Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "Ukraine War Qu0026A: What Happened to the 500k Russian Soldiers? || Peter Zeihan" video.

Shoigu learned about fund diversion and made his initial fortune as a civil engineer in the Soviet Union. That and his loyalty to Putin are his military qualifications. When we talk about his “lying to Putin”, it’s important to remember that Putin always got his percentage, too. Shoigu is a “good earner” for Putin. Digging defensive trenches is a construction project like any other, so no doubt Shoigu has a way of siphoning off funds from that, as well. By most metrics Shoigu is a miserable failure, but in terms of stealing for himself and for his godfather, he is quite successful.
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@HiwasseeRiver U.S. farmers are paid more to grow more corn, which pushes prices up but has a negligible effect on actual world supply, unlike this war which is disrupting wheat production. If you’re saying that ethanol is a wasteful boondoggle, I agree with you. It does very little to address the issue of climate change. But it’s been going on for some time and isn’t suddenly causing grain shortages. It’s not relevant to the discussion.
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It’s a big if. Putin might have accumulated sufficient power to stay in power until he dies of old age. But let’s say it happens or he has a heart attack. The most likely faction to seize power will be his loyalists who will continue his policies. Second most likely are the more extremists ultranationalists who think Putin is not doing enough. They won’t just continue Putin’s policies, they will put the policies on steroids. There’s also a strong policy that no single faction (or sub faction) will be able to seize power, and will instead fight it out among themselves. This is the gang war scenario. The least likely scenario is that the anti-war pro-democracy faction will come to power. This is because their organizations have been destroyed and their leaders are dead or in prison. Maybe new leaders will arise if there was a general uprising, but that is unlikely with an apathetic center only vaguely aware that things are not going well in Ukraine. The slimmest possibility is that there is a mass mutiny in the Russian military, and a hundred thousand soldiers refuse to fight and march on Moscow. I hope this happens, but it’s really low probability.
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@deriznohappehquite I know it doesn’t sound like how supply and demand is supposed to work, but this is one of those market distortions caused by a government program. The reason more is grown is because the government subsidizes its purchase by the biofuel companies from U.S. farmers. The biofuel demand and ready cash artificially raises prices so that it’s profitable to grow more. So the demand for biofuel corn gets met, but the prices have been nudged up in the U.S., the country which produces and exports the most corn, and this has an effect on world prices for the commodity. According to Wikipedia, 33% of U.S. corn production goes to feedstocks and 27% goes to ethanol production. 11% goes to export, and the rest is used for production of human food and non-biofuel distillation products. (This is higher than I thought for ethanol.)
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He did this because prior to this “special operation”, the primary purpose of the Russian state was to enable corruption and theft. This war was supposed to enhance that and create more opportunities for Putin’s mafia. If Putin was lied to, it was accompanied by a wink and a fat envelope stuffed with cash. Putin didn’t ask any questions while he was getting his tax on his underlings’ criminal enterprises. There is a reason Putin is the richest man in the world.
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A grey windbreaker with black trim is “road warrior fashion”? Haha, I don’t think so, but I guess that’s in the eye of the beholder.
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Shoigu is loyal to Putin and he always delivers to Putin his cut. Shoigu is in mafia parlance a good earner. Why should Putin want to kill him?
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I think it’s an exaggeration. The “other” category of thefts are under Shoigu’s umbrella. He gets a percentage. Putin gets a percentage. Shoigu is a capo, a boss. Putin is the godfather, the boss of bosses. His underlings in the Kremlin even call him “godfather”.
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