You know, I think it’s becoming clear that Vladimir Putin is losing his shit. If I personally had drawn up the battle plans for an invasion of an innocent neighboring country, and it was a rolling disaster, I’d be kind of preoccupied in trying to set the ship right. But obviously Putin is a demagogue who is able to multitask.
One of the stunning revelations that came from Putin’s blatant invasion of Ukraine wasn’t so much how many non NATO countries that joined in sanctions against Russia, but the almost insane number of American companies that voluntarily shut down their operations in Russia, right now more than 130.
This really hurts, because these are American companies that over the years have become imbedded into everyday Russian life. Companies like Apple, Nike, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Starbucks and McDonalds. These all are staples of daily Russian life, and they’re not going to like being cut off from their Mocha Vente Lattes and Big Macs.
But Putin isn’t the kind of maniac to take that kind of insult lying down. MSNBC is reporting tonight that Putin is flying an idea to punish foreign companies that are defying him by nationalizing them! He is going to punish these companies by having the Russian government take over their companies in Russia.
After that announcement, one Russian magnate dissident said that Putin was trying to take Russia back to 1913, the year of the Russian Revolution, when the communists took over national companies in the name of the people. But there’s only one problem here. Those were Russian companies!
But now Putin is talking about actually nationalizing American companies as a punishment for them defying them. How does this work? Let’s just take a look at the difficulties in this scenario;
- Putin wants to nationalize McDonald’s in order to keep the free flow of Big Mac’s coming. How does he do that? McDonald’s imports their beef, their buns, their French fries, and pretty much everything else. Putin can nationalize McDonald’s, but if they don’t ship the supplies in, what are the restaurants serving?
- Putin wants to privatize Apple too. But again, if Apple simply declines to ship their products into Russia, what do the newly nationalized Apple stores sell?
- Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have all bailed out of Russia. Putin can nationalize all of those companies, but if they don’t flip their switches fo process transactions, what good does that do?
- Nike has bailed out of Russia. Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Russia can’t even make decent baby shoes! If they nationalize Nike, how are they going to recreate their product line?
- Caterpillar just bailed out of Russia. Forget the machines themselves, how does Putin recreate the Caterpillar replacement parts that Russian farmers need to plant and harvest their crops
Notice the common thread here? All of these American companies that Putin wants to nationalize are service companies. They import the things they need to provide their services to Russian citizens. If Putin nationalized the companies, as long as they refuse to ship the necessary items to Russian to make it work the whole thing falls apart. Putin in licking his nuts again.
Reminds me of a scene in the Graduate when Benjamin tells his parents he’s going to marry Elaine Robinson. His parents run to the phone to call their friends & neighbors. He stops them & tells them he not only hasn’t asked her, she hates him. His dad says “this whole thing sounds half baked”. Ben replies, ” it’s completely baked”. Given 11 million Russians have relatives in Ukraine, putin is not going to be able to shut down all communication between folks. So he has a half baked invasion on his hands & the world is headed toward unity in their hatred of his genocide. When the truth escapes his clutches and u can’t resume your normal routines & lifestyle, I don’t think he survives this in the long run. The Ukrainians will never surrender. The experts on this all agree on that. Putin has to control the propaganda or he’s done. Putin may someday be a victim of assassination or just disappear into a leftover gulag. The only way out is to withdraw.
The Russian revolution took place in 1917 fact checker??
Nitpick Murf, but the Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik takeover didn’t happen till 1917. In 1913, Russia was still firmly under the control of Tsar Nicholas II.
to be honest McD’s does not import all these things, some beef may come from brazil, but most will be local.. they find local producers who can provide beef and bread and lettuce. The closing of the stores themselves is an important symbolic act.