₦airaland Forum

Voldoz:
Country's enemies or your political leaders enemies?

Cause all the war crimes carried out by US, Russia, China, North Korea etc are not carried out by the Country herself but the political leaders in power.

If Buhari decides to raid Cameroon today, you and I even the military has nothing with Cameroon but the operation must be carried out.

Blame the leaders.

The United States in its Security document as approved by Congress stated that Russia is a "Strategic enemy". It has gone beyond political leaders.

Also to address another point - leaders carry out the national interest of their respective countries. If Nigeria decides to attack Cameroon tomorrow, it will be as a result of a declaration of war which can only be made by the National Assembly. The NASS represents you and I, so we are involved.

Stevenson20:
Russia is seriously loosing this war. The advisers that advised Putin to evade Ukraine need to face firing squad

Russia is not loosing. You are being fed by the wrong sources. There are Ukranian Telegram channels that are even showing the true picture on the ground that the situation is dire.

Just this afternoon, the airport in Mariupol was captured and the fighting had reached the city centre. Note that Mariupol has a population of 450,000 persons with the Azov battalion having over 13,000 fighters in there. Meanwhile the Russian plus DPR forces assaulting Mariupol are just over 5,000

That's a over 2 to 1 advantage for the defenders and yet they are loosing heavily.

You can follow @Sashakots and @Intel Slava Z on Telegram if you want on the ground information.

All the Western journalists are in Kiev and Lviv regurgitating whatever the Ukrainian government tells them to say.

While dissenting opinion is encouraged, one should be mindful not to be a pawn in the hands of your country's enemies.

She claims that an end should be put to the "fraticidal war" but I don't recall her ever saying anything about the "fraticidal genocide" conducted by Ukranian nationalists in the Donbass.

She further claims that she and her "colleagues" were aware that their jobs is to spread propaganda. This is where my suspicion was piqued. By and large, she could have resigned at anytime from the station if she felt its editorial opinions differed from hers. Why stay there for many years as a junior editor, earn salaries and then use a convenient excuse to gain clout and the attention of the Western media?

Somebody else will take her job and life will go on. Whoever is also pushing her to do this will also one day decide that she is longer useful and move on.

Who remembers Navalny these day??

godliman:
Wait shebi Russia is super power, why are they buying weapons from other countries up and down like third world country? Believe me Russia is over rated. They only hide under nuke to bully others. Put nuke aside, let's go conventional, Russia might not even stand Germany or Brit in war.

You need to be careful of what you read from The Sun newspapers, except if you already have an opinion and you just want them to reinforce it.

I think at this point, it is clear that Buni and Co. have a game plan that is at cross purposes with the need to have a convention on March 26th.

So all is just a game?

ecolime:
They are simply telling all their creditors they have more than enough money to service their debts. But US has frozen the money, so dont disturb us. Tell the US to unfreeze it

Russia is right on this one IMO. It's an artificial default.. lol

This guy's level of madness na grade 1.

BTW, Ukraine has accepted to be a neutral state so why prolong the war again?

A country that has agreed to be a neutral state will not still be seeking for weapons, missiles and aircraft to continue prolonging the conflict.

The Ukrainians say one thing today and then tomorrow, say something else. This means that they and their masters in Washington DC haven't really come to the realization that the operation will continue until all the stated goals are met, which is the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. The goals will be achieved either militarily or around the negotiating table.

BTW, on the debt payment, it isn't madness but commonsense. The knew that Russia had debt obligations to pay and yet they went to ahead to freeze the money to be used in repaying. Who is the defaulter here, Russia or the West?

Rgade:
Does fleeing have to be associated with war or refugee crisis? They are leaving their home country because of Putin’s madness. End of story.

You know one thing with Western media is that due to their perceived hatred of Russia and anything Russian, they are willing to spin stories to make headlines to hoodwink people who don't bother to research on what they read.

