Ever Predicted, Never Happening: Russia's Collapse
Badmouthing Russia's economy has a certain tradition:
- Russia's Collapse - Foreign Affairs, Sep 1, 1999
- Russia Is Finished - The Atlantic, May 2001
- The Russian Economic Crisis - CFR, Apr 2010
Since the start of the Special Military operation in Ukraine many outlets joined the above doomsayers of the foreign policy blob.
Since then most reports about Russia's economy predicted a collapse or at least severe difficulties. Here are some from just the previous six months:
- Russia's economy is signaling a fate worse than recession - Business Insider, Sep 26 2024
- Humiliation for Putin as Russia could plunge into 'economic collapse' to plug £30bn debt - Express, Oct 7 2024
- Putin's Economy Approaches 'Burnout Point' - Newsweek, Oct 8 2024
- Russia’s economy is overheating but Putin cannot change course - Atlantic Council, Oct 31, 2024
- Russia’s War Economy Is Hitting Its Limits - Foreign Policy, Nov 14 2024
- Russia’s economy is doomed - New Statesman, Nov 28 2024
- Russian rouble collapse exposes deep problems in the country’s economy - The Conservation, Dec 3 2024
- The Russian Economy Remains Putin’s Greatest Weakness - Foreign Affairs, Dec 9, 2024
- Russia’s war economy spirals out of control as 2025 brings looming stagnation - NZZ, Jan 7 2025
- Is 2025 the year that Russia’s economy finally freezes up under sanctions? - Atlantic Council, Jan 8 2025
- Russia’s war economy is a house of cards (archived) - Financial Times, Jan 13 2025
- Putin's war economy is running on fumes as inflation and shortages surge - Kyiv Independent, Jan 15 2025
- Don’t Blink Now, Trump. Russia’s Economy Is Cracking. - Bloomberg, Feb 10 2025
- Russia’s economy is stagnating – but that won’t force it to end the war - The Conservation, Mar 10 2025
- The Russian economy is on the brink of collapse and Putin knows it - Independent, Mar 13 2025
- Russia’s economy would struggle to cope with peace - Reuters, Mar 17 2025
Meanwhile the Russian economy is doing well. Its economy is growing faster than most other.
- Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies says IMF - BBC, Apr 16 2024
- IMF raises forecast for growth in Russia's GDP by 0.1 pp in 2025 - Interfax, Jan 17 2025
The lesson from this? Much of what one reads in mainstream media about Russia (and other so called enemies) is garbage.
Trump Bombs Yemen (Short Take)
(The system is acting up on my thus just this short take.)
Fresh US strikes in Yemen with 53 now dead, Houthis say - BBC
Thoughts:
- Bombing Yemen is stupid. The Saudis tried for years to get their way by doing that and were defeated.
- Yemen can and does shoot back.
- It is only a question of time until it hits a U.S. war ship and causes casualties.
- Then Trump will be hard pressed to escalate the war towards Iran.
- Iran can not be defeated.
That's it.
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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-054
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The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-053
Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
- Mar 10 - Gordon Hahn On Europe's Role And A Possible Coup In Kiev
- Mar 11 - The Pipeline Raid Of Sudzha
- Mar 12 - Trump Opts For More War With Russia
- Mar 14 - Echoes Of The May 2 2014 Odessa Massacre
- Mar 15 - NATO Sec.-Gen. On Ukraine Accession
Related:
- Zelensky’s Kursk gamble: Was it worth it? - Telegraph
- Can Trump’s Ukraine peace plan succeed? - Canadian Dimension
- NATO-Russia Ukrainian War Ceasefire: To Be Or Not To Be? - Gordon Hahn
- Inside Ukraine's desperate fight to stabilize Donbas front (video) - Kyiv Independent
- Ukraine War Day #1116: The Timely Death Of A Nazi Racketeer – Part I, Part 2 - Awful Avalanche
- Hungary to hold special referendum on Ukraine’s EU membership - Anadolu
- German intelligence chief Kahl believes Europe would be better off "if the war in Ukraine lasted another five years" – NSDC responds - Espreso.tv
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-053
NATO Sec.-Gen. On Ukraine Accession
Took him a while ...
NATO chief Mark Rutte says Ukraine's membership path is 'irreversible' - UPI / Yahoo, Oct 3 2024
"Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before," he said. "And will continue on this path until you become a member of our Alliance. I very much look forward to that day."
Ukraine's accession to NATO is no longer under consideration, Rutte confirmed - news-pravda, Mar 14, 2025
Ukraine's accession to NATO is no longer under consideration, Rutte confirmedWhen asked whether Trump was really removing the issue of Kyiv joining the alliance from the negotiating table, the NATO Secretary General answered “yes.”
Echoes Of The May 2 2014 Odessa Massacre
On May 4 2014 I wrote about the February coup aftermath in Ukraine:
Two days ago a mob, supported by the fascists Right Sektor, killed over 30 federalist Ukrainians in Odessa by pushing them from their camp into a building and then setting fire to it. Those who escaped the massacre, not the perpetrators, were rounded up by police. Today pro-federalism people besieged the police headquarter in Odessa until the police released those it had earlier arrested.
...
The U.S. plan for Ukraine seems to be to bait Russia into an occupation. This would destroy EU-Russia relations, embolden NATO and help the U.S. to keep the EU as a secondary partner under its control. There would be lots of economic upsides for the U.S. in such a situation. Selling more arms and increasing energy market shares are only the starters.There are two reasons to believe that this plan will fail:
...
Without Russian intervention and without German support the U.S. campaign against Russia is unlikely to reach its secondary target of isolating Russia. The primary target, Sevastopol harbor in Crimea, was already lost when Russia reunified with the island.What is left to do then for Washington is to create more chaos in Ukraine and to hope that somehow out of total chaos some new chance may arise to stick it to Russia. For lack of real direction that strategy is also unlikely to succeed.
I was unfortunately wrong with the last sentence though it took the U.S. eight more years to succeed.
But it is the first paragraph I what to refer to today. The current two most popular pieces on the website of Strana are echoing it (machine translation):

From the first story (machine translation):
Cont. reading: Echoes Of The May 2 2014 Odessa Massacre
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Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-050
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