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Comment by numakerg | Hacker News Reader

Despite it being written in English, I think this letter is intended for a more domestic audience.

Comparing Russia to the USA is like comparing potatoes to oranges. One is a child of royalty, chasing their dreams and living the in the lap of luxury while the other is a child of poverty, struggling for most of their life, a fleeting moment of success before their past catches up to them.

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I have to double check here because it's ambiguous, but the child of poverty here is Russia, right?

Ask yourself, choosing to live among the two choices and presuming you’re not Snowden, where would you choose to live, if you’re not an oligarch?

If you’re not sure, ask poor Americans, ask a homeless person, ask a recent immigrant.

I will second that ambiguity, having never lived in Russia. My sense is that poor Americans are also struggling, but maybe not as much as in Russia? Can you clarify which is which?

As an immigrant from Russia who regularly visit US, I can relate your "low-end" class to Russian "middle". People called poor in US almost always own a used car, and often some cheap house or trailer. Poverty in Russia means no housing for a family (2-3 families live in one apartment), absolutely no car, which is already considered as middle-class privilege, struggle to buy food for the whole family and don't have access to social lifts to escape this kind of existence.

You can't even imagine. The whole east Russian speaking conglomerate of contries is basically a test to your human nature and survivalism.

Right people can’t begin to imagine why sanctions against Russia don’t work. Subtracting from near zero leaves them at near zero. Moar sanctions don’t bother them as they are already used to living with the bare minimum. It’s not like pulling the rug from under a middle class lifestyle or where people are on the cusp of success.

> Right people can’t begin to imagine why sanctions against Russia don’t work.

Because they are mostly token sanctions, to raise awareness - "you're doing something which we don't agree with". Some sanctions are also more targeted - like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act, which is more troublesome for it's targets, at least judging by their reaction.

There are significant technology and financial sanctions too... but it’s like applying them to Yemen and thinking “that’ll hurt’em” or whatever, except worse because Russia has technical ability and they trade with China, etc. but like Yemen their people are used to austere circumstances.

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