8 hours ago, sezze said:

While i do like it , i also feel sorry for many Russians which have nothing to do with the war , and also do not want it and neither are supporting Putin . I am not saying every Russian is ok , because that would be just the same as they are all bad . They only have the unfortunate fact that they have a Russian passport and do have got Russian money from normal work .

I feel much more sorry for the Ukrainians being slaughtered by Putin for nothing.

12 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Flight route is not exactly like that. Planes fly south of Ukraine and then off to the west, over Romania. This is how it looks right now:

 

Fly Turkish Airlines, their routes are far to the south.

19 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

I don't blame them. With how hard the currency and economy will crash for the longterm with the harsh sanctions, they lose money by accepting any. If Russia is removed from SWIFT eventually, it will be even worse.

So sad that the Ukraine and Russian citizens are hurt big time due to a traumatized mad man.

Finally the biggest sanction has been imposed, Russia has been kicked out of the Eurovision song contest

Just now, scubascuba3 said:

Finally the biggest sanction has been imposed, Russia has been kicked out of the Eurovision song contest

Getting serious now.

26 minutes ago, peter zwart said:

So sad that the Ukraine and Russian citizens are hurt big time due to a traumatized mad man.

I blame Putin more than Johnson.

34 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Fly Turkish Airlines, their routes are far to the south.

Actually I hovered over all that plane icons going east over Russia... All Belavia, S7 and Aeroflot, except one... Qatar Airways A350 from Doha to Houston! ????

34 minutes ago, peter zwart said:

So sad that the Ukraine and Russian citizens are hurt big time due to a traumatized mad man.

That's that one thing that we should keep in mind. That people don't equate governments. Maybe they voted them in, maybe they didn't, but just because governments do something, it doesn't mean people support that. Expecting that when governments do something, people will somehow get together and topple them is also seriously unrealistic. Politicians make decisions. People pay the price. That's about as far as the involvement of people goes.

 

Whether people support what governments are doing or not is in large part a result of "marketing campaigns" through the media. In the past, before internet, states had basically complete control of information dissemination, except bordering regions where signal from neighbouring countries could be received (not accounting for that led to toppling of president of Romania). Banning satellite dishes was the way to fight foreign news sources in the past, cutting off the internet and filtering it is the way to do that now. I think no second guesses are needed for why Thailand believes "National Internet Gateway" is a must for "National Security".

 

I think we all need to realise that all news organisations have their own agenda. Checking out opposing sides of the argument and making our own decision on what we'd believe and in what proportion from each of them, is a must to know what's going on, yet most people believe propaganda of a single source and accept it as absolute truth. Governments the World over would be in serious trouble if majority of people embraced critical thinking based on multiple conflicting inputs. Would be... as all they need to do right now is split people in 2 roughly same sized sides, turn them against each other, and they can do anything without fear of uprising.

15 hours ago, Jingthing said:

They deserve to be cut from SWIFT.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60521822

 

I believe that Germany, Italy and France are holding out against it.

The West could still kick Russia out of SWIFT as the 'last resort'

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/business/swift-russia-putin/index.html

 

I wonder what the THB-RUB exchange rate is on the black market?  I've done enough global traveling to know that in most countries that is the official exchange rate and then street exchange rate. 

15 minutes ago, Puccini said:

The West could still kick Russia out of SWIFT as the 'last resort'

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/business/swift-russia-putin/index.html

 

It would be like picking up a white-hot ingot of steel with the intention of throwing it at Russia.

11 hours ago, sezze said:

While i do like it , i also feel sorry for many Russians which have nothing to do with the war , and also do not want it and neither are supporting Putin . I am not saying every Russian is ok , because that would be just the same as they are all bad . They only have the unfortunate fact that they have a Russian passport and do have got Russian money from normal work .

unfortunately about 70% russians support Putin and thus support the war. Propaganda does wonders.

 

And yes, Russian passport was a "red flag" for several years already but now it's going to be seen as an anthrax envelope.

Currently Wise (formerly TransferWise) won't exchange rubel to baht.

