<story><title>US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-13/us-quietly-urges-russia-fertilizer-deals-to-unlock-grain-trade</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snemvalts</author><text>&amp;gt; Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years&lt;p&gt;Is that meant to demonstrate economic strength?&lt;p&gt;* Russians have massive amount of brain drain. Most of tech employees have left, leaving only people extracting oil, people who turn it into fertilizer and gasoline and supporting roles.&lt;p&gt;* They can&amp;#x27;t build military tech because of sanctions. Starting to use 1950s and 1960s tanks.&lt;p&gt;* They&amp;#x27;ve privatized and violated tons of foreign companies (for example Renault gave away 68% of car manufacturer Avtovaz to the state). Nobody in their right mind will bring money there in the future.&lt;p&gt;* They can&amp;#x27;t import smartphones, tech or luxury cars (things that keep russian upper middle class happy).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China&lt;p&gt;There has been both strengthening and weakening. Russia depends on China, not the other way around.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; and now we&amp;#x27;re dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home&lt;p&gt;It hurts both ways. This is normal. Appeasement would be a better choice?</text></item><item><author>dxhdr</author><text>Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we&amp;#x27;re dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>5e92cb50239222b</author><text>&amp;gt; Most of tech employees have left&lt;p&gt;Yeah, you just keep believing that. Western media was happy to report the mass exodus at the beginning of the war, but &lt;i&gt;for some reason&lt;/i&gt; didn&amp;#x27;t notice that the vast majority of them have returned by now. Undoubtedly, some will be better prepared next time and will leave for good, but that definitely won&amp;#x27;t be &amp;#x27;most of tech employees&amp;#x27; because there&amp;#x27;s nowhere for them to go. It&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;really hard&lt;/i&gt; to emigrate to the West (you have no idea how difficult it is even for those working in IT), and neighboring countries can&amp;#x27;t soak up that many (I&amp;#x27;m from one of them).</text></comment>
<story><title>US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-13/us-quietly-urges-russia-fertilizer-deals-to-unlock-grain-trade</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>snemvalts</author><text>&amp;gt; Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years&lt;p&gt;Is that meant to demonstrate economic strength?&lt;p&gt;* Russians have massive amount of brain drain. Most of tech employees have left, leaving only people extracting oil, people who turn it into fertilizer and gasoline and supporting roles.&lt;p&gt;* They can&amp;#x27;t build military tech because of sanctions. Starting to use 1950s and 1960s tanks.&lt;p&gt;* They&amp;#x27;ve privatized and violated tons of foreign companies (for example Renault gave away 68% of car manufacturer Avtovaz to the state). Nobody in their right mind will bring money there in the future.&lt;p&gt;* They can&amp;#x27;t import smartphones, tech or luxury cars (things that keep russian upper middle class happy).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China&lt;p&gt;There has been both strengthening and weakening. Russia depends on China, not the other way around.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; and now we&amp;#x27;re dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home&lt;p&gt;It hurts both ways. This is normal. Appeasement would be a better choice?</text></item><item><author>dxhdr</author><text>Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we&amp;#x27;re dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>logifail</author><text>&amp;gt; Appeasement would be a better choice?&lt;p&gt;Pope Francis says Ukraine war was ‘perhaps somehow provoked’&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;jun&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;pope-francis-ukraine-war-provoked-russian-troops&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;jun&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;pope-francis-u...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The pontiff warned [..] against what he said was a fairytale perception of the conflict as good versus evil&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one [..] something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined.&amp;quot;</text></comment>