[Wallace T.]

Don't forget that the Central Asian republics, formerly part of the Soviet Union and before that, the Tsarist Empire, were at one time under Chinese rule or at least in the Chinese orbit as tributary states during the Middle Ages. I suspect that China may expand in that direction, possibly in tandem with a move in Eastern Siberia. The Russian military seems more incompetent than their Communist and Tsarist predecessors, based on their struggles to subdue Ukraine.

[ansel12]

It looks like Putin has opened enough cans of worms to keep Russia occupied for years to come.

Letting the world see the dismal state of their corrupt military and then draining its limited and difficult-to-replace capacities on the battlefields of little Ukraine for all the world to see was a massive blunder by Russia’s current dictator.