Mistic

They may not matter in a sense that you can't elect anybody but Putin.

But they do matter in a sense of showing the incumbent they aren't stable.

After successful re-election of incumbent, they fall into a sense of euphoria. This leads to creation of some absolutely horrific and unjust laws.

However, when the re-election is deemed unsuccessful (say 55% voted for "the right candidate", but the second place got scary high 30-35%), they become timid.

That's how informational autocracies work. And that's why elections there absolutely do matter, as they directly affect quality of life. It's the safest and loudest way of showing the government your middle finger.

They guy did his research, and he did it right. Even mentioning the "social contract", that's not something you hear from an average youtuber.

There's only a few things I've noted

Although the monthly rate can be calculated as yearly÷12 and is acceptable, it is inaccurate. Doesn't change much, but still. ( (1+monthly rate)^12 = 1+yearly rate <= this is the accurate conversion)

Next is "failed pension reform." It's failed in political sense. The intent of it was to temporarily lessen the depletion of pension fund, which it technically did do. But, yeah, it was absolutely not popular. Not to mention that it didn't solve the root of the problem, which was obvious from the start. Back during his first or second presidency period, he promised not to raise the age for retirement, yet in 2018, he did exactly that. Needless to say that his ratings have been falling ever since then and up till February of 2022.

The one thing I would've liked him to also mention is "quality of foreign exchange earnings," which is a relatively new term. Essentially, companies now need to pay attention to wether or not they can exchange earned currency for something that they can trade with other countries or within Russia. Previously, they traded in dollars, so it was never an issue.

An economics student from Russia here, here's my perspective.

First, is that a country's economy is a lot less volatile than we expected. There is also another factor that played into it. During covid, Russian companies amassed a sizable amount of inventory that was already inflated compared to European companies due to how volatile our economy is. This has given them enough time to reroute supply chains once sanctions hit.

Basically, the so-called "grey import" plays a major role in assuring the stability of our economy. Companies either route their import/export through neighboring countries or through affiliated companies.

Second is the competency of our central bank. After most of the major banks were cut off from SWIFT (used for international transactions), they raised the key rate, limited the amount of money you can cash out at one time, and did some other stuff. Higher key rate = higher deposit interest rate, but at the same time, credit became more expensive. All of this was needed for preventing banks from defaulting. Once panic died down, the changes were reverted. Now, they're dealing with inflation.

Lastly, the majority of our budget comes from oil and gas. Since Europe didn't want to buy it, Russia started selling it to Asia at discounted prices. Quantity of oil/gas sold drastically increased, which mitigated reduced prices and led to a surplus budget. Not to mention that they started pushing on large companies to reduce the amount of dividends and instead re-invest the money.

I wouldn't call it "thriving," however. All of this has definitely led to a slowdown in growth, which, as time goes by, will only get worse. But for now it's fine.

I'd also add Beyond: Two Souls to the list

Maybe it's just me, but I'd play the hell out of BG3 when I was 12.

The amount of time I spent on TES 4 and 5 back then, and BG3 hits just the right spot with the variety of ways it allows you to play it.

Minecraft is also in my top favorites.

What I'm saying is, don't count BG3 out completely. Not to mention that it's very saturated, so a shorter attention span shouldn't really be a problem, but you never know.

As for suggestions. Definitely Terraria, as others mentioned. There was also Lego Fortnite, which looks like it would fit the tastes. Maybe also party games?

Recently, I've been watching a bunch of "an Android user switched to iPhone" and "an iPhone user switched to Android" type of videos.

From what I can tell, iOS is, in fact, harder to adapt to, compared to Android.

Even tech-savvy guys like Marques outright say that "unlike Android, it's very easy to forget how to use iPhones" (not an exact quote, but similar meaning).

Luckily, there are plenty of mods to help with that whilst keeping the experience authentic.

Wish more games supported modders to this extent.

Can confirm, surprisingly effective.

Icy roads is a huge issue that often gets ignored or insufficiently addressed in Russia.

You'd be surprised how much changes from sole rotation of personnel.

Mind you, people wouldn't be calling Putin a tyrant if he left after his second term. Yet he didn't, that mofo rigged the system in his favour during that presidency, and... well, you know the rest.

Rotation is unimaginably more important than actual personas.

More than that. We have a giant demographical pit starting down from 25 y.o. and bottoming out at around 20-22 y.o.

It's WW2 stacked on top of the economic collapse in the 90ies and now this. It is ugly.

He's probably yearning for the Russian Empire instead of Soviet Union.

Russian governmental officials have some really outlandish views for an average Russian person.

They're very religious, believe in conspiracies, actively anti-lgbt, don't support abortions, antisemitic to name a few. None of these qualities are present in the general masses. They are in their own informational bubble.

As far as I understand it, he believes that the Russian Empire and collective Europe were always at each other's throats, and that never changed for over 200 years. At the same time, Russia is a successor of the Russian Empire, and USSR is being omitted for some reason. That's the simplistic explanation of it.

For you to understand how crazy that is, Russians (in general) have little to no idea of how the Empire worked and what the views those people held. USSR essentially wiped out all of that culture.

I think it works best in combination with fingerprint scanner.

Like when your fingers are wet and are difficult to scan. Whilst trying to make the scanner work, face unlock just does it for you.

But, yes, if it were one or the other, fingerprint scanner is simply way more convenient.