Why am I not surprised? More from The New York Times, “Those sanctions — which include restrictions on Russia’s largest banks along with limits on the sale of technology that its military could use — are blocking access to a variety of products. … Even so, Russian trade appears to have largely bounced back to where it was before the invasion of Ukraine last February. Analysts estimate that Russia’s imports may have already recovered to prewar levels, or will soon do so, depending on their models. … In part, that could be because many nations have found Russia hard to quit. Recent research showed that fewer than 9 percent of companies based in the European Union and Group of 7 nations had divested one of their Russian subsidiaries. … Some companies, including H&M, IBM, Volkswagen and Maersk, halted operations in Russia after the invasion, citing moral and logistical reasons. But the Russian economy has proved surprisingly resilient, raising questions about the efficacy of the West’s sanctions. Countries have had difficulty reducing their reliance on Russia for energy and other basic commodities, and the Russian central bank has managed to prop up the value of the ruble and keep financial markets stable.”
So, I called this a year ago when the West first imposed sanctions. I predicted they would all be worthless because they always are. Russia has been under some form or amount of sanctions since forever, going back to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008. Sanctions are worthless and just another weak move by the West that wants to bury its collective head in the sand and pretend that Putin is not really interested in rebuilding the Russian Empire. That he’ll never get away with it. If the West shakes its finger hard enough and scowls at Putin long enough, then he’ll get the hint that NATO et al. are mad and serious about doing nothing!
What a f***ing G.D. joke. I’m sorry, but the West is pathetic, and they are forever befuddled as to why whatever they do, Putin never seems to be deterred. I’ll tell you why he’s never deterred: The West has done absolutely nothing to dissuade him. Economic war does not work. Cultural war (peer pressure from the world) does not work. The only thing that will work is a good old-fashioned kinetic war, but the West is too feeble and will never engage until it’s too late, which will be when Russia starts marching into the Baltic states and Poland, for if Putin can make a “legitimate” claim that Ukraine is (always has been) a part of the Russian Empire, then he can also make the same claim to parts of Poland. And Poland understands this more than anyone, along with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. As usual, pathetic democracies need to be shocked into reality and action. Whatever!
I predicted just before Russia invaded Ukraine (again) that it would be the fall of Ukraine. I have vacillated back and forth on whether my initial assessment was correct. Clearly, Ukraine is putting up a fight that no one expected, and Russia’s military is weaker than most anticipated, but when push comes to shove, Russia is bigger. Pure and simple. It can withstand (has withstood) more weak punishment from the West (i.e., sanctions). Add to this the lingering reluctance from the West to help Ukraine win the war, and I’m starting to rethink my current position. As I predicted a year ago, I think the West will let Ukraine wither on the vine because the West is just too f***ing weak. Soft and pathetic. Oh, well.