Comments by "Kevin Street" (@Kevin_Street) on "Billions Trapped in Russia!" video.

  1. You make a good point there. Some of the increase may come from Russians that have relocated to Kyrgystan, but it still seems like a viable way to smuggle goods into Russia. It might be possible to find out what's happening by looking at the trade between western nations and other countries with a large Russian diaspora like Georgia.
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  2. A very interesting video on an important subject. Western sanctions on Russia need to be made more effective than they are right now. In particular we need to get some control over the import of western goods to central Asian nations that just send them on into Russia. I mean, come on. According to the video German imports to Kyrgyzstan have risen 1400% in four years! Yes Kyrgyzstan is trying to create its own tech sector, but the majority of those imports are just going straight through the country and continuing on into Russia. And at least some of the microchips are stripped from those consumer products and plugged into cruise missiles that blow up apartments and hospitals in Ukraine. There's a direct relation between these third party imports and Russia's continued ability to manufacture smart weapons. The continued export of Russia's resources through third party nations into western nations is also a concern, both because it earns Russia dark money that can be spent on the military and because it's setting up the conditions for future environmental disaster. This is the part of the video that disturbs me the most. The growth of these "shadow fleets" isn't just an end-run around export restrictions, but environmental ones as well. Sooner or later some of those rusty old tankers are going to sink, and then we'll really have a problem.
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  3. Iranian pirates? That does sound interesting.
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  4. Because they can't spend money that's trapped in Russia.
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