4. Or playing a long game.
Meaning?
If he is, he’s going a very weird way about it. Although they still will win in the end, his invasion and army is a shambles and his country financially broken and almost alone
My semi-sarcastic comment is not important. I'm sorry about your dog. Twenty is a good long life for a dog, but I know that's not the thought right now.
Of course it is mate, I respect your views, you're a valued contributor to this forum.
If that’s true then Putin has been asking them to save his skin.
Good news if true. They have huge economic interests in Ukraine. Also faced with the heightened risk of Putin destroying the West in nuclear war they have two choices: keep backing him because they too have expansionist plans, or protect the system that's served them very well economically.
Tidied.
Think were only in the market for fruit pickers TBH
Sorting this out would be win-win for them. Gets huge short-term kudos from the West. Preserves the global trade system that's served them so well. And the sanctions have showed them what they need to do to (eg create a rival system to SWIFT) so that they can out-gun the West financially should this happen again.
To be fair that's fine by me if it means we step back from where we're at currently. China is arguably the only nation Putin might listen to. They don't want to harm their relationship with Russia, but equally the west is a massive market for them and they won't want to see a major escalation there either. I'm sure anything they do will be to their own advantage, but that might work out for us at the present. Very short term thinking admittedly, but better than the alternative
A weakened Russia in a world with peace restored has to be in their interests
