Russia more than triples its current account surplus to US$96 billion as EU energy giants pay in rubles

[alexa]

Good advice: "UK residents who have begun to experience difficulties due to rising housing prices need to work more or find a better-paid service"
UK Deputy Home Secretary Rachel McLean

yes, that went down well.

 

[alexa]

It's appropriate. Russia clearly has no place among civilized nations.

sounds like you are after a genocide.

 

[alexa]

sounds like you are after a genocide. The US has lost its battle to have Russia on side when it confronts China.

 

[para bellum]

20 billion euros a day is the number US and European military experts seem to have come up with by estimating the costs of what Russia is actually doing instead of trying to judge the costs by looking at what the US spent 20 years ago in another part of the world, so unless you are asserting there is some vast conspiracy among western military experts to inflate the costs of the war, it is probably close to the truth.

This is like your $100 million cruise missiles. You keep demonstrating that you are not even really in the conversation.

The estimate is not made by military experts from the West. It comes from a group of Ukrainians, who come from the Ukraine business sector.

Even at that, they only say the costs may rise to that level- which you assume is already reached in your repetitive posts that the war is costing Russia $20 Bn/day.

It's a completely nonsensical number for just about every possible reason, but sadly that understanding is beyond your grasp.

The comparison to OIF should have driven it home to you- we were flying thousands of sorties a day, and it was a massive logistical operation on the other side of the planet- with an equivalent force size that Russia has in Ukraine (right next door), yet it cost the US 1/40th of what you think Russia is spending today. (actually 1/73rd if you go by the Congressional appropriations of $100 Bn/yr)

Your source does not provide their data or how they derive their projections- they just add up all the worst-case scenarios and bundle it into a number and say "it could be this much".

It's not even a report- it's a slide show. Slide shows are fine, but credible presentations have supplementals that support the conclusions with facts and figures. I cannot find any such documentation on their website, or within the presentation- it's all "The West should do this, and the West should do that".

IOW, it's an advocacy piece.

YOUR SOURCE

This is their latest version of the report. Page 17, if you can read numbers.

55 days of war, operational costs $8.3 Billion, lost equipment $30.3 Billion.

Total cost, $38.6 Billion. 55 days, about $700 Million/Day.

I repeat- their numbers are exaggerated- Russian IFV and tanks are not $5 Million items, neither do fixed wing Sukhois cost $85 Million a pop. (ex. a BMP is about $800K to the Russian taxpayer, they call it $5 Million)

Meaning that the $30.3 Bn in "lost equipment" is probably at least double or triple the real number. And oh by the way, Russia has not lost 171 fighter aircraft- it's more like 26. Oryx has 9x SU-25, 5x SU-30, 9x SU-34, 1x SU-35, 1x AN-26, 1x unknown (likely SU-34 or SU-30 because both pilots ejected).

 

[toomuchtime_]

sounds like you are after a genocide.

Sounds like you need to learn how to use a dictionary.

 

[justoffal]

This is a problem. How stupid was the West in harming their own energy industries?

Remember when Trump warned them and they laughed at mocked?

Sanctions? What sanctions?

Russia more than triples its current account surplus to US$96 billion as EU energy giants pay in rubles

Russian oil exports climbed by 620,000 barrels per day from the prior month to 8.1 million in April

nationalpost.com

Bloomberg) — Russia’s current account surplus more than tripled in the first four months of the year to US$95.8 billion, the central bank said, as prices surged for its oil and gas exports and imports plunged under the weight of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The surplus on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, was the highest since at least 1994. The figure in first four months of last year was US$27.5 billion.

Last week, the International Energy Agency said Russian oil export revenue is up 50 per cent since the start of 2022 with the Kremlin generating close to US$20 billion per month in sales.

Export volume has rebounded to levels seen before Russia invaded Ukraine. In April, Russian oil exports climbed by 620,000 barrels per day from the prior month to 8.1 million, back to their January and February average, the IEA said.


European energy giants are pressing ahead with plans to keep buying Russian gas as the European Union’s guidelines appeared to allow them to do so without breaching sanctions.