What has happened is as follows:

1. The EU closed its airspace to all Russian flights and Russia retaliated by closing its airspace to all EU flights.
2. This means that Russian citizens who are resident in the EU but were visiting Russia will not be able to return home due to the need to take roundabout connecting flights which will be too expensive.
3. Now Russia and Finland (who is an EU country) have a special train service called Allegro. These trains are only used by Finish and Russian citizens and it connects the cities of St. Peterspurg in Russia and Helsinki in Finland.
4. For a Russian who needs to travel to the EU, instead of travelling to Istanbul in Turkey and then from there travel to the EU countries which is quite expensive, it is cheaper to board the Allegro to Finland and then take a flight from Helsinki to their countries of residence.
5. There are no "thousands of people" fleeing because of Putin.
6. I don't expect you to believe me, but at least let the truth be available to neutral readers.

N.b. There are Russians who will leave. Some for jobs, some for business, some to travel, and some due to their opposition to the military operation. But to make it as thousands are fleeing is just misinformation.

Russia is not "defaulting" on its debt.

The Russian Finance Minister said that since $300bn our of $643bn of its foreign reserves were frozen abroad due to sanctions, it will proceed to make payment on its obligation to Creditors in Rubles.

This is especially to ensure that the country is able to conserve the foreign exchanges it has remaining for its own internal and trade needs.

The Creditors are to open a special "C Account" with the Bank of Russia, where the equivalent sum of the debt obligation is deposited in Rubles. The Creditors could choose to cash out on the deposited Rubles or could decide to let it accumulate until when funds are unfrozen and it could be exchanged for USD.

If this is not acceptable to them, they should go and meet their respective governments who froze part of Russia's reserves in the first place.

Note 1: Russia's external debt obligation is one for the lowest in the world at about $40bn

Note 2: This is a called a "Technical Default" and not a "Sovereign Default" as claimed by sensationalist headlines. Technical in the sense that it is unable to pay due to technicalities.

Note 3: While Russia is able to actually pay back as it still has over $343bn left in its hands in form of Gold, Yuan and other convertible securities, it won't do so as this is a form of retaliation to the countries who froze their reserves in the first place. Nobody is stupid.

What is sow, is what you reap.

deji68:
Nice anylysis, but i dont think the Russians are slow, maybe they were careful, took America over 30 day to conquer Iraq .

Agreed. I didn't mean it like they are stalling, but they are meeting fierce resistance from the Nationalists and they are also being careful when it comes to Civilians.

I can't even compare to Iraq. The casualties as at this stage in the Iraq war was already in tens of thousands.

Yet no media then, not evening CNN was dragging them left, right and centre. In the eyes of the International (Western) media, any other war asides that of the USA is unjust and full of war crimes.

olatade:
If Putin enters Kyiv, he has won the war. If the Ukrainians preserve Kyiv, they are the ones who have won the war. Kyiv is the key to this war. Make Kyiv the new Stalingrad.

The objective of this operation was never about Kiev. The pressure on Kiev is to force a political concession from the Ukrainian government with regards to Crimea and the Donbass.

The real objectives in no particular order seem to be

1. Liberation of the Donbass up their original borders
2. Demilitarization and Degrading of Ukraine's military capabilities.
3. Relieving the Siege of Crimea - through unblocking of the canals and linking it to the Dnieper river. That's why they took Kherson city.
4. Creating a land bridge from Crimea through Donbass all the way to Rostov in Russia. This is why conquering Mariupol is key.
5. Extending the land bridge westwards from Crimea to Odessa by conquering Mykolaiv, which was a major shipyard in Soviet times. Doing this will effectively deprive Ukraine from access to the sea and make it a landlocked country.
6. Destroy the Azov Battalion in Donbass. They are all now in Mariupol. Those in Volnovakha have been killed or surrendered.
7. Capture all Nuclear powerplants in Ukraine - to prevent Ukraine from having access to materials to create weapons.

All of the above objectives are largely being achieved albeit slowly due to resistance.

The attacks on Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and other cities in the North are to tie down Ukrainian forces and prevent them from coming to the South.

Bomboy7:
Do russians even use Facebook?

Only a few Russians use facebook. Roughly 10% or so.

They have their own version of Facebook which is called VKontakte (VK) followed by Odnoklassiki (My Classmates).

However, Instagram is very very popular.

