukrainian” at all, but was only made part of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by the drunkard Khrushchyov. Another region with a separate and distinct history is Podkarpatskaya Krai… which never was part of Galicia or Little Russia (it was part of Hungary, not Austria, in the Dual Monarchy; it was never under Polish occupation, as were Galicia and Malorossiya). There’s no unified “Ukrainian” nationality nor is there a “Ukrainian” language… the modern construct called “Ukrainian” comes from the Galician subdialect, which is a creole mixing elements of Polish and Russian. Most people in Malorossiya speak Surzhik, a dialect that mixes Russian and “Ukrainian” elements… it’s distinct from so-called “Ukrainian”. In Novorossiya and the Crimea, the language is Russian, and that’s that. That’s why the Crimea and Novorossiya were strongholds of the Party of Regions prior to the coup, as they opposed Ukrainian Nationalism and Galician cultural imperialism. Rusins have their own dialect (distinct from that of Galicia) written in the Latin, not the Cyrillic, alphabet.

In short, there’s no “Ukrainian” language or people per se. “Ukrainian” isn’t a nationality… it’s an ideology… a vicious fascist ideology of the most feral sort. The world will be safer when it breathes its last. By the way… “Ukrainians” would revert to what they truly are… Great Russians, Little Russians, and Galicians (along with Rusins in Podkarpatskaya Krai and some Tatars in the Crimea). They’d be what they always were… separate and distinct peoples, worthy of respect and dignity.

BMD

Want to Try Some Russian Wine?

________________________

Russia is home to historic wineries although few bottles end up on tables in the west. However, with exports beginning to flow out, there’s an increasing chance that people in the wider world will come to know and love Russian wine as much as many locals do.

Among the most storied wineries in Russia is Massandra in the Crimean city of Yalta on the Black Sea. Knyaz Lev Golitsyn first opened the winery in 1894. Like much private property in Russia, the Soviets nationalised the winery. However, unlike many wine producers in the USSR, the Massandra vineyards remained open even during Gorbachyov’s war on drinking in the late 1980s. Today, Massandra looks to export more wine in spite of threats from the Ukrainian régime, who whine about everything from a recent auction of Massandra’s valuable vintage bottles to the fact the winery still operates. However, that didn’t stop President Putin and his friend former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from sharing a bottle of wine said to be worth 90,000 USD (5.1 million Roubles. 613,000 Renminbi. 5.8 million INR. 122,000 CAD. 121,000 AUD. 80,000 Euros. 70,000 UK Pounds).

Recently, the Alma Valley Winery, a younger Crimean winery, won top awards at an Italian wine festival. Crimean wine country is a popular destination for people throughout Russia. You can book a visit to Massandra by visiting their website or getting in touch on +7 (3654) 35-24-38 or office@massandra.su. To visit the Alma Valley Winery, contact them via their website or ring them up on +7 36554–9–19–79. Alternatively, you can send them an email at, office@alma-valley.ru.

4 June 2017

Russia Feed

http://russiafeed.com/want-to-try-some-russian-wine/