• Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    The refinery strikes are key here.

    Russia has been paying insane amounts of money for new soldiers, and they have every few sources of income other than petrochemicals.

    Remove the income, remove the soldiers.

    Starlink was just one more civilian com system the Russians were using because they can’t build proper encrypted radios themselves. They’ve been having com problems since basically the second month, and have relied on cellphones, cheap baofeng radios from AliExpress, Starlink, ad-hic hotspots and other civilian applications. They’re even using Discord and the like for the command and control systems.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      2 hours ago

      and they have every few sources of income other than petrochemicals.

      just issue bonds like Japan and the US do, unlike the US, no one will want to buy them (maybe China?) but like Japan, Treasury issues them, Central Bank buys them

      • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        Russia absolutely generates money internally like this. But there’s a limit to how much money you can just print. And they steal a LOT of money from their citizens as well, but there’s also a limit to that.