Russia bans coupon payments to foreigners holding ruble bonds
reuters.com
reuters.com
I would be upset indeed if I lost my job not because of anything I did but because of an unpopular war on the other side of the country started by a dictator
The West expects to get away with it, why not Russia?
And of course with all this defaulting on liabilities going on, those other countries in debt to the West are looking on to see what happens.
The answer will be less than most fear. As is usual in these situations the fear is a greater behaviour control than the reality.
One of these two so casually mentioned in the same sentence is literally bombing civilians.
If bombing civilians will not stop you from defending a murderous regime with whataboutisms, what will?
Note that while I oppose the seizing of people‘s bank accounts by Trudeau with every fibre of my body, this whataboutism is easily defused:
Using these kind of soft power moves (basically doing things in the non-meat space) is precisely why Canada is still a liberal democracy.
Even if you became the state‘s enemy #1, the worst that happens is… your bank account is temporarily disabled, overtly (not a clandestine operation, so you can challenge it legally, protest it, etc).
This is completely different from Russia, where you just… disappear (ie you get killed).
I watched some aftermath footage of the vacated streets of Ottawa, the day after they were cleared out. There was no sign of any damage. Not a broken window or anything. I didn't see garbage on the ground. The commentators of the news clips I watched, though decidedly biased against the protesters, didn't remark upon anything like that.
When prominent leader of "opposition" Navalny was asked about returning Crimea to Ukraine after Putin, answer was "It is not a sandwich to pass it back and forth".
"On December 16, three days after the introduction of the martial law in Poland, pro-Solidarity miners striking against the declaration of the martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski were dispersed by the troops of the Polish army and police. The forces used in the main thrust against the miners consisted of eight companies of riot police (ZOMO, supported by ORMO (police reservists) and NOMO) with seven water cannons, three companies of military infantry fighting vehicles (each of 10 vehicles) and one company of tanks. The miners repeatedly fought them off with their tools. During the brawl a number of strikers and 41 troops were injured, including 11 severely.
In the apex of the events, a commando-type special platoon of ZOMO opened the "shoot to kill" fire at the strikers, killing nine of them (Jan Stawisiński, Joachim Gnida, Józef Czekalski, Krzysztof Giza, Ryszard Gzik, Bogusław Kopczak, Andrzej Pełka, Zbigniew Wilk and Zenon Zając) and wounding 21 others. "
another one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Polish_protests
"The protests were sparked by a sudden increase in the prices of food and other everyday items. Strikes were put down by the Polish People's Army and the Citizen's Militia, resulting in at least 44 people killed and more than 1,000 wounded."
Pretty much ALL major developed western countries went through such revolutions to earn their freedom. It is time for you to go get it.
You realise that you're asking innocent people to risk violence and potentially even give up their lives, to protest an invasion by a despot that they had little opportunity to oppose right? It's pretty easy to take credit for the bravery and fortitude that your predecessors had to bring about their revolutions from the comfort of your first-world home at little to no risk to yourself.
Honestly, this seems like the most out of touch call to action that I've ever heard. Also, it only starts to feel even more hypocritical when you realise that there have been several anti-war protests going on in Russia, for which the participants faced brutal violence at the hands of the state.
The difference between Russia and Ukraine is exactly this. Ukrainians fought for their country in 2014 - called a coup in Russian media. https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt...
It was deadly, the consequences are felt even today. But they are proud of their land, they love their leader. Their country is theirs and they were willing to oust the ruling class to secure their own country.
Honestly, enough with the justifications. The cushy western life didn't come easy.
When Russians got fed up in ‘91, they knew what to do.
You've clearly never lived outside of a cozy democracy. Also, this is incredibly contemptuous.
"People get the government they deserve" is spot on. I'd also like to add that every single person pays the price for the actions of their government, regardless whether they choose to care who rules them or choose to disregard it (which is an equally conscious choice with equal consequences).
And, again, the Russians themselves proved this in 1991.
Have you ever considered that most russians, chinese, etc support their governments? Do you think when most russians hear NATO is expanding into ukraine, they're celebrating? Do you think everytime we antagonize china with taiwan, the chinese population celebrates it?
What's incredibly contemptuous is the idea that russians, chinese, iranians, etc don't have any agency. On average, I'd say russians, chinese, iranians, etc are better educated, smarter and politically aware than the brainwashed masses in a "cozy democracy" - whatever that means.
Democracies don't jail the opposition party leaders.
Democracies jail opposition, democracies commit genocide, democracies censor newspapers, democracies enslave people, democracies invade and overthrow other democracies, democracies attack and harass journalists, etc.
Not sure where you got the notion that democracies are perfect.
Otherwise we might as well welcome North Korea amongst the democracies.
Citation needed.
Sometimes, even in a cozy democracy, both parties jointly support giving trillions in bailouts to pay bonuses to bankers and rating agencies who defrauded the public for years.
Even in a cozy democracy, I don’t think it is fair to hold the entire population accountable for the decisions of a tiny elite.
That only applies to liberal democracies. We have a choice on a regular and recurring basis.