The State of Affairs in Russia

[Viking]

Wait, oil is $67 a barrel now? Holy shit. Wasn't it already at an all time low at $80-something a barrel few months ago, or was that a different kind?

Saudi Arabia has been turning on the tap trying to make shale oil and tar sand oil economically unviable, hoping to provoke the people behind those projects to abandon them.

I'm no expert, bit surely the saudis can't keep that indefinitely.  And the moment they turn off the tap, the  moment fracking becomes viable again and projects move forward.

Yes, they can't continue indefinitely. I think the objective is to keep the prices low for long enough to get the tar sands and shale oil projects to decommission themselves.

[KRonn]

I would think that even if some of the shale and oil sands projects are halted that oil prices won't remain this low very long and many of those operations will start back up. As it is, I think that many of the shale drilling projects can continue, especially the ones run by larger companies.

Also though, IMO it's almost too bad that the US can't now be self sufficient with US, Canadian and Mexican oil, given that the oil market is so fungible that this isn't really possible. I'd probably rather pay a bit more to reduce dependency on the unstable regions of the world, in order for the US  and/or N. America be self sufficient and keep the jobs and money here.

[Martinus]

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian President is visiting Poland today. He just gave a speech in front of the joint assembly of both chambers of the Polish Parliament, where he asked Poles to forgive past crimes of Ukrainians, extended an offer of a closer alliance and expressed the Ukraine's desire to eventually join the EU and the NATO, and end with the policy of neutrality.

And when is POland going to apologize for the past crimes of Poles against Ukrainians?

We have already done so few years ago. Polish Presidents have done a lot to mend the mutual relations.

[Martinus]

What's the state of Polish-Ukrainian relations? Does it have the usual Slavic mutual recriminations and feuding and claiming the other is an unjust oppressor??

Yes, but at the same time there is a lot of mutual sympathy I think.

It is quite complicated and interesting really, as these divisions do not necessary run along political lines at least in Poland. For example, I have a friend who comes from Wroclaw - she is very liberal, open minded etc. but she hates Ukrainians with passion to the point of racism (to understand why, you need to understand that after WWII, Wroclaw and North-Western Poland was settled by Polish refugees from Lviv). On the other hand, people in other parts of Poland are much more relaxed and friendly.

[Barrister]

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian President is visiting Poland today. He just gave a speech in front of the joint assembly of both chambers of the Polish Parliament, where he asked Poles to forgive past crimes of Ukrainians, extended an offer of a closer alliance and expressed the Ukraine's desire to eventually join the EU and the NATO, and end with the policy of neutrality.

And when is POland going to apologize for the past crimes of Poles against Ukrainians?

We have already did few years ago. Polish Presidents have done a lot to mend the mutual relations.

Okay, cool.   

[Martinus]

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian President is visiting Poland today. He just gave a speech in front of the joint assembly of both chambers of the Polish Parliament, where he asked Poles to forgive past crimes of Ukrainians, extended an offer of a closer alliance and expressed the Ukraine's desire to eventually join the EU and the NATO, and end with the policy of neutrality.

And when is POland going to apologize for the past crimes of Poles against Ukrainians?

We have already did few years ago. Polish Presidents have done a lot to mend the mutual relations.

Okay, cool.   

In fact, it is one of the few things Kaczynski has done right (and, it is probably one of the very few things that each of Kwasniewski - a post-communist social-democrat; Kaczynski - a right wing populist; and Komorowski - a conservative pro-Europe President we have now - had in common). And they have all been criticised for doing so by hard line nationalists.

[DGuller]

What's the state of Polish-Ukrainian relations? Does it have the usual Slavic mutual recriminations and feuding and claiming the other is an unjust oppressor??

Yes, but at the same time there is a lot of mutual sympathy I think.

It is quite complicated and interesting really, as these divisions do not necessary run along political lines at least in Poland. For example, I have a friend who comes from Wroclaw - she is very liberal, open minded etc. but she hates Ukrainians with passion to the point of racism (to understand why, you need to understand that after WWII, Wroclaw and North-Western Poland was settled by Polish refugees from Lviv). On the other hand, people in other parts of Poland are much more relaxed and friendly.

Back when I was in college, I chatted with a girl that immigrated from Poland.  When I said that I was from Lviv, she went "Oh, the city you stole from us?  "  I didn't ask her whether she was from Wroclaw, though.

[Martinus]

Territorial sentiments like this always puzzled me. Especially in Poland where we got rid of the really shitty part.

[Zanza]

Territorial sentiments like this always puzzled me. Especially in Poland where we got rid of the really shitty part.

Yeah, same for Germany. 

[Jacob]

Reading the BBC roundup on Russian media's reaction to the tRouble, this was kind of funny in a bitter way:

Celebrity journalist Kseniya Sobchak is heavy with sarcasm on Instagram: "Everyone is panicking, but nothing horrible is going to happen. We'll just become a kind of snowy Cuba."

[Syt]

Zeit says that in public the crisis is downplayed (I read an article on TASS or RT that a Russian region banned the word "crisis" from public statements and that it supposedly increased investments), and that the planned New Years celebrations will be the most expensive ones yet.

[alfred russel]

Russia's problems are overstated, they made a $50b investment in Sochi about a year ago that will probably start paying off its dividends real soon.

[Jacob]

Russia's problems are overstated, they made a $50b investment in Sochi about a year ago that will probably start paying off its dividends real soon.

Yeah, that's looking better and better in retrospect, isn't it?

[Syt]

Also, the Formula 1 race track in ... where is it again? Oh, Sochi. Naturally.

[Tamas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYD9xu92zSg