Techguy96:
Lol, I was taking u serious until I read ur last paragraph.
You obviously have no idea what u are talking about

Share your own idea, since you are more enlightened.

Please try to validate information before posting. The narrative by the Ukrainian government that the Russians "bombed a Hospital in Mariupol" is still being verified. Even some Ukrainians online are questioning this came as the Hospital in question was evacuated earlier this week and the Azov battalion used it as a command post. After the events of Snake Island and Ghost of Kiev, there should be circumspection in sharing unverified information. The speed with which this information spread like wildfire and you have posted this here, isn't the same speed that the debunking of the false claim will spread. Please be careful sir.

Odewaleadesoye:
Since the beginning of this cold war, you will surely agree with me that I have never been on anyone's side. All I want is peace of both countries.

President Zelenskyy should have reconsidered his decision the moment US started retrieving her citizens from Ukraine.

If President Zelenskyy has agreed to Russia's terms and conditions, this war would have been curbed.

Later, they can sort things out diplomatically.

Only God knows how many lives and properties lost in the course of this war.

Did you know that this war can also lead to something else?

May God help us all.

#WarIsNotTheAnswer
#StopWar

So much propaganda.....

tolexy007:
[s][/s]


safe ur breath bro. russsia is going down

Hope you don't go down first before they do...

1stGenAmerican:
So you’re saying that the ruble, which is basically worth pennies now, will completely rebound in 3-6 months? What opportunities will present themselves in a cash-strapped nation? What makes you think that these brands will want to return to a country where the buying power of consumers will be non-existent? Do you honestly believe the Russian government has the means to sustain this invasion much longer?

So many questions all rolled into one.

The fall of the Ruble is dictated by market dynamics and is precipitated by the exceptionally high demand for dollars which arose due to the freezing of the Central Bank's assets and cutting off supply of dollars to Russia. I never said that the "currency" will rebound after 3-6 months, I said the ECONOMY will rebound. Moreso, once the initial shocks have been felt and addressed, the currency will rise. However, it won't rise to its previous exchange rate and might actually be "artificially" devalued as a monetary policy strategy to discourage imports and boost exports and the country aggressively adopts import substitution to eliminate the pressures caused by the loss of foreign components.

As to the point of the economy being cash strapped, please share your proof and I hope it isn't from Mainstream Media. The Russian Central Bank had about $643bn in foreign reserves as at Jan 2022. Out of it, an estimated $390bn has been frozen as they denominated in Euros, Pounds and USD thus leaving $213bn. This is separate from the National Wealth Fund (Russia's version of Excess Crude Account) which is valued at $198bn as at Nov 2021 and wholly domiciled within Russia. This is also separate from the Russian Direct Investment Fund, also wholly domiciled within Russia and whose Capital under management is in excess of $10bn as at Jan 2022. That is a total of $421bn held by the Russian government within Russia. Note that I am not even including private capital held in Russian banks which the government can borrow if it needs to. Hence your comment about being "cash strapped" is shallow and not backed by research.

About the brands returning, it is a permanent bye bye. The Russian government passed a law today to nationalize the assets of the companies that left Russia, so it total bye bye for them. This is the link to the nationalization bill (copy into a Google browser and it auto-translate) - https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5250509

Sustaining the "special military operation" is based on the available weapon stocks and spares to prosecute the war. Russia manufactures all its weapons systems with all critical components made by Russian state-owned defence enterprises. if it wants to sustain the operation indefinitely, it could choose to do so. Constraining factors will be political will to continue and losses of manpower (either killed or captured).

I hope I have addressed all your points?

Reading a lot of comments here does indicate that there is a lot of shallow reasoning amongst my fellow Nigerians when it comes to International issues.

A lot of persons on this forum are pro UK/US and well that's fine. Especially when you consider the fact that those are the countries they wish to emigrate to, and they have been heavily influenced by their way of life as aggressively promoted by their TV and film media.

Not to digress on the OP's post, I do NOT ever recall the Russians saying that they were "Sanctions proof". What they did say was that they had built a "fortress economy" which will be resistant to collapse as envisaged by the Western powers. They also stated that no matter the sanctions levied on them, they wouldn't budge on their security concerns.

