Free Republic

On Aug 11, Russian soldiers breached Ukraine’s front-line defences and penetrated at least six miles behind enemy lines. Battlefield maps, kept studiously up to date by open-source intelligence groups, showed a red tendril reaching north into Ukraine’s territory through several villages in the contested eastern Donetsk region coveted by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. The advance set off alarm bells among Kyiv’s supporters, who feared it marked the start of an offensive aimed at the stronghold city of Kostiantynivka or the logistical hub of Pokrovsk, both of which could provide Russia with a foothold in Ukraine’s fortress belt. What Russian...

We will be so bold as to posit that not only has the sanctions war against Russia backfired spectacularly, but the damage to the West, most of all Europe, is accelerating rapidly. And this is not the result of Russia taking active measures2 but the costs of the loss or reduction of key Russian resources compounding over time. So due to the intensity of the energy shock, the economic timetable is moving faster than the military. Unless Europe engages in a major course correction, and we don’t see how this can happen, the European economic crisis looks set to become...