Even as conflicting messages continued to emerge from Brussels over the legality of complying with Moscow’s demands to pay for gas in rubles, Italy’s Eni SpA said it was opening a ruble account with Russia’s Gazprombank to keep the gas flowing.


It’s the clearest sign yet that the biggest European importers of Russian gas are counting on business as usual. Germany’s Uniper SE and Austria’s OMV AG also expect to find a way to keep buying.

This was pretty easy to see coming. I pointed this out in January....

Jo

 

[CrusaderFrank]

This is a problem. How stupid was the West in harming their own energy industries?

Remember when Trump warned them and they laughed at mocked?

Sanctions? What sanctions?

Russia more than triples its current account surplus to US$96 billion as EU energy giants pay in rubles

Russian oil exports climbed by 620,000 barrels per day from the prior month to 8.1 million in April

nationalpost.com

Bloomberg) — Russia’s current account surplus more than tripled in the first four months of the year to US$95.8 billion, the central bank said, as prices surged for its oil and gas exports and imports plunged under the weight of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The surplus on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, was the highest since at least 1994. The figure in first four months of last year was US$27.5 billion.

Last week, the International Energy Agency said Russian oil export revenue is up 50 per cent since the start of 2022 with the Kremlin generating close to US$20 billion per month in sales.

Export volume has rebounded to levels seen before Russia invaded Ukraine. In April, Russian oil exports climbed by 620,000 barrels per day from the prior month to 8.1 million, back to their January and February average, the IEA said.


European energy giants are pressing ahead with plans to keep buying Russian gas as the European Union’s guidelines appeared to allow them to do so without breaching sanctions.


Even as conflicting messages continued to emerge from Brussels over the legality of complying with Moscow’s demands to pay for gas in rubles, Italy’s Eni SpA said it was opening a ruble account with Russia’s Gazprombank to keep the gas flowing.


It’s the clearest sign yet that the biggest European importers of Russian gas are counting on business as usual. Germany’s Uniper SE and Austria’s OMV AG also expect to find a way to keep buying.

Biden, in fact democrat leadership are Jihadist committed to destroying the USA. The WEF strapped an economic suicide vest to Biden, Pelosi and Schumer and they press the detonator every time they speak

 

[toomuchtime_]

This is like your $100 million cruise missiles. You keep demonstrating that you are not even really in the conversation.

The estimate is not made by military experts from the West. It comes from a group of Ukrainians, who come from the Ukraine business sector.

Even at that, they only say the costs may rise to that level- which you assume is already reached in your repetitive posts that the war is costing Russia $20 Bn/day.

It's a completely nonsensical number for just about every possible reason, but sadly that understanding is beyond your grasp.

The comparison to OIF should have driven it home to you- we were flying thousands of sorties a day, and it was a massive logistical operation on the other side of the planet- with an equivalent force size that Russia has in Ukraine (right next door), yet it cost the US 1/40th of what you think Russia is spending today. (actually 1/73rd if you go by the Congressional appropriations of $100 Bn/yr)

Your source does not provide their data or how they derive their projections- they just add up all the worst-case scenarios and bundle it into a number and say "it could be this much".

It's not even a report- it's a slide show. Slide shows are fine, but credible presentations have supplementals that support the conclusions with facts and figures. I cannot find any such documentation on their website, or within the presentation- it's all "The West should do this, and the West should do that".

IOW, it's an advocacy piece.

YOUR SOURCE

This is their latest version of the report. Page 17, if you can read numbers.

55 days of war, operational costs $8.3 Billion, lost equipment $30.3 Billion.

Total cost, $38.6 Billion. 55 days, about $700 Million/Day.

I repeat- their numbers are exaggerated- Russian IFV and tanks are not $5 Million items, neither do fixed wing Sukhois cost $85 Million a pop. (ex. a BMP is about $800K to the Russian taxpayer, they call it $5 Million)

Meaning that the $30.3 Bn in "lost equipment" is probably at least double or triple the real number....

