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Chinese at least care about their material prosperity. Russia seems fine with whatever sanctions fall on their lap.
by MattGaiser 5y ago
Chinese at least care about their material prosperity. Russia seems fine with whatever sanctions fall on their lap.
- thow-58d4e8b 5y agoSanctions barely work on small countries. They're but a nuisance for mid-sized countries and do approximately nothing to big countries. Russian economy is mostly autarkic - consuming overwhelmingly goods and services produced within Russia. Their exports are energy commodities, not consumer goods - energy commodities are the bedrock of the modern world - they'll always find a buyer at market price or slightly below. Their national debt is negligible. China is not going to stop exporting their goods there, and I don't see corporations like Apple/Google/Volkswagen/Toyota giving up such a large market just to make a point. Token slaps on the wrist for the few selected oligarchs who haven't secured British citizenship yet are laughable We should be honest to ourselves - short of Western citizens dying on the battlefield, there's nothing of consequence the West can do. Russia exploited our weaknesses really well - our irrational hesitance of nuclear energy, our greenwashing of natural gas, our love for petrol-guzzling SUVs, kowtowing of our financial system to ultra-rich, profit-uber-alles of our corporations, hypocrisy of our diplomacy, etc.
- mrjin 5y agoNot only that, US has been ripping off other countries using US$ for a very long time. And that why lots of countries now try to establish treaties of currency exchanging and reduce the usage of US$.