Russia becomes an Asian nation

Asia Times ^

[FarCenter]

Russia, according to a recent caustic headline in Bloomberg, is facing “reverse industrialization” due to the US-led sanctions regime that has been imposed upon Russia for its illegal invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine.

Certainly, the American sanctions have done much harm in the near term to Russia’s economy (and, therefore, its political stability at home and its long-term ability to conduct wide-ranging military operations).

In the long term, however, the sanctions have merely hardened Russian resistance to the West and intransigence on the Ukraine issue. More important, the regime of President Vladimir Putin appears unwilling to abandon its present course of action in Ukraine, no matter how tightly Washington and Brussels squeeze Moscow economically.

In fact, Western sanctions have forced Moscow to begin employing new, dynamic strategies for surviving the economic assault Russia is being subjected to.

For example, as the West has enacted its partial, self-imposed moratorium on the importation of cheap, important Russian natural gas as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has merely shifted its energy flows away from Europe to thirsty markets in the Far East (notably those in India and China).

Plus, Beijing has become more amenable to serving as a financial backstop for Moscow the harder the West pushes Russia economically.

While neither China’s nor India’s economic assistance may be enough to offset the losses from the Western sanctions in the near term, in the medium to long term, Western sanctions may be empowering Russia to create the pathways for actual financial and economic independence from the West in ways that the Kremlin would ordinarily not entertain.

[FarCenter]

As the great Russian poet Alexander Blok once mused in “Are We Scythians? – Are We Asiatics?”:

Oh yes – we are Scythians! Yes – we are Asiatics,
With slanting, rapacious eyes… Like obedient slaves,
We held up a shield between two enemy races –
The Mongols and Europe!
Rejoicing, grieving, and drenched in blood,
Russia is a sphinx that gazes at you
With hatred and with love.
We can recall the streets of Paris
And shady Venice,
The aroma of lemon groves
And the hazy monuments of Cologne.
… But now through the woods and thickets
We’ll stand aside
Before the comeliness of Europe –
And turn on you with our Asiatic faces.

[GrootheWanderer]

“The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European but an Asiatic and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese and, from what I’ve seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other amiable characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of a bitch, a barbarian, and a chronic drunk.”

Gen. George S. Patton

[baclava]

Russia has become N.Korea, welcome to the dark ages, comrades.

The Iron Curtain has slammed shut, smothering all inside for the next 100 years.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The problem for Russia is that the young identify much more closely with Europe than with Asia.

[Last Dakotan]

Russia, according to a recent caustic headline in Bloomberg, is facing “reverse industrialization” ...

Welcome to the party pal.

[Ikeon]

Corruption in all levels of the government prevent the russian economy from growing. No one can make a buck without a government official holding their hand out before the paperwork is signed.. oh wait, was I talking about russia? Or the U.S. of a?

[BobL]

Not sure if it was really smart to drive Russia into China’s lap, but then again, I also don’t support Soros, the WEF, the EU, Biden, and the rest.

[Cronos]

Fascinating poem. The entire Eurasia philosophy.

Russia has looked upon itself as a successor state to both the Byzantine empire and the great mongol khaganate