I read a lot of Russian media and also follow the actions that their government has been taking with regards to measures to reduce the impact of the sanctions and ensure that the economy continues to function.

What you are currently seeing is a market induced "supply-demand" crisis, as major imports routes of goods, investments and funds into the economy has been frozen all at once and about 60% of the foreign currency reserves which will have cushioned the effect of the loss of the above inflows have also been frozen. So for the next 3 - 6 months, the economy will be in crisis mode but gradually things will begin to normalize as they develop alternative markets and sources of capital.

One important factor that people fail to realize is that Russia is self-sufficient in the area of resources, food, power, security and for majority of the items imported from the west, they have their own analogues. An example is in the area of computers - few do realize that Russia manufactures it own computers (Elbrus - which are military grade) and they don't run on Integrated Circuits (chips), but rather on Quartz crystals which make it bulky as compared to the more marketable slims computers from Japan/US, but in terms of resistance to EMPs, ruggedity and redundance they are much more better than the HPs, Dells and Toshibas.

Russian economy from Soviet times, has also been focused on three key areas - Military and Military use products, Space and Aircraft Manufacturing and Extractive industries (Oil & Gas). However, they have been weak on consumer oriented products and technologies. This is where they are going to pour in their efforts to really become independent from the West.

Things will be very tough, but once they can pull through, it is bye bye to all those companies that have imposed sanctions and there is no more "Russian market" for them ever again.

Russia already had indigenous analogues for majority of the companies listed below. The biggest hurt though is the potential loss of employment from the suspension of operations. This is why they are putting in place measures to nationalize the assets of those companies to preserve employment and tax remittances.
Also, it will be hard for majority of these brands to return as their exit is seen as a betrayal and patronage will be close to zero.
The Economy is seriously hit, but within 3-6 months, all will stabilise as new opportunities are discovered and workarounds put in place.
When your security is threatened, not having access to foreign brands or social media apps is of the least concern.

Antoeni:
Putin is accusing US of declaring an Economic war against Russia as the following companies pull out of the country. Can Russia survive this isolation?

Automobile:
Ford
General Motors
Toyota
Nissan
Volkswagen
Tech:
Facebook
Spotify
Roku
Apple
Twitter
Youtube
Microsoft
Intel
Amazon
IBM
Airbnb
Alstom
Aviation:
Boeing
Airbus
Consulting:
KPMG
Accenture
Delloite
Price WaterhouseCoopers
Ernst & Young
Energy:
Shell
BP
TotalEnergies
General Electric
Equinor
Exxon
Finance:
Norway’s $1.3 trillion Sovereign Wealth
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Moody’s
Retails:
H&M
Heineken
Ikea
Puma
Inditex (Owns Zara)
Mothercare
Procter and Gamble
Prada
Estee Lauder Companies
Yum Brands
Unilever
McDonalds
Shipping:
Maerks
UPS
DHL
Entertainment:
Warner Media
Disney
Direct TV

Don't like Liverpool, but I think they've got this one in the bag already. Hard for Inter to come back from 0:2

CoronaVirusPro:
smh.....

You even insulted me.

You are foolishness is next to none and I don't blame you, its hereditary.

Now Google Nord Stream 2. Read about it and get familiar with technology, commodity and aim of project

Come back here and insult me.

Village boy claiming "enlightened" in 2022.

Hello, you far behind the present.

The more you say these things, the more ignorant you present yourself.

First, Nord stream 2 is a Natural Gas (NG) pipeline and not LNG. LNG is shipped not piped. This is because LNG pipelines are mega expensive due to the cryogenic nature of LNG (stored at -160oC) which requires massive amounts of insulation to prevent pipeline breakage.

Secondly, the length of Nord stream 2 is estimated at 1,250km with a capacity to move 55bn cm3 of NG. It cost $15bn and took three years to build.

