European Commission bans Russians from entering EU by car, with valuables
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https://global.espreso.tv/european-commission-bans-russians-from-entering-eu-by-car-with-valuables
https://global.espreso.tv/european-commission-bans-russians-from-entering-eu-by-car-with-valuables
This was reported by the Russian news agency Rbc.ru.
I'll wait for a less suspicious source, thanks.
RBC is actually akin to FT in Europe. And the source is the European commission, a link should be present in the article.
RBC hasn't been independent since 2016 (remember Panama Papers?). On the other hand, EU is expected to lift sanctions against its owner, Grigory Berezkin, this week. Of course, Putin's oligarch deserves more rights than ordinary Russians, totally understandable.
Not really saying that it's independent, just that it's not a random propaganda rag. Given that they've already received a strike mid 2022, they're operating within a narrow corridor of permitted professionalized speech. Even a budding totalitarian regime is interested in having a decent financial newspaper to prop up the business/investment sector, and RBC is a far cry from the shrill propagandistic dross produced by Kremlin-originating sources. So, I don't trust them to report everything, but I don't expect them to outright produce fake news. That goes against the mutually beneficial niche they have settled in.
The problem isn’t refugees; it’s the people selling stuff and then going back with Euros to avoid sanctions.
I get that. I just really don't think that it'll have enough of an impact to matter in that case. All of the high level people have their own methods for getting things in and out of the country, so you're probably going to affect some "middle class" smugglers, but the I'm worried that people trying to flee are going to be affected more.
If you're just now deciding you want to flee, you've already chosen your battles.
This war has been going on for 1,5 years, but now that the drones are circling Moscow you're suddenly making an issue, whilst being quiet while Ukrainians were killed by kamikaze drones? Quite hypocritical.
Average citizens aren't going to leave their family homes because their government is waging war on innocent people. I, personally, did not leave the US while we bombed the shit out of several undeserving countries. If those countries had managed to start bombing California with any efficacy, I would probably try to leave.
On the other side of the border...
"Average citizens have been forced to leave their family homes because that same government is waging war on innocent people."
Sure, you can stay until it impacts you personally... but don't expect anyone whom your country was calling an "enemy", to take you in just like that.
I think that's a very flawed way to look at this. Just because it's been 1.5 years doesn't mean that every person living inside a series of imaginary lines on a map is responsible for the minority that is in charge of that shaded map regeon. By that logic, you're at fault for whatever your government has done since you've become a legal adult. If you are one.
Putin took power when most of the people fighting in this war were small children. There's not been a real election since.
Russia has begun all of its recent invasions by claiming it is stepping in to protect ethnic Russians from persecution.
So, let's punish refugees trying to leave the nation.
Look, I get it. This sanction is meant to make it even harder for Russia to move money in and out. But realistically, this is going to disproportionately affect the people trying to run away from the draft, or other political dissidents.
Did you forget how as soon as the war started, the Russians protested and thousands were arrested, beaten, jailed, etc?
The people in Russia have family and children to worry about, you can't blame them for staying and not wanting to risk starving and leaving with nothing.
Not to mention that they know their country is in the wrong, so they would also be fearing oppression outside of their country as well, not to mention losing all of their assets, being homeless, potentially starving.
The people that will be fleeing now will be desperate. It's clear that all the risks they face outside of Russia are now less than what they face remaining.
The citizens of Ukraine have had it incomprehensibly worse obviously, but that doesn't diminish the plight of Russian refugees now, it all adds together in the cost to humanity.
This doesn't make any sense to me. Someone's car that they drove to Germany with doesn't generate any money for Russia at all
Why would they sell in Germany? With sanctions they can probably fetch better price in Russia.
You'd sell in Germany because you get paid in euros there. Unlike rubeles they don't devalue significantly and universally accepted (unlike yuan or rupee)
Back in 90-00s it was a booming business, seems its
I imagine that they suspect that those Russians with valuables entering the country are illegally importing them to avoid tariffs.