Comments by "Moonstone-Redux" (@Moonstone-Redux) on "The Icarus Project" channel.

  1. The critical part is that Kim Jong-il knew who held the keys to regime security, his military, and made sure they are well fed and supplied to the expense of everyone else. Now his son is hollowing out the North Korean military stocks while neglecting food production. How much food can he redirect to the military before they starve as well?
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  2. More importantly, both the countries you mentioned have their own defense industries that are making huge advancements to their technology. Especially India. They may be the only people to mess up an AK pattern rifle, but at least they don't keep Eldritch abominations in their aircraft carriers unlike the Russians they bought them from.
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  3. Incidentally this channel has a video on just that problem as well.
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  4. That's why there is such thing as a purchasing power parity, and even with such adjustments the numbers still don't add up for Russia.
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  5. ​ @MaticTheProto Baidu and bilibili are accessible outside of China.
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  6. My favourite Russian economy fact is that the rubble is now worth less than the rupee, and there used to be a gag skit about the Six Million Rupee Man.
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  7. A very subtle hint as to the change in stance that is easily ignored if you don't speak any Chinese language is that Chinese media has stopped using the Russian name of Vladivostok and has been using the old name when it was still Qing dynasty territory, 海参崴.
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  8. Dutch disease can afflict any country that is overdependent on a specific economic sector regardless of its connection with the rest of the world. It applies to Russia just as it did to the Netherlands. The difference is that the ability to recover or mitigate Dutch disease can be made easier or more difficult through domestic and diplomatic efforts, and Russia clearly isn't making their job easier.
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  9. There was a joke back in WW1 when those Mosins were actually relevant that goes: The Germans brought a hunting rifle. (Gewehr 98) The British brought a war rifle. (Lee-Enfield) The Americans brought a target rifle. (Springfield M1903) The Russians brought... a rifle.
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  10.  @DavidA-411  use an intermediate currency that actually trades with the USD. Even that isn't good for the ruble.
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  11. There was this military strategy game that even made an official statement saying "it's not our fault the actual Russian military somehow manages to be worse than our AI".
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  12.  @yuluoxianjun  Master propagandist russia indeed.
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  13. Pol Pot comes to mind as well.
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  14. Shoigu was brought in to replace a general who actually went and tried to fix the corruption issues in the military. Pretty sure his heart was in the right place, but maybe he should have worked for a country that would appreciate his efforts better, like what General Syrskyi did. (for context, Syrskyi is an ethnic Russian, born in Russia, who is the current commander in chief of the Ukrainian military)
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  15. ​ @DavidA-411 Even without official exchanges between RUB and USD, it is still possible to check rates by using intermediate currencies that the RUB is still officially trading with. That being said, the bid/ask spread on the USD/RUB exchange is pretty wide and it's not like the Chinese and Indians aren't bending Russia over the barrel with their price negotiations.
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  16. ​ @daniellarge9784 They lost a huge buffer against NATO when Finland joined NATO, which is very close to St. Petersburg. The fact that they did absolutely nothing is because Putin is nothing but a bully who can only pick on countries weaker than them, and cannot even protect his allies from attack.
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  17. Russia is the only country that still holds Chinese land that they stole through the Unequal Treaties. And unfortunately for Russia, it's Vladivostok. Chinese media has already started to use its original Chinese name, Haishenwai, in their news reports rather than transcribing Vladivostok. Russian politicians love to talk about how they are the realists and they expose the rules based world order for the farce that it is, but they don't realise that the rules protect them as much as they bind them as well. If they really didn't care about the rules based world order they wouldn't have redeployed soldiers from Kaliningrad and Sakhalin to Ukraine rather than fearing they would turn into Královec and Karafuto the moment the soldiers there were redeployed.
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  18. ​ @ThorIsBoss The Chinese have not forgotten what Vladivostok used to be called. Now they are reviving that name in their media reports rather than using the russian name. And if China's dealings with its neighbouring countries are any indication (see the Golden Triangle SEZ), it's that they are not above trying a bit of imperialism if they sense a bit of weakness from their clients.
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  19. ​@w.reidripley1968 Mauser rifles are still well loved hunters' rifles to this day in the Western world (it's even part of a WW1 joke's punchline). 7.92mm Mauser is still a very common calibre in gun shops. Someone is really ignorant of firearm culture in the West.
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