Russia is reportedly offering cash bonuses to incentivise forces withdrawn from northeastern Ukrain

[yaesu]

to reenter combat operations.

Radio Svoboda published images of a document on April 10 that it reported was issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense on April 2 offering specific bonuses for Russian troops in Ukraine. The document specifies large payments including 300,000 rubles for destroying a fixed-wing aircraft, 200,000 for destroying a helicopter, and 50,000 for armored vehicles and artillery.

Radio Svoboda stated the payments are intended to coerce units withdrawn from the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions to reenter combat. We have previously reported several instances of Russian soldiers refusing orders to return to Ukraine after being pulled back.

It also says that Russian forces are “implementing increasingly draconian measures to conscript previously ineligible personnel”.

The guardian

[ColinC]

1. Ukraine gives a better deal. Like 30 times more to defect with a vehicle

[lpbk2713]

2. They're paying off in rubles?

Does their paper currency have a portrait of Robert E Lee on it?

[yaesu]

4. I think their currency has this portrait on it

[Xolodno]

5. The Ruble has bounced back.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/08/russia-ukraine-ruble-sanctions-ones-and-tooze/

They were well prepared for this. When they took Crimea eight years ago, many here stated I didn't know what I was talking about, when I said the sanctions wouldn't be effective. And insisted it would all be rainbows and unicorns and Putin would be gone.

What people don't realize, sanctions work both ways. They hurt the target nation but also hurt the nation doing the sanctions. One of the reasons why its so difficult and dropping press bombs for show, about seizing yachts and sanctioning Putin's daughters. The only thing that does, puts non-Russians out of work. We don't import many goods and services from Russia here in the USA, but their importance on the global market still effects us as we probably import from them indirectly.

And the sanctions from the last go around had an unintended consequence, Russia was having trouble establishing more industries prior to them. Guess what? When you eliminate Europe's comparative advantage, then the opportunity cost shifts to their favor. And guess what is going to happen again?

Our Cuba sanctions practically kept the Castro regime in power and is doing the same in Iran.

And I'll say something else that is unpopular and will get a lot of heat for. The war is over. Russia has its land bridge to Crimea and Mariupol. Everything else is just..well...

And the worst part about this, Putin telegraphed this war a long time ago. I realized it myself only recently. When they announced that they plan to build two aircraft carriers, everyone kind of scoffed as they didn't really have any ports to do that. With the taking of Mariupol, they now do.

The good news? Brain drain. They no doubt lost a lot of talented Russians who wanted nothing to do with this. So that will hamper them for awhile...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Well, if your interest rate is very high, about 9% and then you double it to 18%, you get currency

Plus there are various currency measures limiting currency exchanges so that is yet another prop.

[Xolodno]

8. Russia has virtually no debt.

And the loans they currently pay on? They are paying, its us in the west that are trying to stop them from paying the money they owe us. You can't make this shit up. And them not paying hurts EU banks, not Russia.

And yes, trying to convert Rubles to western currency is hard. But not for the Japanese Yen, Chinese Renminbi, India Rupee, Mexican Peso, Brazilian Real...oh wait, even in Europe, Serbian Dinar, Austrian Shilling, Saudi Riyal, etc.

And currency is nothing more than a medium of exchange. When you are sitting on the largest stockpile of resources, rare metals, rare earths, etc. as ironic as it sounds, capitalism is going to win out in this case.

[Drum]

3. When your opponent is making mistakes, don't interrupt him... n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

6. Scraping the bottom of the barrel.