Thirdly, let's even assume Canada chooses to build a NG pipeline. The length of pipeline required to connect Canada (at its Eastern most point in Nova Scotia) and Europe will exceeed over 7,000km if using a straight line and assuming it is terminating in France. Now the design of such a pipeline will not be in a straight line as it will need to manoeuvre around obtacles on the sea floor. This is not even yet considering the number of booster pumping stations required for such pipeline length.

Fourthly, the Canadian gas fields are located in Western Canada. So you need to build an additional pipeline with a lenght of close to 3,000km to connect the pipeline from Western Canada to Nova Scotia, before now building another pipeline under the sea to connect to Europe.

Are you now getting a picture of the scale, cost and time required to actualize this your brilliant plan? I'll leave this to you to take a pen and calculate.

Finally, no insurance company in their right senses will insure such a project in current conditions.

Project is dead on arrival.

chopnaira:
Some online seller will not take any transaction outside PayPal.
Lots of them on eBay.

Inasmuch as I want to agree with you, there are some salient points to note:

Firstly, the world is larger than US, UK, Germany, Australia etc. Hence, the study is by and large not broad enough.
Secondly, dynamics change. Currently the world is "Western aligned". However, It is just matter of time before dynamics reorient the world Eastwards. Alibaba is the world's largest e-commerce site by sales volume, and it accepts Paypal. Those who patronise Alibaba don't care if Paypal is integrated there or not. Furthermore, it is still growing.

So with time, things will change.

chopnaira:
Yeah

PayPal shuts down it's services in Russia. Whether someone uses UnionPay, visa, MasterCard, AMEX, that person is still not making that transaction aslong as it originates from Russia

Paypal is a money transfer platform and not a card settlement platform. Nothing concerns the usability of Unionpay with Paypal

cocoduck:
list of countries that use UnionPay please.

F...ck off

CoronaVirusPro:
Shipping what? Its all about logistics! Is Nigeria not importing fuel? Its all about logistics. Common, this is 2022.

Food stuff make it from Africa to Canada. Pipeline option is also on the table.

And you making look like rocket science.

Bros, I no wan yab you. So you are saying a pipeline should be built to transfer LNG from Canada to Europe. Even Natural gas sef cannot be done using such means...

Insought, your "madness" is legendary.

Fyi...LNG is transported using ships.

tobenenye:
I have not seen any real Russian military sophisticated hardware self

They have mainly used Cruise missiles fired from the Black sea. As for the ground forces, it is quite surprising that the equipment are old stocks of T-72s, BMP-3 and BTR-82 IFVs

Although the Airborne troops are using Tigr 4x4s which is a high intensity vehicle for quick mobility. It was tested in Syria.

Well the US and UK are ready to fight the war to the last Ukrainian, so what can I say...

Person wey no get sense, dem go use im head break coconut.

Zelenskyy abi Selense, shey you see yourself and your country....

cocoduck:
list of the union pay countries please

You can't do research ni? Go to Wikipedia

CoronaVirusPro:
You telling me LNG Canada cannot supply Europe?

Hello! The option has been on the table of recent. LNG Canada has the capacity.

Even the pic you pasted stated "exploring".

I think you should read up on LNG production and the necessary infrastructure associated with it, including shipping then you will understand the gargantuan scale of what I am saying.

CoronaVirusPro:
Russia does not hold monopoly of energy.

Canada and Nigeria are good examples of country that can power Europe. stop sounding like Russia is the only country in the world with LNG

Oga, Russia supplies about 25% of the World's gas output and over 15% of the World's oil output. Even if Canada and Nigeria ramp up production for the next 10 years, they can't match Russia.

You think gas infrastructure is kuli kuli abi?

cocoduck:
UnionPay is a long term solution, they need something on the short term, so Russia will surely feel the pain, and UnionPay is only used by Chinese banks, so it's not much of a solution either

Russia already had the MIR payment system which covers all Russian Banks, Belarusian banks and Banks within the CIS countries. What Unionpay does, is to enable the card holders of Russian banks to still be able to perform transactions internationally outside of Mastercard and Visa.

Update: Unionpay is accepted in 180 countries of the world.

WHITELIGHTER:
They don't know....Russia is in serious economy rubble....and China will milk wats left of it

Fake news