Both are true. The standard of living did improve. But it was so abysmal, that even after the improvement only very few parts of Russia can compare to the rest of Eastern Europe, not to mention anything richer.

Is it really that good or is it just a meme?

If so is it good compared to other cheap brands or as good as the stuff I can buy in dedicated tea shops?

Oligarchs. You’re missing oligarchs. The issue with Ukrainian agricultire is that a lot of it is a big, concentrated business with ties to Western capital on top of the traditional post-soviet oligarchy. This influences actions of both Ukrainian and EU politicians. The matters of imports or transit from Ukraine could be very well sorted out for the short term, but no one in power is really willing to do so.

In the long term Polish agriculture faces a serious challenge from Ukraine when it gets more and more integrated with the west but it’s also not so binary in terms of who floods whom with produce.

I recommend everyone who hasn’t to look up the idea of “Potiomkin villages” (and subsequently Potiomkin anything eg. Potiomkin AI). In short: back in the tzarist days lower ranks put up mock villages which looked clean, modern and prosperous for higher ranks (and tzars) to see during visits. These mockups were essentially theatre decorations which hid the real state of the matters - dilapidated, dirty, poor and corrupt. For at least the last decade everything we saw of Russia was Potiomkin in nature - either to show off before the West or to hide corruption before own superiors.

Ahaha we’re so fucked. The sea temperature is not just higher, it was rising the whole previois year and it’s flatter than in the past. Say goodbye to seasons, we’re heading into the “flood season and heatwave season” territory. Last year I heard top scientists saying “it’s bad and anomalous but not exponential”, this looks… increasingly exponential.

No no no no. It’s, you know, just warfare. Terrible things happen at wars. But you can always send more missiles and bombs so Israel can end the war faster! No genocide to speak of! Just mundane defensive war.

(/s obviously)

That’s an amount of gear and people comparable to what a mid-sized European country could have and what a big European country could muster on short notice. It’s “only” a factor of 2 or 3 less than what Russia prepared for Ukraine at the beginning. It’s likely more than the combined forces of the Baltic states’ militaries and the NATO contingents stationed there.

With a generous dose of optimism it is a force that would at least hold a conventional invasion at bay, if not defeat it via superior tech and sea support. It is a lot even in absolute terms, for an exercise it’s massive.

…until morale improves.

Whether pro-Israeli bots like it or not, numerous acts by IDF do fit perfectly into descriptions of the acts forbidden by the convention. Even if the case is eventually dismissed it will be on technical grounds such as “it’s actually a war crime not a genocide” not because “IDF did nothing wrong”.

👏multi👏bread👏basket👏failure

Care to elaborate why is this relevant?

Oh and I forgot an important one:

There is no way this could be prevented!!!

What could cause this??? What a mystery!! Why would people succum to viruses?!?!?! Inexplicable!!! If only here was a reason why so many people have weakened immune system??? No one could foresee this, also covid case number is low, don’t look in this direction.

Solidifying control over the Suez Canal - note that Saudis and Iran are (at least for now) not at their throats so some or other kind of cooperation for mutual trade profits may be in order. Their agreement was brokered by China, and the Chinese are very much interested in keeping Suez open. For the local powers the best case scenario is to make westerners GTFO. But the westerners won’t gtfo as long as their ships are under fire. It’s not unlikely that Houthi got “off the leash”, in such case the Iranian warship would paradixically sail there to discipline the attackers and reduce tensions. Howevwr obviously no one would admit it openly.

A more conspirational take is that the heat in the ME, from Hamas to Houthi, is a bid to pressure the US into unpopular moves (stubborn support to Israel, actual violence on the seas, maybe some diplomatic fuckups) and produce an electoral advantage for Trump.

Last time I checked BBC wasn’t a Fox News cosplay

Correct with the caveat that the Polish truckers have to comply with the EU regulations (laws designed to make sure drivers aren’t forced to drive 12 hours straight and their trucks are not falling apart) while the Ukrainian ones don’t. Polish and Ukrainian govts are slowly getting to work on the issue but that’s just the beginning. When Poland and others accessed the EU the German truckers, farmers… were also quite dissatisfied. It’s a complicated matter and while I wholeheartedly support Ukraine and agree that all measures should be taken to make grain exports smoother I should also acknowledge, that this time the conflict is not just mere pettiness from the Polish side.

I’m not American, can someone explain why Biden does this when his “one job” for 2024 is to not look like a fash?

Azerbaijan gets a nod to host COP29

Ah yes, host the climate summit in an authoritarian fossil fuel exporting country, it has never caused problems.

Ohhh elections, so the plan is to get bogged down in a low-intensity border conflict and then say “oh no, we can’t do the voting in the middle of a war!”

Is that a ploy from Russians who are too cheap to bribe three juntas at the same time and want to consolidate assets?