Russia gives life sentence to Hydra dark web kingpin after seizing a ton of drugs A Russian court has handed a life sentence to the head of the infamous online drugs souk Hydra, and 15 of his co-conspirators will also spend many years behind bars. The leader of the gang, Stanislav Moiseev, received a life sentence and a fine of four million rubles (about $37,500) for running the online marketplace. Others …
No exaggeration – literally a ton
A couple of days ago just off the East Coast of Australia, 2.34 tonnes (2340kg) of cocaine was seized from a rendezvous vessel that had broken down returning from the drop.
I don't know how much (mg) pure cocaine a typical user shoves up each nostril but I would guess that 2t would amount to a lot of noses.
I would think anything over 1t would qualify to be quantified as a buggery of badgers...to be be honest even a kg of the stuff would bugger any living thing including a blue whale I should think.
"to be be honest even a kg of the stuff would bugger any living thing including a blue whale I should think."
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame might prove this to be not quite the case, $6M buys a lot more than just a Kilo..
https://nypost.com/2022/05/25/aerosmiths-steven-tyler-74-says-hes-spent-6m-on-cocaine/
Well for "science" China subjected monkeys to methamphetamine addiction, withdrawal and then testing to see if the monkeys pursued natural rewards (i.e. fruit) or meth - poor monkeys....
Article title : Decreased consumption of natural rewards in rhesus monkeys with prolonged methamphetamine abstinence
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1446353/pdf
Please tell me that "A buggery of badgers" is the official term for a group of badgers! Because that is awesome.
Actually, you know what. Dont bother confirming it, I've read it on the internet, therefore it is Gospel! Now to go edit the Wikipedia site, so the whole world can join in on the joy that is "A buggery of badgers"...
Canadian fisherman I chatted to told me that if they hauled up drugs while trawling then the "smart" thing to do was cut it loose and pretend you didn't see it. Reasoning - the sort of people to try to import that kinda quantities are NOT the sort of people you want to chance getting on the wrong side of
Turf wars?
Bricks of cocaine featuring Vladimir Putin's photo
I know it's the silly season but the idea that Vladimir is running a branded drug running side hustle is not one I would have seen coming. Does the chap think his retirement plans could possibly extend beyond a the Milosevic suite in the Hague or a Moscow basement?
An image of the goods: Putin branded coke?
Russians have plenty of food and cheap gas & electricity, I'd love to live in such a collapsing economy. And when Russia cut the gas export to Austria, who sanctioned who here ? And when US had sabotaged the gas pipeline, was Russia punished or the German economy ? This comes from Reuters and you'd have to work hard to convince me they're in Putin's pocket.
I would suggest we all keep this site out of the war propaganda and stick to what we're best at, discussing IT. It's more fun and less fatalities.
I don't think most people hate Russia, they hate Putin and is blood lust/greed. Russia didn't cut gas exports, they like to make money, Putin cut exports because he's a greedy meth head who takes offence when people tell him to stop killing people, so he is mean to them too. But if you donate bodies for war, he will give you a new car - just ask KJY
Most (if not all) of Russia's problems have to do with putin and his corrupt form of power.
Russia doesn't have a good shortage problem. Russia is a f'ing huge country. Some things have changed, but there are no real shortages.
I've followed a Russian YouTuber for years, and she has stayed out of politics as much as possible. She's highlighted issues with things like money transfers she showed how they get around it via bank accounts in different countries) , no advertising revenue from YouTube etc.
But she also highlighted how they have quite literally recreated the likes of McDonald's and Pizza hut just under new names.
The stores were sell stocked (some of her favourite brands had gone), but plenty of European goods were still easily obtainable via the grey market.
.
I also follow some other Russians on Instagram (Artists and Photographers) and they say similar things
It may not play to the narrative we want to hear, but I'd rather hear both sides of the story from real people, rather than baseless crap endlessly repeated.
As for the economy it's doing OK. They are still selling plenty of oils and gas to India and China.
If anything ,it's their arms exports that have taken a kicking as they have repeatedly shown that there amazing new high tech gear is just old kit in a pretty package
As for the economy it's doing OK. They are still selling plenty of oils and gas to India and China.
