Can I still post funny stuff here? 
Merkelâs wallet was stolen, including ID & driverâs license, while she was in a Berlin supermarket, even though she was accompanied by her bodyguards. Someone took it from her bag which was hanging on her shopping cart.
Do we have any news from EGF on that?
Calling the RGF to condemn a national invasion sounds good to us that do not have to live there, but practically BGA are asking those fellow Go players to take a political stand/position (whether they like politics or not) and possibly risk their lives.
Wouldnât it be better if EGF governing body met, made such an announcement on behalf of all member countries, and RGF was included to that announcement by being a member?
tl;dr banned because it will mess with ad placement, not because theyâre doing anything wrong or
I donât have any information, since I donât belong to the EGF executive and donât have an important position in my national association.
I agree that asking people to choose between taking a risky political position and being excluded from EGF is almost equivalent to excluding them from EGF.
I removed a post in which I said pretty much this, but it was actually not very problematic I think. FIGGâs decision, for the moment, is based on similar considerations to those you have made.
It appears the response from Russia community is pretty firm ânahâ. Sports and politics donât mix principle foremost. A little âthey didnât care about Ukraine shelling civilians in the East but noow they careâ. And generally ultimatums arenât very welcome.
Edit: thereâre various opinions, donât get me wrong.
I can think of at least four screenwriting plots here, from blockbuster to dystopian.
Iâm stuck on the casting choices.
As far as I understand, excluding Russia from SWIFT would result in major obstacles of any payment from/to Russia. The result would be that the flow of goods and services from/to Russia would be significantly diminished, because who will deliver stuff without payment.
Here is some data on of Russiaâs exports and imports (2019) to show which countries and sectors would be affected most by a significant reduction of all trade with Russia:
Exports:
Imports:
(source: Russia (RUS) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners | The Observatory of Economic Complexity)
BTW, the Dutch government is in favour of excluding Russia from SWIFT, even though it will hurt our economy.
I was reading here that kicking Russia out of the swift will not exactly hurt Russia, because they will simply do more business with asian banking networks, something they were exploring anyway.
I donât know. It does seem to be considered one of the heavier sanctions (imposed on Iran in 2012-2016), that may have an effect. I donât know what else can be done to change Putinâs mind.
Look at the non-regional members here, though. Sanctions will certainly create some âpower vacuumsâ and cash flow issues, but I doubt they can damage gas and tech transactions in the long run. Also, there would be a shift of focus âeastwardsâ, which is something the west is trying hard to prevent.
So would you prefer if no sanctions were imposed (because it wonât work anyway)?
I donât have the same understanding of this article as you do though.
The opening is literally saying that a SWIFT ban would have a devastating impact on Russiaâs economy, so using it as a source to say it would ânot exactly hurt Russiaâ is rather misleading.
It is however mentioned that on the long run this will likely favor the emergence of competing banking networks, which Russia has already started working on.
I canât have any preferences because I have no idea how real-life diplomacy works. If a war can end right now by implementing a banking ban, letâs do it, no complains from me.
Letâs add âin the long runâ. I understood they run a parallel thing since 2014, but I guess swift will obstruct business for a while and the parallel network is not sufficient.
I believe Joe Biden said in the questions to a recent press conference that no one expected economic sanctions to change Putins mind. They just want to make sure it doesnât go unpunished by the international community, that it is condemned as an action, and that such economic sanctions will have a lasting effect long term. Maybe it would deter future leaders of the same or other countries from trying anything similar.
~15:30 in (I think that question starts at 15:00 ish)
When you know you canât do anything severe against opponentâs invading group. So you peep everywhere you can and pretend to attack for a while.
Then maybe you should make them suffer for eeking out a minimal living group instead.
Iâm hoping Putin is flailing invading in every second line he can, but since he canât grasp the whole board heâll collapse. Not because referees impose sanctions or because his opponent is the best, heâs just not good enough to win anything more than a capturing race.
Realistically, Putin will stay in power until his death, and in the meantime he will invade more territories. Because of economic sanctions, the Russian population will suffer from a durable economic crisis.