Unlike you, I don't claim to be a military expert. The $105 million comes from an estimate published in Bloomberg, a respected source, and it is supported in part by numerous complaints from the Pentagon that hypersonic missiles, while impressive, would not be worth their price in the context of a war.

Hypersonic Sticker Shock: U.S. Weapons May Run $106 Million Each

Hypersonic weapons that can fly five times the speed of sound will add $21.5 billion to the Navy’s budget and $7 billion to the Army’s in coming years, according to an estimate compiled by the Pentagon’s independent cost assessment office.

www.bloomberg.com

The estimate of 20 billion euros a day seems to be widely accepted by western military experts and politicians, so again, unless you are asserting a vast western conspiracy to inflate estimates of the cost of the war, it would be foolish to dismiss that number out of hand as you are doing.

 

[para bellum]

Unlike you, I don't claim to be a military expert. The $105 million comes from an estimate published in Bloomberg, a respected source, and it is supported in part by numerous complaints from the Pentagon that hypersonic missiles, while impressive, would not be worth their price in the context of a war.

Oh FFS. Now you are comparing a SRBM to a US air-breathing hypersonic program that is just about as far away from the Khinzal in terms of technology as it gets. You just never stop.

And oh btw, exactly ONE Khinzal has been fired in Ukraine, you fecking dumbass.

I do not claim to be a military expert, so that is just deflection. What I am good at is doing research, and I am not ignorant in certain areas like military and civilian aerospace, since that is my field for more than 4 decades.

The estimate of 20 billion euros a day seems to be widely accepted by western military experts and politicians, so again, unless you are asserting a vast western conspiracy to inflate estimates of the cost of the war, it would be foolish to dismiss that number out of hand as you are doing.

Well you need to tell us who these so-called experts and politicians are, because I already showed you YOUR ONLY SOURCE and how their numbers are derived.

No one- and I mean NO ONE, with any sense of the subject would make that claim.

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is a permanent condition.

It is not my job to educate the uneducable, so whatever additional stupid assertions you want to make are up to you. I will post corrections as I see fit, but am not going to waste any more time answering your replies because basically you are a fanboy that doesn't know shit, and you prove it with every post.

A rational person would have done a little digging before marrying themselves to such an exaggerated number...

 

[toomuchtime_]

Oh FFS. Now you are comparing a SRBM to a US air-breathing hypersonic program that is just about as far away from the Khinzal in terms of technology as it gets. You just never stop.

And oh btw, exactly ONE Khinzal has been fired in Ukraine, you fecking dumbass.

I do not claim to be a military expert, so that is just deflection. What I am good at is doing research, and I am not ignorant in certain areas like military and civilian aerospace, since that is my field for more than 4 decades.

Well you need to tell us who these so-called experts and politicians are, because I already showed you YOUR ONLY SOURCE and how their numbers are derived.

No one- and I mean NO ONE, with any sense of the subject would make that claim.

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is a permanent condition.

It is not my job to educate the uneducable, so whatever additional stupid assertions you want to make are up to you. I will post corrections as I see fit, but am not going to waste any more time answering your replies because basically you are a fanboy that doesn't know shit, and you prove it with every post.

A rational person would have done a little digging before marrying themselves to such an exaggerated number...

Once again, 20 billion euros a day is the number that seems to be most often cited by western sources so that is likely the number western thinking about the war is based on, but you claim they lack your expertise in researching military matters, so there is really no talking to you about this.

Now I'm not saying you're dishonest, but trying to gain credibility by citing unverifiable personal information is a trick dishonest people often employ in life and on message boards, so to avoid giving the impression you are dishonest, you might want to try to stick to the facts at issue rather than turning it into a personal discussion.

 

[para bellum]

Once again, 20 billion euros a day is the number that seems to be most often cited by western sources so that is likely the number western thinking about the war is based on.

Name one.

 

[para bellum]

Now I'm not saying you're dishonest, but trying to gain credibility by citing unverifiable personal information is a trick dishonest people often employ in life and on message boards, so to avoid giving the impression you are dishonest, you might want to try to stick to the facts at issue rather than turning it into a personal discussion.

