I'm Russian – ask me a question. Be it about Russia or a personal one.

You are asking my opinion on USSR collapse?
Well, Putin has thought of a perfect formula IMO: "Those who don't regret USSR collapse have no heart, those who wish to reinstate it have no brain".

AFAIK, for the Slavs "the land of ancients" is closer to Berlin than to Serbia.
Either way we are unlikely to just relocate somewhere, me included. I'd like to live near the sea though - continental climate is just not my thing.

Funny.

Was talking about the division of all nations.

Nationality - or ethnicity - in it's modern meaning is a relatively new invention. 19th century at best. I won't recommend anyone trying to fit himself into this artificial canvas.

The ruble is said to be backed by gold, and of course it is to some extent. It is now at roughly 70 rubles to one dollar but has been much better for most of the last 10 years, around 25 to a dollar. My question is, do you think the chances are good for the ruble to improve? What do you see changing about the Russian economy?

Economy is not only about exchange rate. It was said by some economists that for Russian economy an exchange rate of 100-120 would be much better: it discourages import and encourages domestic production as well as export. That's the reason China regulates its exchange rate artificially.

As for the backing of the currencies... In the modern financial system the physical backing by the gold is almost nonexistent. They say, that USD for example is mainly backed by the American stock market which is overrated 10 times at least.
But, well, I'm more inclined to believe that it's actually backed by the American aircraft carriers.
And the ruble is backed by the public support of the Russian government. Which is in turn backed by the governmental population support programs paid from federal budget. Which are paid using mainly oil revenue of the state. Which makes ruble exchange rate closely tied to the oil prices. You may find that Norway is in the same boat, as well as some other oil producers.

With Russia however the problem is that our economists are of Western economical school - they just follow what the IMF and other institutions are telling them to do. There's a chance it will change - then there could be some major changes.
That's the another classical entry of "the tsar is good, retinue is vile". Putin is not physically able to personally manage everything. While he's busy with external policy, someone is wrenching havoc at the backyard.

Ochen privyet. Do you like Gundam? What's your favorite anime series?

thank you

Privet.
Sorry for delayed response - I was not able to upgrade at that time and my IP is banned for some reason.

Well, I've seen some of the Gundam series. "Seed" is my favorite so far among them. I'm yet to finish the original Gundam though.
As for the rest, I prefer fantasy usually. Mostly Eastern-themed. Among that category my favorite one is "Inuyasha".

Among quite rare true sci-fi anime (I can't really count most of Gundams specifically and mecha genre in general as one usually) my favorite is "Seikai" series ("Seikai no Monshou" and "Seikai no Senki"). Besides the plot and characters there I liked social and governmental system described there.

Does reserve have sufficient Gold reserves in case there is a reversion back to a Gold or silver standard?

Tell Putin I have the utmost respect for him, and I think he is doing a great job in Syria.

Thanks!

I believe my country,the US is the true aggressor in the world and always has been. But I don't know if it's real. The Illumanati creates many illusions. Truly it's the common man that always pays. My loyalty is to Jesus, not country.

Russians are some of the most beautiful people I have seen. I am 1/2 Ukrainian, but we consider our genetics identical. My grandmother did not like the Polish.

Not a question....
Just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Take care.

Patriotism is a trap. I laugh when I see people with a flag on both sides of their car. It's the funniest thing. When I see one all I can think is that they are celebrating the death of millions of people.

M2 money supply is not a completely appropriate instrument here, but it serves the general idea: let's try to imagine that everyone having dollars and rubles in their pocket will demand it's conversion to gold at a maximum rate corresponding governments can afford.

US M2 is 12,288,100,000,000 USD now. US gold reserves are 8133.46 tonnes. Which mean roughly 1,510.80 USD per gram.

Russian M2 is 32,859,600,000,000 Rubles. Russian gold reserves are 1352.20 tonnes. Which mean roughly 24,300 Rubles per gram.

Note that 1510.80 USD is 106,649.72 Rubles according to the current exchange rate.
So, the Ruble is backed by reserved gold at least 4 times better than USD is. That's if you assume that public statistics are true of course.


Note, that I don't mean to pretend I'm an economist - I'm basing this answer on some common sense and basic economical knowledge I've gathered here and there.

Last Edited by Tamonten on 12/14/2015 05:33 PM

Well, I'm not acquainted to Putin in any way, but I do believe that our services do monitor public support of our actions all over the globe.
As one of our experts said, "someone should kill those bastards already" and Russia is just doing the job that should have been done anyways.

Well, basically all the story with Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians is a huge ruse.
Up to 1917 it was not considered this way. For starters, the very term "Ukrainian" is artificial. Ukrainians were called Malorossians (Little Russians) then. What is called "Russians" now were called "Velikorossians" (Great Russians). The only ones who've retained their name are Belorussians ("White Russians"). And all together we were called "Russians" - a "triune nation". Therefore you can call yourself half-Russian actually.
BTW, the term "Malorossian" was not degrading in any way. It was just stating the fact that the ancient center of Rus' was in Kiev. Same as in Byzantine empire Constantinople itself and its premises was called "Little Byzantine", while the rest of empire was called "Great Byzantine".

Well, prior to the 20th century it was Britain's role...



Patriotism is both a trap and the right thing. That's why it's such a good trap.
People are prone to support what they deem just. And the easiest way to make someone believe you are right is to say "we are compatriots, they are the foreigners". It always have been so. The only change that since the beginning of 19th century ethnic problem was invented that added fuel to the fire.

As for the rest. There's a Somalian proverb:
"Me and my country against the whole world, me and my clan against my country, me and my family against my clan, me and my brother against my family, me against my brother."
As long as people are people, people will be different. As long as people are different, there will be conflicts.
It's just that no one should be allowed to go full retard and try to either make everyone the same or to make everyone everyone's enemy. And US are now doing basically both this things simultaneously.

Thank you!

Is it hard to learn the language? Whats the best way?

Well, I've already answered such question here:
Thread: I'm Russian – ask me a question. Be it about Russia or a personal one. (Page 13)

From my experience the best way of learning language is to interact with it as frequently as it's possible. My knowledge of English is mostly due to reading English books.
But at first teacher is always needed. All self-learning methods are a complete ruse. There are of course some people that can learn from them, but it's a neglectable minority.

Thanks...pretty place....
[link to sputniknews.com]

Friend of mine learned in the army and said its one of the toughest to learn...

Russian is usually placed after Chinese and Japanese in complexity, yeah. Mostly because of very complex grammar. While English grammar has a clear (if difficult to remember for me) logic, in Russian there's no general logical pattern in how to place or change words. There are a whole lot of little patterns and messing up just one can change the whole meaning.

Thats good info...and of course he learned it from the US army...and we know they are way anal...He makes good $$ for the gov but sold his soul to evil....
Is Putin immortal?? [link to 6th-sense.net]

Pretty freaky!!

Meh, you can find quite similar photos for everyone.
Several years ago people were noting the Medvedev is very alike to Nicolas II: [link to cs402230.userapi.com]

Though, you can always dig out the story of Emperor of Mankind from WH40k... :)


Last Edited by Tamonten on 12/16/2015 12:32 AM

Bump?


[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Last Edited by Tamonten on 02/13/2016 07:19 PM

I've always enjoyed and appreciated the time of spent with Russians - sincere fellowship with a lot of laughter!

Want to share it, but don't see the point of creating another topic for it:

[link to grimnir74.livejournal.com] - color photos of pre-Revolutionary Russia.
[link to aloban75.livejournal.com] - photos of Soviet Russia by Life magazine

Aerial of historical Moscow.

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]