The exchange rate is now directly controlled by the Central bank. Trade with China is very problematic - sometimes it takes several months to complete a single transaction.
> The exchange rate is now directly controlled by the Central bank.
This is false. I don’t know where you have got this, when all information is public and easily available. Here’s how the official exchange rate us determined:
They just collect the data on OTC transactions from banks. The only way for Russian central bank to influence the exchange rate is to sell/buy and they do it only to stabilize the market when volatility is high. They do not have exchange rate targets and do not enforce specific rates in transactions.
> None of the sanctions levied against the USSR were lifted
It's a lie. Sanctions actually began to be lifted in 1989 (Jews were finally allowed to emigrate) when we received 80486 processors. In 1990, we got our first SS7 switches and equipment for the first two mobile networks. It was a big thing.
> North Korea is doing better
Too bad they are not allowed to tell this here, because internet access is available only to several hundreds people :)
> Iran is more modern, developed and free than any other middle eastern country. (That includes Israel.)
Nice joke :)
Russia officially built only one SSJ in 2024 – RA-89192. But in fact it was originally built in 2022 and it is probably the last SSJ-100 ever produced.
There is no such thing as an SSJ-100 with Russian-made engines, period. Airlines cannot buy them, and you cannot fly them. Even the MC-21 is slightly more realistic, but it is also not available to any airline.
We have been hearing this never-ending story of "aircraft will be available in 2 years" for a very long time. :)
BTW, US embassy staff was trying to negotiate peaceful meeting between opposition and Eltsin's team.
But "elected officials" tried to seize TV building with military force instead of discussions.
im not really interested in blaming the US. but the fact is he would never had gotten away with it had the US not stood by him. at that time in Russia there was a real prospect of communists returning to power ... through elections. mainly im interested in pointing out that the US is a hypocrite when it comes to its own values and that it too should be seen as an imperialist power. same as Russia. only once people see both entities as bad a proper thesis about a better more just world can be made. i have no problem saying f*ck putin or f*ck biden (or f*ck trump) as long as it is in the same sentence
>> only once people see both entities as bad a proper thesis about a better more just world can be made.
You're putting a loser mentality on full display. As much as cynical smartass Russians like to mock "fat stupid Americans", in the end of the day it comes down to what kind of life do governments provide for their citizens. Americans live far longer, healthier, happier, more peaceful and more prosperous lives than you do. They have allies all over the world who willingly engage in commerce, cultural exchange, political and military cooperation, and many other things without coersion because of the mutual benefits it brings.
Russia is a cargo cult version of this. Tries to imitate American influence in the world, but fails, because Russians bring very little of any value to the this world. Mostly things that are in the ground anyway, and not products of their ingenuity and determined work.
No, you are not equals. America is a vast incredibly rich empire, but you're just a gas station with nukes. No amount of whataboutism changes the simple fact that everyone envies the Americans and sees you as losers.
Im not Russian and I have no Russian herritage. Never even been to Russia (or US). Im from Europe (from a country with a consistently higher life expectancy than that in the US) and like a LOT of other Europeans I find the very many Americans with this kind of obnoxious attitude (which you might call cultural exchange) pretty revolting. Maybe your walled garden information sources wont tell you this but your allies are getting pretty tiered of your Anglo "superiority" attitude. Touch ground
i have no problem saying f*ck putin or f*ck biden (or f*ck trump) as long as it is in the same sentence
Some folks are caught in purity spirals. Your basic problem (or at least one of them, anyway -- from the content of your postings here, you seem to have many) is that you're caught in a Whataboutism spiral. Which is just as debilitating, but you don't seem to realize this yet.
So you think that US had to invade Russia to remove Eltsin?! He was elected in 1991 (even before USSR collapsed) and had very strong support in Moscow and major cities.
And elections in 1993 (after the dissolution of parliament) were won by Zhirinovsky's party, communists were only 3rd. US never supported Zhirinovsky and he wasn't a communist.
I don't see how US could be blamed for anything that happened in 1993 because they were really trying to stop the crisis, but far-right nationalists (like Barkashov and Makashov) started military actions, like mayor's office assault and TV building attack.
This is not a "returning to power ... through elections" for sure.
> So you think that US had to invade Russia to remove Eltsin?!
You should practice reading plain English.
> This is not a "returning to power ... through elections" for sure.
Communists returning to power in Russia was an actual concern for the US foreign policy. For example it is unclear if Yeltsin fairly won against Zyuganov in 1996. Even today the Communist Party of the Russian Federation polls around 20%. They are the largest opposition party. Although it is pretty obvious they are a fake Communist Party
You should study our history better - 1993 and 1996 were very different years, in 1993 communists lost elections to pro-Eltsin party and to LDPR (Zhirinovsky).
As a party they got only 12% seats and this had nothing to do with US at all.
Major problems with economy happened during 1994 (like famous black Tuesday) and communists became more popular, but they were not the same people who tried to start military coup in 1993 (Zyuganov was very much against any military actions).
