The more I research this “Russia Is Imploding” “study” produced by Sonnenfeld et al. from Yale, the more it is revealed as a poorly argued, logically fallacious propaganda piece, and Sonnenfeld as an amateurish (but ubiquitously published!)
In consequence of my nascent research into this embarrassing (for the authors) “study”, the topic of western fantasies of Russia’s imminent economic collapse has jumped to the top of my future blog post list, and I will be working exclusively on that in coming days.
But I just have to share two comical gems I’ve stumbled upon after just a bit of casual research into the coordinated roll out of this story into western media in recent days – a sure sign we’re dealing here with an intelligence agency-produced propaganda undertaking.
First of all, it is ominously stated in the nearly identical reports of the study that “Russia is running out of semiconductor chips”. They are even kind enough to link to a presumably authoritative source for this claim: a March 30, 2022 report from Bloomberg!
And what does this report in Bloomberg say about the impending “implosion” of Russia’s economy for lack of chips? ‘Russia Internet Giant Risks Running Out of Vital Tech in a Year’, it is nothing but empty conjecture and wishful thinking.
Indeed, virtually all the prognostications of “impending doom” for the Russian economy are based on projections of what will happen in Russia if the entire world submissively obeys US edicts on exports to Russia: not what has happened, but what some believe may happen.
There is no empirical evidence that chip shortages do or will exist, or that existing Russian stockpiles of such chips are on the verge of exhaustion.
It reminds me of the predictions, since early March, that Russia would run out of missiles in mere days.
The Sonnenfeld et al. “study” is replete with such unfounded assumptions, baseless assertions, and “authoritative conclusions” reached at the end of long chains of laughably transparent logical fallacies.
More on that in my upcoming analysis.
For now, I end by sharing a link to my favorite (so far) Sonnenfeld propaganda piece — about Ukraine’s Comedian in Chief (no doubt with solemn Churchillian gravitas) regaling western CEOs with his business expertise and inimitable statesmanship:
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread originally tweeted by Will Schryver (@imetatronink) on August 6, 2022.