I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Russia is a major exporter of natural resources (oil, gas, minerals, wood) plus food. Sanctions have had an effect on this, due to increased cost of doing business and in particular having to sell oil at a discount - plus the loss of gas sales to Europe - which mostly can't be shipped elsewhere.
Other Russian exports have also fallen - and those markets may be harder to win back when the war eventually stops. In particular the arms industry. I don't think the Russian government pays the same prices as their international customers did - and Russia's share of the global arms market is falling rapidly. Given China has a suite of often compatible weapons - and Russia need their production for themselves - this might be hard to recover from. Quite a few of Russia's weapons are also getting a reputation for being a bit crap.
Recently Russia also seems to have been trying a new strategy of get the initial R&D and even low-rate initial production going - and then try to bring in a partner (India) to help fund the next phase of getting rid of teething problems and ramping up production. This was attempted with the T-14 Armata tank and the SU-57 (supposedly) stealthy fighter. India's own new tank design has been a disaster for a couple of decades - but then part of the reason they went their own way was the purchase of T-90s from Russia also went wrong and they took expensive modification to be useable. That could have happened - but the Indians had already rejected the SU-57 before the war - with claims being that it wasn't even that stealthy - meanwhile Russia had built between 10-20 of each themselves - but couldn't afford to buy them in numbers - and don't seem to have fielded them in Ukraine. It's possible that there have been battlefield trials - and nobody has noticed.
On the other hand, Russia needs to produce weapons and ammo for the war, and needs soldiers. So unemployment is very low - and wages are up.
However military spending has shot up and government revenues are down. The Russians are using up their financial reserve.
Inflation is also still high (9% - though it was 12% last year and hit 17% at one point) - with interest rates being very high (21% - with rumours they'll hit 23% by Christmas). I also wonder if they've also started printing money? It would have made sense to do it at the start of the war, to help with the economic shock - and given their economy had just become a lot less international, the effects would have been less inflationary. However it seems odd to have inflation this high - when you've got some industries doing badly and such high interest rates. A shortage of workers and rise in the cost of imports might be the only explanation needed though.
Finally we've got investment. Interest rates over 20% - and increases in the kind of predatory attacks on companies that used to happen in the 90s (that Putin had largely put a stop to since) - makes it a pretty bad climate to invest. Plus the inability to get foreign capital goods - especially the kit needed to keep the oil industry maintained. Machinery does not like operating in Siberia... This is going to have a long-term negative effect on Russian industry - even if the genius Trump can get a peace deal done in a day and one that's so bigly amazing that sanctions get lifted at the same time.
I'd think that the longer the war goes on, the more long-term damage is done to the Russian economy. But military Keynesianism works, and might go on working for quite a long time. Especially while they can still export food and natural resources - so have plenty of foreign capital to buy from China and India. North Korea and Iran will happily take payments in new technology - and food and oil in North Korea's case too.
The come-down when the war ends will be incredibly painful though. If Putin can impose a one-sided peace (with Trump's help) and claim some kind of victory - sanctions aren't getting lifted very much - and there'll be a lot of unemployed soldiers and workers in the arms industry. And no jobs for them to go to. On the other hand, the technocrats in Putin's government have done a very good job - it's the security and military side of government that's been pretty rubbish. The central bank and finance ministry have kept the economy going pretty well - especially at the beginning of the war - so maybe they can perform more miracles when it ends?
On the plus side, the Russian prison population has gone down from over 400,000 in 2022 to somewhere in the mid 200,000s now. That's going to have saved a decent amount of money - and I bet prisoners at the front don't get full military pay either. I've suggested war with France to Kier Starmer - as it would solve our prison overcrowding quite nicely - but he's not answering my calls...
Things may be "ok" in the major population centres (all 4 of them) but Russian friends in other parts of the country are telling stories of increasingly hard to get items
People are increasingly openly talking about migrating to China for a better life
They've all agreed for years that the leadership are mafiosi and tend to stay out of the way of media. They've all noticed the same faces popping up as "residents" of widely disparate areas on TV news too. Potemkin lives on in the 21st century
Most people just want to get on with life, without interference from the government
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