In 1996 Zuyganov lost because Lieutenant General Lebed supported Eltsin, he was Berezovsky's creature and was much more "brutal" that Zyuganov (who was looking exactly as Soviet era nomenklatura) . I highly doubt that anyone in US gave this idea to Berezovsky, because people in US had very little understating what rural Russians wanted to see and hear.
In 1993 Yeltsin tried to disolve the parliament without a legal basis in the Russian constitution. He did this to push through a new constitution which granted the president far reaching powers (hello Putin). In other words, he commited a coup. Every Western history book will tell you that the West supported him and that it would have been impossible for him to succeed without Western support, which is only logical because the coup happened in order to fasten Russia's transition to a Western-style market economy. At the time communists in Russia were extremely disorganised but the nation began to realize that they were sold a turd with the collapse of planned economy and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Grass root communists supported the parliament and in Moscow took to street action in much the same way that Nazi groups like Right Sector did during Maidan. Russia also had Nazis supporting the parliament (eg. National Bolsheviks ... Commie Nazis like in the Simpsons) but in the end who the US supports in ex-USSR will determine the success or failure of the coup and/or acceptability of using heavy handed methods of suppression. And dont worry, if you get confused about Nazis as your comrades, the US will also help you decide which Nazis/Jihadists/Nationalists/Terrorists are good and which are bad. So I guess that maybe you should study the history of foreign intervention in your country better.
We had referendum in April 1993 when people of Russia voted for new parliament elections and supported Eltsin. Parliament was elected in 1990 in USSR, not in new Russia and was very much disconnected from reality.
It wasn't a coup because we had new elections in December and people also voted during those elections in favor of new constitution. So you think that US had to be against people's vote?! Elections were real, not like in modern Russia.
And your idea that 1993 events had something in common with Maidan is really delusive - rural Russia just watched CNN live reports from Moscow and did nothing. No one was going to support "nazis" in Moscow. In couple of days everyone returned to their private lives and almost no one was prosecuted.
And during referendum in December people decided their own fate, US had nothing to do with it.
Or you are trying to tell me that my parents voted in 1993 twice because someone from US told them how to vote? This is just some silly foreigner's view which is real nonsense.
Coup in Russian is "Путч" and we had one in 1991 - coup is when you take power from popular people and give it to unpopular people. In 1993 Eltsin was very popular and parliament was not - this is why Russians voted for new Constitution and communists lost elections.
And who really cared about Clinton? Next year Eltsin started 1st Chechen war without asking anyone's permission. What Russia needed back then was money. And US was giving it to us because they were scared: Russia with nuclear weapons and without money was a really scary monster, ready to sell anything to the highest bidder. From nuclear to biological and chemical weapons.
BTW, one of the scientists who was working with "Novichok" sold it to Chechen gangsters and they actually killed local banker and some other guys around. And he is still not feeling guilty about this story. Russia was ready to sell anything to anyone. That's why Clinton had to support someone and pay. Eltsin was mostly ok, not worse than any other former communist leader.
Any seizure of power by an individual or a small number of people that is done in a manner not provided for by the constitution is, by definition, a coup/putsch. The constitutional referrendum happened after the Yeltsin coup, in December. For the said referrendum there is even doubt if it achieved 50%+ turnout, let a lone if it was fair and propper (referendums and elections that are held after an illegal power grab are always just theatre), so you should also check the meaning of the word 'popular'.
> And who really cared about Clinton? Next year Eltsin started 1st Chechen war without asking anyone's permission.
On 11.09.2001 an ex employee of the US government crashed a bunch of planes accross the US without (probably) asking anyone's permission.
> Eltsin was mostly ok, not worse than any other former communist leader.
Im pretty sure it is not controversial to say that most Russians view Yeltsin as a huge failure and a disgrace
Please check our history - we had a referendum before December (in April), when majority voted exactly as Eltsin asked (yes, yes, no, yes - I still remember that song on radio :)
And do you think US asked Russians not to come for referendum? And at the same time do you think that US asked Russians to vote for LDPR which was an opposition party? How LDPR's victory could be a theater?
The same people who voted for opposition party also voted for the new Constitution. And that party was not a communist party. Some people say that Zhirinovsky was a FSB's project. In this case your ideas that US had anything to do with 12.1993 elections looks even more weird! Or stupid.
Yeltsin's support was very different in 1991 and in 1999. The problem was that Russia in 90s was still controlled by former communists/komsomol members, who were cynical, corrupt, brutal and terribly educated.
They didn't care about US and always tried to push pro-Russian ideas, check what Eltsin told to Clinton about Ukraine.. US had very limited involvement in internal politics, they just "hoped" that Russian will eventually become a normal country.
But when another stupid former communist Berezovsky decided to put his Puppet Putin into Kremlin - he failed miserably. KSB agent cannot do anything positive - his training is always about ruining and destroying, bringing lies and hate, stealing and bribing.
The only person from US very active in Russia during 1993 was not Clinton. It was Soros. Many thanks to this guy for paying for my broadband Internet access :) But his political influence was close to 0.
