Russia Removing Foreign Detergents from Store Shelves

[Practigal]

US foreign policy has been dominated by the simplistic concept that the enemy of my enemy is my friend with no understanding of subtlety. That concept does not hold true. ISIS finds its roots in Wahabism which has kept Saudi Arabia conservative and the house of Saud in power for 200 years, theirs is an uneasy alliance, but since the women are the ones who suffer in Saudi Arabia it has been perpetuated. I don't think our diplomats in the 1940s understood any of this when they were carving up the post WWII world...back then the foreign service exam focused on americana, like who won the 1959 world series, promotion within the service was on a who you knew basis...fast forward to the fall of the Soviet Union and I don't see our foreign service as any better informed or aware of the subtle....I do think that they fully understood what jin they were letting out of the bottle with Sadam and that US oligarchs' greed has cost the US lives, limbs and reputation. I believe that those same oligarchs would make the same decision again today. In fact, the conservative politicians who are in their pay are saying that they would. So long as the other side is willing to enslave and sell women, there will be men to fight. ISIS speaks to the most base thing in some men's nature. It does not signify something holy in any sense of the word but by insisting that they pray before they rape, they try to pass it off as religion. In the US we have shock jocks advocating slavery, and women being branded as property. I am saddened by the idea that slavery which never really disappeared is on the rise again. So long as we dehumanize any portion of the human race we are all in trouble. The really simple question is, would you want to be sold and your life be effectively over? It really doesn't matter who you allow to be enslaved today, so long as the institution exists, you might be the unlucky one tomorrow. We really have no effing clue to how to deal with someone like Putin and his foreign=toxic argument.

 

[iej]

It's about boycotting and slurring EU products in reality. They're only shooting themselves in the both feet by doing these things.

Threatening (even vaguely) EU countries with cutting gas supplies has just caused EU energy companies to invest more in avoiding Russian gas. In the medium to long term it just means that Russia is losing the world's largest (by spending power) consumer market.

EU exports to Russia aren't all that significant either.

The reality is Russia has been flying nuclear bombers into the edges of EU countries airspace. It's endangering civil aviation. We had an incident here in Ireland where an unannounced Russian bomber was in a commercial transatlantic flight path without any beacons switched on, making it less than detectable to civilian radar.

They've been testing various countries' defence systems by skimming the edges of airspace and causing fighter jets to be scrambled.

Then you've the whole eastern Ukraine issue going on.

We've even had thinly veiled threats they'd invade Finland being thrown around by some Russian politician a few months ago and we've had Russian nuclear subs in Swedish waters.

They are causing serious concerns in Europe and there's a sense that they could do something stupid like end up having an accident over EU or NATO territory with a bomber or cause some major incident.

Removing detergents and destroying food on "safety grounds" is just utter nonsense though.

 

[washer111]

I will completely agree with Iej on this one! 

 

And I certainly hold fast to my opinion that the big multinationals aren't going to be too concerned. I mean, every other country in the world they are established in still gives them plenty of money. Perhaps it could be (politically) viewed as an advantage? I don't know. 

 

What I can say is that there was and remains a prime nuclear target in Australia in regards to Communications infrastructure. I have family who were boating in the area during the cold war who had a Soviet sub surface nearby. Upon reporting it to the Police; they were told, "We know they're around here. They do that all the time. We cannot do anything about it." 

 

Really, while the last thing the world needs is even more conflict, the old saying, "When we look for trouble we are FAR more likely to find it" holds true. As in, don't play with fire. Something bad will eventually come of it, I'm sure. 

 

[Practigal]

"Something bad will eventually come of it, I'm sure." We are already there, just in denial, so it will get worse before (hopefully) better...and those multinationals expect the military to protect them...

 

[cranraspberry]

Emerging markets are huge for corporations. The market share of P&G in Russia in 2008 was two billion US dollars, just to give you an idea of the amounts they'd have to recoup in other countries to reach their annual business goals.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I've heard the argument that UK (not that they acted alone) map drawing in Africa is part of the reason for its current state of affairs.

I agree U.S. foreign policy is often simplistic. It's almost as if they honestly believe that other people in the world somehow stop having their own agendas just because they decide to go along with the U.S. at a particular point in time.

Russia/Soviet Union has its own weirdness as well. There's shock that their neighbors aren't overly thrilled with them because Russia's invaded so many times. There's a seeming lack of comprehension of how the world in general works. There's an expectation that countries will be impressed with them for no apparent reason. I remember reading an interview with the son or grandson of a former Soviet minister (Gromyko, IIRC). In it he stated that despite having lived for many years in different Western countries his (grand)father still had amazingly huge gaps of knowledge as to how most of the non-communist world functioned.

On a more serious note, what happens if/when Putin figures out that the rest of the world really doesn't need Russia? As iej and I have mentioned here and elsewhere, nearly every European country is working diligently to get to the point where they can say to Russia, "You want to turn off the gas? Go for it, dude. Watch what WON't happen." What'll he do then?

Jim

 

[jerrod6]

P&G and Russia:

 

 I agree that P&G stands to lose some money but they already have a backup plan.  Two years ago the P&G CEO took a visit to stores in South American countries and announced that he had a vision.  A vision that all of the powders on the shelves would be replaced with liquids.

 

Now tell me why we can't find powder detergents in stores in the USA. 

 

So no Russia,  more South America - and onward with the LIQUIDS!