Problem?

The American LARPing over the Russian incursion into Ukraine has been hilarious. They still think sanctions mean anything. They still think they can “arm the rebels”. They still think NATO isn’t obsolete… for now. And, of course, they still claim, for now, Putin did this because a country that was as poor relative to Russia as 1980s East Germany was relative to West Germany struck hope into the hearts of the Russian people that a better future was possible (and not the actually existing success stories of Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland). The most important point to remember about this: Putin and 习 discussed this on February 4… and the senior partner OK’d the operation. Richard Spencer claims the invasion will empower the hawks:

Richard ☃️ Spencer @RichardBSpencer

Your friend was right. You’re being delusional. RW populism is far too amorphous and stupid to actually lead or run anything. The far Left is equally silly. Putin has, among other things, consolidated Center-Left-Right power in America and Europe. https://t.co/fJEY0NcDDz

Richard Hanania @RichardHanania

A friend writes: "This is so depressing, neocons and liberals will now be in power forever." Me: "Their camp just lost 44 million people! And also lost Russia forever." This is a disaster for them. Not everything is PR.

I don’t believe that for two seconds. Yes, virtually everyone’s statements re: the invasion (except based Maryland Matt Rosendale’s) were hawkish. But once the rubble clears, people will realize what just happened: the West lost, and Russia won. You don’t deal with a winning power as if they’re North Korea. You acknowledge their gains and seek to create a new order that one can sustain. This will be doubly the case when Russia takes back Belarus, and has nothing to do with empowering either the far left or populist right (which don’t matter). This has to do with the only language Western elites being able to understand being the language of force. This is why the Russian interventions in Georgia and Syria sent such a powerful signal to the imperialist powers: Russia is no longer on its knees, and the West can no longer attempt to revise the political situation grossly against Russia (remember, the U.S. trained Georgian troops and created ISIL). There will certainly be no greater display of that than Ukraine -possibly not even 台湾. I take A. Karlin’s view:

Anatoly Karlin (🚀,🧬) @akarlin0

I think this is true. Yes, Westoids and limitrophes will seethe even harder (as if they weren't already), and many sympathizing Western RWs & anti-imperialists for whom Russia was never anything but an ideological blank canvass will now disavow (but they were never worth much).

Richard Hanania @RichardHanania

A friend writes: "This is so depressing, neocons and liberals will now be in power forever." Me: "Their camp just lost 44 million people! And also lost Russia forever." This is a disaster for them. Not everything is PR.

Russo-Western relations have reached close to bottom. Thus, I expect relations between Russia and the West to be better ten years hence than they are today, not worse.

The East Asian reaction has been a tad more hostile than I anticipated, but only a tad. And all this will ultimately end up doing is ruining Russia’s relations with 台湾 (which is due to be conquered by the party state), while keeping Russia’s relationships with many other countries the same or better. Pakistan actually has fast population growth, and take a look at Putin’s meeting with Imran Khan today: