Russia-Ukraine-China-A New World
With the Russian preemptive strike against the American installed Ukrainian launchpad in February of 2022, a new world is being born very painfully. Hopefully War World Three can be avoided though this may yet prove unavoidable. We will see as the fallout from the fighting does affect the entire world more or less. Russia and Ukraine both are major commodity exporters, this business is now stunted. Along with the Ukrainians fleeing the conflict others dependent upon the food crops of Russia and Ukraine may seek to move to Europe from simple hunger. Whether there is a wider war or not is a deadly serious issue needing rigorous and creative thinking. This is unlikely to come from Washington as a war with Russia and later China may just give the Democrats the boost they need in this year’s midterms. World war or no the world and especially Russia must find a new way forward, here are some of my thoughts on this.
Vladimir Putin has taken a necessary though regrettable decision to defend his country’s sovereignty with a first major strike against America’s slow buildup of forces around Russia. Ukraine is simply too close to Russia in many ways to allow it to become yet another place for an American proxy war against its #1 geopolitical enemy, China is its #1 geoeconomic enemy. Which brings me to my main message for Putin and those around him.
This attack upon Ukraine shows Russia has newfound military strength, it also shows Russia still lacks economic strength. Fighting around the world to defend Russia’s interests is unsustainable, foolish, and ultimately unnecessary. Putin now has a chance to free Russia of its elite traitors, popularly known as the oligarchs, and put true patriots who want Russia to reach its full potential in charge. This will not be easy. Much help will be needed- especially from China. They’ve learned a thing or two about how to build up your economy without having to simply surrender your sovereignty to a corrupt fifth column and their western paymasters. Putin can also learn from the Norwegians as to how to be a petrostate without turning into Saudi Arabia. He also should seriously look at Singapore and the other Asian tigers as to how to prosper without many natural resources. It really is the economy, an economically strong Russia could simply write checks to get compliance from recalcitrant governments. How France deals with Francophone Africa is helpful here. Russia has the technology, hopefully it also has the resolve. The coming years will show the world who is truly woke.