When the last leader of the Soviet Union visited Chequers for lunch with prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984, one topic of discussion was potatoes.
Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail, claimed Russia had 300 ways of cooking the humble spud, prompting Michael Jopling, Britain’s agriculture minister, to express disbelief. She later posted a Russian cookbook to Jopling with the clarification: “In fact, there are 500, rather than 300, recipes to cook potatoes.”
For Vladimir Putin, Russians’ appetite for the vegetable has become problematic, however. Shortages have pushed up prices by 167pc over the past year, the biggest rise of any food. “It turns out that we don’t have enough potatoes,” Putin admitted during a televised meeting in May, adding: “I spoke with [Belarusian leader] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, ‘We’ve already sold everything to Russia.’”
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 made Russia the world’s most sanctioned country, eagle-eyed economists have watched closely for signs of economic damage which have proved remarkably elusive. But now surging food prices and labour shortages are keeping inflation high, driving big cracks in the economy.
We're definitely in the end phase now. Russia can't hold out much longer!!!
SakawaBoyGenius joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 7 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,376,307
The copetrain is just so funny. Russia is just so incompetent that its constantly on the edge of losing yet has a country of retards backed by the entirety of of whatever the US has dug out of the trash and everything western europe can throw at it. And at best it only has sewer oil and designated shitting street as allies.
Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 8 hours later, 16 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,376,332
Russia doesn’t care. They’re burning through their sovereign wealth fund but so what? They’re have unflagged oil vessels, smuggling, the FSB allows drug dealing in Russia as long as the dealers pay “tax.” Russia has weapons and resources to sell. Modi is getting a deal and so is Ji. Completely draining the country’s cash flow in any short period is unrealistic, and it’s not like people will take to the streets.