🇺🇦 🇺🇸 Ukrainian-American Economist | Professor at @CWRU | Founding Rector at AUK | TEDx Speaker | Poets and Quants 40 Under 40 | Forbes Top Economic Thinker
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2/ This week, the pro-russian government of Georgia has officially passed the “foreign agents” law. Basically, this is an attempt to solidify authoritarian russian grip on Georgia.
2/ As I said this before, the russian orthodox church is not a church but a sect. It is a part of a spy and intelligence network, directly controlled by the russian state.
2/ Russian orthodox church is not a church but a sect. It is a part of a spy and intelligence network, directly controlled by the russian state.
2/ It is not Putin, but russians who are killing Ukrainians, castrating and beheading men, raping women and children (as young as 4 years old), torturing prisoners, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure.
2/ The said truth is that the most gruesome and sickening truth about russia never even gets reported, because the social media bans such reports. You cannot even quote the russian hate speech, because you would violate the “community standards” by repeating it.
2/ "All the children we have managed to return talk about what they were told about their families. They all had the same period of time - exactly 4 weeks later, they would start talking about how your parents left you, you would not return home.”
2/ Also, in 2023, a modified version of Neptun missiles was successfully used to target and destroy russian air defense systems in Crimea.
2/ Of course, other countries helped by providing weapons, but this help only became available after Ukrainians have shown that they can stand their ground.
2/ Russia is losing up to 45 pieces of military vehicles a day to gain 0.7 square kilometers a day. At this rate, russia would need 31 million of tanks and armored vehicles to conquer Ukraine.
2/ This is four times more than before the full-scale invasion. In pre-war 2021, European banks paid 200 million euros in taxes to russia. 
2/ The US Administration needs to send a clear message that America’s objective is a Ukrainian victory. This message needs clear and consistent repetition from the highest levels of the government and must be backed up with the policy decisions necessary to make this a reality.
2/ To put it in perspective, $115 million allows russia to produce 200,000 shells. Artillery is responsible for about 75% of casualties, with roughly 15 shells per kill. So, Pepsi helped russia to kill 13,000 Ukrainians.
2/ Don't take this from me, take it from many renowned historians like Timothy Snyder, who point out that russia is same fascist state as was Nazi Germany:
2/ It is the right thing to do. Seeing a genocide and doing nothing is a sign of moral bankruptcy. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
2/ I think I might have an explanation. Last week, I wrote that one of the reasons the US is more willing to help Israel than Ukraine is that Israel has a very strong and systematic lobby in the US. For example, there are strong religious ties with the Protestant community.
2/ Last night, the US intercepted over a hundred Iranian missiles and drones directed at Israel. It was the right thing to do. But it also showed one simple and painful truth. The US has never been a true ally of Ukraine.
2/ I used to be much more tolerant and accepting of different points of view. But now, my vision is more black and white. The war became personal. The pain became personal.