You were the one making it personal. "Unlike you, I don't claim to be a military expert." were your words.

I do not care about what you think of me. I posted your source, and explained why it's a derived number based on all kinds of dire economic predictions that have not happened yet. People are free to draw their own conclusions.

Wrt your $100 million missiles, First you say a comparison of US war costs is not valid, and in the next breath you compare what is essentially a modernized scud missile to US program in an almost impossibly difficult realm of flight for an air-breathing engine.

But somehow you think that is a legitimate comparison, because a GAO or CRS estimate is a really big number, and the buzzword "hypersonic" is used to describe them both.

It's like comparing a charcoal briquet to the hope diamond. Well, yeah- they are both hunks of carbon...

 

[toomuchtime_]

Name one.

EU MP Riho Teras is a politician and former military officer from the European country of Estonia. He is serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1 February 2020. He also served as the Chief of Staff of the Estonian Army from 2011 to 2018. He was promoted to the rank of General in 2017. In one tweet after another, he claimed that the Russians did not have a strategic plan. The cost of the war is about $20 billion a day.

Russia Ukraine War : Putin's Ukraine mission failed? EU MP claims - $ 20 billion spent every day, Russian weapons are ending: - Hindustan News Hub

Russia Ukraine War : Putin's Ukraine mission failed? EU MP claims - $ 20 billion spent every day, Russian weapons are ending Hindustan News Hub

hindustannewshub.com

 

[para bellum]

EU MP Riho Teras is a politician and former military officer from the European country of Estonia. He is serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1 February 2020. He also served as the Chief of Staff of the Estonian Army from 2011 to 2018. He was promoted to the rank of General in 2017. In one tweet after another, he claimed that the Russians did not have a strategic plan. The cost of the war is about $20 billion a day.

Russia Ukraine War : Putin's Ukraine mission failed? EU MP claims - $ 20 billion spent every day, Russian weapons are ending: - Hindustan News Hub

Russia Ukraine War : Putin's Ukraine mission failed? EU MP claims - $ 20 billion spent every day, Russian weapons are ending Hindustan News Hub

hindustannewshub.com

You cite an Indian source for an Estonian MP's words. If he said that:

1. He would just be retweeting the same source that you use.

except-

2. I went through his twitter feed from the middle of April until today. Not one single statement attributed to him by the "hindustan news hub" is there.

Here is the list:

"In one tweet after another, he claimed that the Russians did not have a strategic plan. The cost of the war is about $20 billion a day. Rockets are with any country for a maximum of 3-4 days, they are rarely used. In such a situation, Russia has a shortage of weapons. The Tula and Rotenberg plants could not meet the shortage of weapons of the Russian army. They can only supply rifles and bullets. Weapons for the Russian army can be made in the next 3 to 4 months, that too if they have enough raw materials for it. Raw materials used to make Russian weapons came from Slovenia, Finland and Germany, which have now stopped due to sanctions.:

Here is his twitter feed. FInd any of these statements.

https://twitter.com/RihoTerras

You said:
"Once again, 20 billion euros a day is the number that seems to be most often cited by western sources so that is likely the number western thinking about the war is based on."

The "hindustan news hub" is not a western source, and the $20 Bn/day does not reflect any "western thinking".

The hindustan news hub is not a source of anything- nothing is attributed and the authors are anonymous. It's a bunch of gossip as far as I am concerned.

So keep looking, and give us something we can verify next time. From a Western Source- that has some experience or authority on defense spending, and who can make a rational estimate of the costs of wars. That means not a journalist, unless he is interviewing someone credible. Journos don't know shit- they think everything with a track is a tank.

You still haven;t reconciled the number with the size of Russia's economy, and I know it's because you don't have the analytical capacity to even understand. Like I said, you aren't really in the conversation at all- you just keep deflecting, and cannot grasp the obvious irrationality of your position.

 

[para bellum]

Correction to above: I scrolled the mentioned twitter feed back to mid-Feb, not mid-April. The statements attributed to him aren't there.