20 hours ago, connda said:

Good time to buy rubles at fire-sale prices.

me thinks  China is/should be amassing them into full containers

5 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Getting serious now.

5 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Finally the biggest sanction has been imposed, Russia has been kicked out of the Eurovision song contest

 

That's nothing - just read news of my hometown (of about 20k inhabitants in middle of nowhere in Europe) freezing collaboration of their Russian/Soviet friendship town of 50+ yrs somewhere near Urals due to this - this is serious s**t.

 

Ovetshkin still not condemning his buddy Putin though, wonder how the Ice Hockey fans in Washington thinking.

 

16 hours ago, billd766 said:

But who would want to buy them?

Me.  

Hope that does happen to the £

8 hours ago, billd766 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60521822

 

I believe that Germany, Italy and France are holding out against it.

Germany and France were the 2 that would not allow Ukraine to join NATO in the Bush era.

 

 

8 hours ago, fdsa said:

unfortunately about 70% russians support Putin and thus support the war. Propaganda does wonders.

 

And yes, Russian passport was a "red flag" for several years already but now it's going to be seen as an anthrax envelope.

It is far from 70% supporting him , and of that number even much less are in support for the war . You do know that any critical voice in Russia is handled in a "gentle" manner very fast for the last few years .

On 2/25/2022 at 1:43 PM, EricTh said:

So what does that mean? That Russians in Thailand can't exchange their money to baht in Thailand?

They can.

 

But they won't get as much as before the invasion.

 

 

On 2/25/2022 at 7:45 AM, stigar said:

According to news they will be removed from SWIFT.

 what news is predicting this, can you provide link/s? i have seen no reports of international consensus on banning russia from SWIFT, too many countries putting self interest first, for now.

12 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

That's that one thing that we should keep in mind. That people don't equate governments.

Agreed, Putin represents the Russian people as much as the Thai PM represents the Thai people

1 hour ago, MrJ2U said:

They can.

 

But they won't get as much as before the invasion.

 

 

Well they can't exchange on the street as all exchanges I saw today have N/A or 0.00 for the Ruble

1 hour ago, it is what it is said:

 what news is predicting this, can you provide link/s? i have seen no reports of international consensus on banning russia from SWIFT, too many countries putting self interest first, for now.

Germany and Italy has approved this morning cut off Russia ,now only Cypros and Hungaria need approve then its going to happen.

9 hours ago, it is what it is said:

 what news is predicting this, can you provide link/s? i have seen no reports of international consensus on banning russia from SWIFT, too many countries putting self interest first, for now.

Some Russian banks have been banned from Swift, but I have not seen a general ban. 

Wait until Monday or Tuesday to really see what happens to the Russian ruble throughout the world. TT was very smart to stop accepting it.

 

Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy chairman of Russia’s central banks, said “there is going to be a catastrophe” on the Russian currency market on Monday. “I think they will stop trading and then the exchange rate will be fixed at an artificial level just like in Soviet times,” he added.

 

See more details here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/27/russia-ukraine-latest-news-missile-strikes-on-oil-facilities-reported-as-some-russian-banks-cut-off-from-swift-system-live

 

There is a high probability that Russian ATM and credit cards will stop working on Monday or Tuesday.

 

1 hour ago, Banana7 said:

There is a high probability that Russian ATM and credit cards will stop working on Monday or Tuesday.

Be tough on those here in Thailand......

This is from Tinkoff Bank, Russia's 2nd largest credit card issuer. I would guess any russians in Thai hotels might be asked in the morning to square their bills and put down additional deposit if they plan to stay more days.

 

Rubble (sic)-Euro:  164

 

Rubble-USD:  153.75

 

On Friday the ruble-dollar rate was 85.  Now it's 153.75

 

Of course this is Sunday, Moscow time, with think markets, so Monday opening could be different. (It also is way off the Euro-USD crossrate, so something seems amiss)

8 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Be tough on those here in Thailand......

Rigth.Specially now that EU closed airspace for russian fligths.They will have problem flying back home now..