Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "The Fall of Russia: Inflation, Poverty and Frustration" video.

  1. That's the thing, Russia is a big country, but economically, they are a weak power compared to the EU, US or China and power in this world is based on the economy, what's even worse for Russia is that they've become too dependent on a lot of its natural resources to fill its budget, now that should be a blessing but for most countries, it ends up being a curse because of mismanagement of that resource. The problem for Putin is that he's having to throw a lot of resources into the war with Ukraine, whereas the EU, US and other western countries are throwing a tiny amount of resources to support Ukraine, which I feel the west should do more to help Ukraine end the war sooner rather than later, but in any case, the west can afford to support Ukraine long term without it having much of an impact on them, mainly because they are a lot richer and the resource is being shared by a lot of countries, Russia can't afford the war to drag on because it's bleeding resources away from the Russian people to support the war effort, the longer it drags on, the more of a negative impact it will have on Russia and the Russian people. With all that said, the Russian people need to wake up and stand up to Putin, because in the end, it's always the people that end up suffering, not the leader, so the Russian people standing ideally by are hurting their own future.
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  2. Sanctions always hurt both sides at first, but the west is far more adaptive and can weather the storm far better than what Russia can. Remember that we are the ones buying Russian resources, we can use that money to buy from other areas or invest in renewable energy, Russia on the other hand have limited choices when it comes to rich customers. There's also the factor that a lot of the tech in the world is built by the west, besides, Euro Zone inflation is already around 2.4% that's only 0.4% higher than the target rate they aim for, that's quite remarkable how they adapted away from Russia energy so quickly. At the end of the day, rich countries have the advantage of capital, they can buy from the world market as European countries are quickly doing away from Russia, Russia on the other hand have limited options, for one, the country is being isolated around the world, it's not easy to export gas and the countries that Russia is exporting gas and oil are taking advantage of Russia to lower the cost, that's putting Russia in a weak position with the likes of China in a strong position over Russia. In the end, the cost to the west was always short term of a few short years, the cost to Russia is long term, that's the reality of the situation and also let's remember that Putin banked on the European countries couldn't afford to not buy its oil and gas reserve, after all, what the EU and many European countries have done is remarkable to be able to shift so much so quickly, Putin thought it wasn't possible, yet he underestimated European resolve, now Russia is paying a high price for that both politically and economically.
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