The economic fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine will hit citizens in the wallet as prices and borrowing costs rise, curtailing growth and creating an uncertain future, economists said.
It may be only a matter of time before Russian troops control the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and topple President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, that may not be the end of the story. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops could find themselves in Ukraine for the long haul depending on whether Ukrainians have the stomach to launch an insurgency.
Mainstream US media continues to celebrate the supposed strength of the US economy. Almost daily, headlines speak of hopeful numbers, sustainable growth, positive trends and constant gains. The reality on the ground, however, tells of something entirely different, which raises the questions: Are Americans being lied to? And for what purpose?
The war is still in its infancy, but the Russian president’s claims that Ukraine is an artificial entity have been upended by Ukrainians fighting fiercely to save their homeland
The war between Russia and Ukraine may turn out to be a long and bitter affair between two countries with well-equipped armies, so it’s presumptuous to summarize after just three days of fighting. But one thing that can be said almost for certain is that Russian President Vladimir Putin had too much belief in his own propaganda.
Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert as Zelenskyy agrees to talks with Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert, but the explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the start of the invasion appeared to subside around Ukraine’s capital overnight as the Kremlin’s military advances were slowed by an outgunned but determined resistance.
Jordanian jihadi ideologue, and Al-Qaeda supporter Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, shared several tweets commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In his tweets, the jihadi cleric highlighted social media reports that Chechen soldiers are fighting alongside the Russian forces in Ukraine, deeming that as deviant Muslims whose prayers will not be accepted.[1]
Ukraine Will Make Russia Regret This War
The West has underestimated Vladimir Putin again. Time and time again, the aging Russian president has declared that Ukraine is not a real country, that Russia’s historic lands sit in Ukraine, and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Western puppet and an illegitimate leader. By November, more than 100,000 Russian troops were surrounding Ukraine on three sides, and soon the White House was issuing increasingly dire warnings of a coming attack. And yet somehow, most in the West shrugged. Many smart and experienced experts were convinced Putin was bluffing. They dismissed his saber rattling as merely a ploy to increase his hand at the negotiating table, where he unsuccessfully sought the right to have a veto over which countries joined NATO. Only at that point did Western countries turn up the pressure on Putin.
Chinese-Russian Convergence and the Future of American Order
The greatest strategic problem the United States faces is the convergence of its two main rivals, China and Russia—countries that don’t always like or trust each other but nonetheless derive great benefits from their simultaneous assaults on the existing international order. And as Moscow and Beijing contest the balance of power at both ends of Eurasia, they are drawing together in ominous ways.
Russia’s Invasion Could Unleash Forces the Kremlin Can’t Control
Russian forces have struck targets across Ukraine and seized key facilities and swaths of territory. The Ukrainian military is no match for this Russian juggernaut. Although some reports suggest Ukrainian troops have rebuffed attacks in certain parts of the country, it seems more likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide just how far Russia goes into Ukraine. As a retired Russian-speaking CIA operations officer who served in Central Asia and managed agency counterinsurgency operations, I did not think Putin would have attacked Ukraine unless he had already devised a reliable end game, given the costs of an intractable conflict. But Putin’s best-laid plans might easily unravel in the face of popular Ukrainian national resistance and an insurgency.
On February 24, 2022, anti-liberal philosopher Alexander Dugin, in an article titled “It’s All About Ukraine’s Liberation,” stated that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is not only to restore the “territorial integrity” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR),[1] but is about the “liberation” of the whole of Ukraine. Dugin said that the first goal is the “liberation” of Novorossiya (“New Russia”), the name given in the 18th century to the lands of the Black Sea littoral, incorporated into Russia as a result of wars with the Ottoman Empire. It includes Kharkov, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Odessa.