The exchange rate is now directly controlled by the Central bank. Trade with China is very problematic - sometimes it takes several months to complete a single transaction.
There is no such thing as an SSJ-100 with Russian-made engines, period. Airlines cannot buy them, and you cannot fly them. Even the MC-21 is slightly more realistic, but it is also not available to any airline.
We have been hearing this never-ending story of "aircraft will be available in 2 years" for a very long time. :)
> None of the sanctions levied against the USSR were lifted
It's a lie. Sanctions actually began to be lifted in 1989 (Jews were finally allowed to emigrate) when we received 80486 processors. In 1990, we got our first SS7 switches and equipment for the first two mobile networks. It was a big thing.
> North Korea is doing better
Too bad they are not allowed to tell this here, because internet access is available only to several hundreds people :)
> Iran is more modern, developed and free than any other middle eastern country. (That includes Israel.)
Nice joke :)
Russia officially built only one SSJ in 2024 – RA-89192. But in fact it was originally built in 2022 and it is probably the last SSJ-100 ever produced.
The only person from US very active in Russia during 1993 was not Clinton. It was Soros. Many thanks to this guy for paying for my broadband Internet access :) But his political influence was close to 0.
Please check our history - we had a referendum before December (in April), when majority voted exactly as Eltsin asked (yes, yes, no, yes - I still remember that song on radio :)
And do you think US asked Russians not to come for referendum? And at the same time do you think that US asked Russians to vote for LDPR which was an opposition party? How LDPR's victory could be a theater?
The same people who voted for opposition party also voted for the new Constitution. And that party was not a communist party. Some people say that Zhirinovsky was a FSB's project. In this case your ideas that US had anything to do with 12.1993 elections looks even more weird! Or stupid.
Yeltsin's support was very different in 1991 and in 1999. The problem was that Russia in 90s was still controlled by former communists/komsomol members, who were cynical, corrupt, brutal and terribly educated.
They didn't care about US and always tried to push pro-Russian ideas, check what Eltsin told to Clinton about Ukraine.. US had very limited involvement in internal politics, they just "hoped" that Russian will eventually become a normal country.
But when another stupid former communist Berezovsky decided to put his Puppet Putin into Kremlin - he failed miserably. KSB agent cannot do anything positive - his training is always about ruining and destroying, bringing lies and hate, stealing and bribing.
Coup in Russian is "Путч" and we had one in 1991 - coup is when you take power from popular people and give it to unpopular people. In 1993 Eltsin was very popular and parliament was not - this is why Russians voted for new Constitution and communists lost elections.
And who really cared about Clinton? Next year Eltsin started 1st Chechen war without asking anyone's permission. What Russia needed back then was money. And US was giving it to us because they were scared: Russia with nuclear weapons and without money was a really scary monster, ready to sell anything to the highest bidder. From nuclear to biological and chemical weapons.
BTW, one of the scientists who was working with "Novichok" sold it to Chechen gangsters and they actually killed local banker and some other guys around. And he is still not feeling guilty about this story. Russia was ready to sell anything to anyone. That's why Clinton had to support someone and pay. Eltsin was mostly ok, not worse than any other former communist leader.
We had referendum in April 1993 when people of Russia voted for new parliament elections and supported Eltsin. Parliament was elected in 1990 in USSR, not in new Russia and was very much disconnected from reality.
It wasn't a coup because we had new elections in December and people also voted during those elections in favor of new constitution. So you think that US had to be against people's vote?! Elections were real, not like in modern Russia.
And your idea that 1993 events had something in common with Maidan is really delusive - rural Russia just watched CNN live reports from Moscow and did nothing. No one was going to support "nazis" in Moscow. In couple of days everyone returned to their private lives and almost no one was prosecuted.
And during referendum in December people decided their own fate, US had nothing to do with it.
Or you are trying to tell me that my parents voted in 1993 twice because someone from US told them how to vote? This is just some silly foreigner's view which is real nonsense.
You should study our history better - 1993 and 1996 were very different years, in 1993 communists lost elections to pro-Eltsin party and to LDPR (Zhirinovsky).
As a party they got only 12% seats and this had nothing to do with US at all.
Major problems with economy happened during 1994 (like famous black Tuesday) and communists became more popular, but they were not the same people who tried to start military coup in 1993 (Zyuganov was very much against any military actions).
In 1996 Zuyganov lost because Lieutenant General Lebed supported Eltsin, he was Berezovsky's creature and was much more "brutal" that Zyuganov (who was looking exactly as Soviet era nomenklatura) . I highly doubt that anyone in US gave this idea to Berezovsky, because people in US had very little understating what rural Russians wanted to see and hear.
So you think that US had to invade Russia to remove Eltsin?! He was elected in 1991 (even before USSR collapsed) and had very strong support in Moscow and major cities.
And elections in 1993 (after the dissolution of parliament) were won by Zhirinovsky's party, communists were only 3rd. US never supported Zhirinovsky and he wasn't a communist.
I don't see how US could be blamed for anything that happened in 1993 because they were really trying to stop the crisis, but far-right nationalists (like Barkashov and Makashov) started military actions, like mayor's office assault and TV building attack.
This is not a "returning to power ... through elections" for sure.
BTW, US embassy staff was trying to negotiate peaceful meeting between opposition and Eltsin's team.
But "elected officials" tried to seize TV building with military force instead of discussions.