I guess Russia Today is still accessible in Switzerland.

this is the post i made which got me banned for "winding people up". maybe you can explain why i got banned for it?
https://www.englishforum.ch/3396564-post3979.html

It's like with the Nobel prize for literature, it's granted for the entire literary work not only one book, although to the novices it may appear so.

Did you recover? Are you OK? Should NAT send you to Ukraine for real life devastating experiences?

Estimates are that every day of war is costing Russia $20B.

Assuming a $100B budget (it'll all be over by Sunday), they're way over.

hth.

I have family in russia and ukraine so im quite aware of the devastation, thanks.
no, i am asking for a clarification on the rules and why i was banned for the above post.

Well, Moscow stock exchange was closed for 1 month, reopened last week but foreigners can only buy not sell. So, quite hard for the Ruble to fall if capital is prevented to leave Russia. There are also currency control that keep the Ruble of life support. The price does not go down but it's because trade has slowed down or stopped.

Anyway sanctions are expected to hurt more the longer they last, the period is years to decades. Of course, sanctions have not caused a regime change in Cuba, but they're harmless outside of their borders. No exports of technology, engineering, and replacement parts to Russia. So, airplanes keep flying, oil and natural gas are extracted from the subsoil, and manufacturing keeps running for now. Eventually, machines break down and production falls. So far, the only guys who have the potential to keep producing oil in the Arctic for Russia are the Chinese. They need to develop a lot of technology but I guess they can do it over some years/decades. However, if China is the only provider of oilfield services to Russia.......the terms of the deal will yield a richer China and poorer Russia.

ftfy

I think a moderator likely just chose a bad post to use as an example to ban you with, because there were many other better examples of engaging in disinformation in your recent posts that all led to that point, like post #4586.

i got a separate ban for that one too even though evidence is now coming out agreeing with what i said

and i realise you see yourself as some sort of arbiter for EF but i would prefer to hear the reasoning from the mods themselves if thats ok

Whilst I fully support sanctions, despite the harm I don't think they'll result in any material difference to the situation. They won't result in a change on the ground and almost certainly not in regime. Look at countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria, Zimbabwe etc. even further back in history with countries like South Africa, heavily sanctioned but has never directly resulted in any change.

Russia is doing a lot to artificially prop up the Ruble. As noted, preventing sales, capital controls, outright intervention in the markets.

The sanctions are to impose a cost on the countries, I think they are not effective for regime change or even policy change - just look at Cuba having endured sanctions for decades and Iran having very harsh sanctions. They countries adapt and have to live with lower growth and lower quality of life.

There are also longer term impacts, the best and brightest will leave as they have a very dim future ahead in Russia. This brain drain will have long term impacts.

I don't think it is in the interest of either Russia or Ukraine to have the war drag on for an extended time and so perhaps they will reach some sort of compromise in the near term. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but Europe is also not in a position to walk away from Russian energy and so might be glad to continue buying once a deal is made.

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That's exactly what the Russian embassy in Mexico said some days ago.

But, when was the last time Iran, NK, Syria and South Africa invaded with a land army other countries during sanctions?. One thing is surviving within your own borders, and a whole different thing is paying for a war and manufacturing war supplies during sanctions.

I think we are trying to interact with this lot....

https://www.rferl.org/a/how-to-guide.../26919999.html

FWIW, I would take this offline with the mods. I had an excellent private exchange with NotAllThere on this issue and s/he was super reasonable. A breath of fresh air after the previous mods

On the one hand, I feel bad for the innocent people in Russia who will be impacted by this. But on the other hand, the innocent Ukrainians who are being bombed are in a much worse situation.

If you got a separate ban for that specific post (you were not clear about that, sorry) then I would agree that it seems excessive (at least on the surface). However, Putin using that one Azov unit that has white supremacist idealogy as an excuse to invade and denazify the whole of Ukraine is obviously propaganda BS.

Ukraine, like many other countries, left the Soviet Union in 1991 so the ethnic Russians should have got used to the idea after over 20 years.
According to the 2001 census they were not the majority in East Ukraine so it was a case of the tail wagging the dog; it is understandable Ukraine did not want to let Donetsk (38% Russian)and Luhansk (39% Russian) leave.

Maybe Putin should invade West Hollywood next, 20% Russian

The BBC World Service resorts to Cold War era Shortwave radio for broadcasting to Ukraine & Russia thanks to TV towers being blasted and Russian blocking of Social media sites and other forms of news channels in Russia.

The Guardian - BBC World Service returns to Shortwave radio broadcast slots

Apparently the BBC’s shortwave radio broadcast can be found on 15735 kHz from 4pm to 6pm and on 5875 kHz from 10pm to midnight, Ukraine time.

This is the BBC !!

I remember listening to Radio Moscow on shortwave as a kid. I've still got the same (working) SW radio.