Inside Russia’s Looming Demographics Crisis

Like most academic types, Mr. Spaneiel has a poor understanding of the roots of the demographic crisis (poorer populations in Russia have more children for example) and he does not go into the differences between populations groups in Russia which make the issue even worse. Those caveats aside, it is a good visual presentation for those who might have had trouble understanding my retirement related arguments in “Russia’s twenty years until collapse.”

Theorizing On Why Russian Assets Have Not Been Used To Fund Ukraine

Stereotypically speaking, your average elite are in favor of more taxpayer support for Ukraine than your average hillbilly. But your average hillbilly is more willing to take seized Russian assets and give them to Ukraine then most members of the elite. As usual, the elite position makes no sense to the average hillbilly. You want to spend extra taxpayer money on Ukraine but you don’t want to spend Russian money that has already been seized? What kind of logic is that?

To be honest, I am a little bit in the hillbilly camp here. I am not sure I do understand the logic. But I have more faith in the average elite then most blue collar folks do in that I believe the elites usually have reasons for what they do. Often they are cowardly reasons. Often they are the result of trying to avoid making hard choices so that they can have their cake and eat it as well. But the hillbilly solutions are almost never as simple and consequence free as your average redneck believes. So I am presupposed to believe that there is a reason that your average elite is more willing to spend taxpayer dollars then seized Russian dollars to fund Ukraine. But that still leaves the question of why? Continue reading

More Ukrainian Strikes

More on the attacks on oil and gas structures. Ukrainians are doing better then I expected at striking in Russia. However Russia seems to have improved its ability to hit critical military targets in Ukraine.

If you want a longer form look at the recent attacks, you can look at the one below. But honestly, I think the one above tells you all that is worth noting at this stage. A bigger picture look will not mean much until at least a month has gone by and there is time for the dust to settle.