Just use google to verify what your propaganda is feeding you.
You are a very funny conversationalist, but it's time for me to sleep in the hayloft. Tomorrow morning I will get up again at sunrise, eat a baby for breakfast and drink vodka, then I will pull one European out of the cellar to feed my tame bear, then I will put on ceremonial bast shoes and an earflap with a red star, put firewood into the electric generator, turn on my analog lamp computer and I will again inspire everyone with horror on the Internet all day, telling propaganda. It's hard work, but after victory I was promised two sacks of potatoes, four cases of vodka and a dozen captured homosexual Europeans, my bear loves them very much for their tender meat.
I am sure you will do so. But I am sure you will not be able to buy an iPhone. You may get a PutinPhone 11. It comes with a preloaded white flag and a GPS that is rigged to tell you that you are always in Russia.
Russia does not need euros, but the freedom to dispose of them, to buy everything that Russia needs, even if sanctions are imposed on it. One phrase of Putin's "gas for rubles" made 6,000 Western sanctions a senseless hysterical dummy. It is foolish to threaten Russia when she holds you by the balls - Europe will quickly learn this lesson.
Russia could itself overcome the sanctions through spacers and intermediaries, it has enough loyal partners in the world and enough experience. But then the Russians would have to pay overheads and commissions. Now the overhead costs of overcoming their own sanctions will fall on the shoulders of the West. This is an example of political judo, which Putin is very good at.
Translation: Putin is running out of euros and he needs more euros so he's trying to renegotiate the gas contracts.
That's all there is to it. He can't pay anyone outside of Russia (e.g. China) in rubles. He needs real currency. He's thoroughly fucked either way but if he can extort a few extra euros this way, he might be able to make it to May 9 and have a few tanks remaining for his last parade in the Red Square.
Pfff, it is so clear that Putin needs to support his currency... and to be honest that is great news, it means that sanctions and economic measures are sinking the ruble and that is something the media cannot hide from the Russian people... things cost what they cost.
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I bet NATO chose this route because they want to destroy Russia militarily and economically without stepping a foot on the Russian territory.
Do I agree with it? Hell no, I think it is inhumane that they are allowing Russians to control Ukrainian air space and bomb them indiscriminately.
NATO should disable Russian missiles sites, disable their air defense systems, destroy the Black Sea fleet, destroy the Kerch bridge, and bomb their bases in Crimea. All in a day or two. That is the correct course of action.
NATO is officially neutral in this conflict. They can sell weapons to whoever they choose and at the price they choose as per the rules of war and the choice is to supply Ukraine as much as possible.
While it may look like a great idea to escalate and involve more countries directly in the war, the options you are proposing lead to escalation and the risk of a nuclear response. Such a response may range from a limited nuclear war to a full scale humanity self-destruction.
Do you really want to get your country nuked? Because it will be where the first strike would happen and it is a game with no winner.
