Spoiler: Putin’s annihilation of Ukraine is not going according to his plan. He did not capture Kyiv within two days and did not manage to kill Zelenskyy. Anyone who daily keeps tracks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has seen how hard the brave Ukrainian people resist and causing many casualties in the Russian army, not to mention different kinds of weapons and equipment.

Many military experts have, put forward several factors explaining the weaknesses in the Kremlin war.  Just to mention a few, these include bad or even false intelligence of the Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainians resistance, the terrain and more. Add to this the very poor planning with many unprepared Russian conscripts who believed that they were on an exercise extremely poor logistics causing vehicles to run out of fuel and soldiers out of food, faltering communications, and coordination between and of the military units. Reports about old Soviet-type Russian artillery, hitting civilians instead of military targets, and shortages of missiles and rockets, bare witness that the Russian military is less mighty than feared.

These are the consequences of the weak state of Russia, the malfunctioning of the Russian economy with its low-efficient military industry. These are characteristics you find in a society with pervasive corruption. Corruption which is informally sanctioned by Putin who is has shaped the Kleptocracy aka Russia.

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Spoiler: Cyprus has been a haven for Russian money for many years. Putin’s oligarchs have been pouring money into Cypriote banks and properties. And they used to be welcome. Russians invested in Cyprus mainly to launder their dirty money. They could also get a golden VISA, one for permanent residency and one for citizenship.

That door is closed now. Russia’s borders are still open. Russians with money and assets abroad are fleeing while they can.

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Spoiler: As I showed in my previous post,the Kremlin psychopath’s industries, and war machine are reliant on our supply to satisfy domestic demand. But the story doesn’t end there. Foreign intermediate goods are also used in Russian exports. And a lot of the revenues from exports are used to kill Ukrainians and bomb their schools and hospitals.

Overall, foreign value-added accounts for a bit more than eight percent of total Russian gross exports. The foreign shares are higher in Manufacturing, Construction, Publishing, Computer Services and Professional & Scientific Services. The largest foreign shares are found in Publishing. That’s where you find Kremlin’s propaganda machines RT and Sputnik. Foreign translators and mouthpieces are employed by the Kremlin helping Putin to fight his propaganda war.

Not only will Russian exports fall due to the sanctions. The goods will also be of lower quality now that high-income countries will stop feeding his industries and war machine. That will lower Russian income in two ways. Firstly, because of lower quantities of exports and secondly because of lower prices of exports. This adds to Putin’s clusterfuck.

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