Lots of cajoling other countries to help Ukraine- the sort of things you would expect to hear from an MP from Estonia or Latvia or Slovakia, etc.

 

[toomuchtime_]

You cite an Indian source for an Estonian MP's words. If he said that:

1. He would just be retweeting the same source that you use.

except-

2. I went through his twitter feed from the middle of April until today. Not one single statement attributed to him by the "hindustan news hub" is there.

Here is the list:

"In one tweet after another, he claimed that the Russians did not have a strategic plan. The cost of the war is about $20 billion a day. Rockets are with any country for a maximum of 3-4 days, they are rarely used. In such a situation, Russia has a shortage of weapons. The Tula and Rotenberg plants could not meet the shortage of weapons of the Russian army. They can only supply rifles and bullets. Weapons for the Russian army can be made in the next 3 to 4 months, that too if they have enough raw materials for it. Raw materials used to make Russian weapons came from Slovenia, Finland and Germany, which have now stopped due to sanctions.:

Here is his twitter feed. FInd any of these statements.

https://twitter.com/RihoTerras

You said:
"Once again, 20 billion euros a day is the number that seems to be most often cited by western sources so that is likely the number western thinking about the war is based on."

The "hindustan news hub" is not a western source, and the $20 Bn/day does not reflect any "western thinking".

The hindustan news hub is not a source of anything- nothing is attributed and the authors are anonymous. It's a bunch of gossip as far as I am concerned.

So keep looking, and give us something we can verify next time. From a Western Source- that has some experience or authority on defense spending, and who can make a rational estimate of the costs of wars. That means not a journalist, unless he is interviewing someone credible. Journos don't know shit- they think everything with a track is a tank.

You still haven;t reconciled the number with the size of Russia's economy, and I know it's because you don't have the analytical capacity to even understand. Like I said, you aren't really in the conversation at all- you just keep deflecting, and cannot grasp the obvious irrationality of your position.

So now you reject his statement because you don't trust Indians or Estonians. Perhaps you should specify which races and nationalities you think are entitled to opinions in your increasingly bizarre posts.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Correction to above: I scrolled the mentioned twitter feed back to mid-Feb, not mid-April. The statements attributed to him aren't there.

Lots of cajoling other countries to help Ukraine- the sort of things you would expect to hear from an MP from Estonia or Latvia or Slovakia, etc.

So what you are saying is that you don't trust anything said by anybody from a nation that supports Ukraine.

 

[Ringo]

As soon as Erdogan became the king of arrogance, an heir appeared:

"Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Norway should share the "gigantic" profits that it recently received as a result of higher oil and gas prices, especially with Ukraine.

Morawiecki, answering a question about his government's energy policy on Sunday at a meeting of a youth group, said that coal-dependent Poland plans to switch to renewable energy sources and nuclear energy, abandoning oil and gas supplies from Russia and at some point from "Arab" countries. also.

"But should we pay Norway a huge amount of money for gas — four or five times more than we paid a year ago? It's a disease," he said. "They should share this excess profit. It's not normal, it's not fair. This is indirect profit from the war started by Putin."

Later this year, Poland will complete the construction of a gas pipeline from Norway, which should help it replace fuel supplies from Russia, which were cut off last month after Poland refused to pay in rubles.
The country sees its gas needs rising by about 50% over the current decade as its utilities build new power plants instead of aging coal plants. The deal with Norway and Denmark on the construction of a communication line from the North Sea was crucial for the policy of the Polish ruling Law and Justice party aimed at ending energy ties with Russia.
-----------------

Great, you come to the store like that and say, "I've been buying bread from you for twenty years. I'm tired of paying you forever. You are obliged to share your super profits with me!"
I would like the counter condition of the norwegians to be this: every pole must kiss each of the norwegians in the ass with three witnesses.
Only after the norwegian commission has studied all the submitted certificates, can a decision be made to consider Poland's most humble request.

 

[Baron]

This is a problem. How stupid was the West in harming their own energy industries?

Because so-called West is brain-dead and run by satanic imbeciles.