My take is simple: Both sides - the US / NATO / EU, and Russia / China / India (but we can't mention the latter out loud yet) want a step back toward Cold War conditions, and a general disentanglement of international economic/financial systems. And a "swift" kick in the ass for globalist political and economic players everywhere.

To elaborate, Russia actually wants to get out of SWIFT, since it already has its own equivalent system. So do China and India. They'll resume trade among themselves (and Iran etc.) using their own national currencies, while the dollar effectively becomes defunct as the global reserve currency. The end result - greater financial stability in the East, preventing incidents such as the 2008 financial crisis, and a severe reduction of global banking cartel influence worldwide. Of which the US will actually benefit as well, since these conditions will be used as pretext to eliminate globalist financial actors on American soil as well.

As for the current theatrics - Ukraine is either being reinforced as a buffer state (with tons of military gear being dumped by both sides, Russian vehicles conveniently "running out of fuel" right after arrival, all while Russia continues to deliver gas and utility supplies to the Ukraine infrastructure), or even better - it'll plead its case to rapidly join the EU and get accepted on a pity vote... whereupon Russia will now have a finger in the European pie, with no direct national obligations of its own.

All in all, not a bad game plan. There will be the obligatory barking and pretentious posturing by both sides, plenty of social media drivel as well, maybe some price increases and/or supply shortages for consumer goods, particularly in the EU. But other than that, it's nothing we haven't seen in the late 20th century already.

My take is simple: Both sides - the US / NATO / EU, and Russia / China / India (but we can't mention the latter out loud yet) want a step back toward Cold War conditions, and a general disentanglement of international economic/financial systems. And a "swift" kick in the ass for globalist political and economic players everywhere.

To elaborate, Russia actually wants to get out of SWIFT, since it already has its own equivalent system. So do China and India. They'll resume trade among themselves (and Iran etc.) using their own national currencies, while the dollar effectively becomes defunct as the global reserve currency. The end result - greater financial stability in the East, preventing incidents such as the 2008 financial crisis, and a severe reduction of global banking cartel influence worldwide. Of which the US will actually benefit as well, since these conditions will be used as pretext to eliminate globalist financial actors on American soil as well.

As for the current theatrics - Ukraine is either being reinforced as a buffer state (with tons of military gear being dumped by both sides, Russian vehicles conveniently "running out of fuel" right after arrival, all while Russia continues to deliver gas and utility supplies to the Ukraine infrastructure), or even better - it'll plead its case to rapidly join the EU and get accepted on a pity vote... whereupon Russia will now have a proxy in the European pie, with no direct national obligations of its own.

All in all, not a bad game plan. There will be the obligatory barking and pretentious posturing by both sides, plenty of social media drivel as well, maybe some price increases and/or supply shortages for consumer goods, particularly in the EU. But other than that, it's nothing we haven't seen in the late 20th century already.

My take is simple: Both sides - NATO / EU / Ukraine, and Russia / China / India (but we can't mention the latter out loud yet) want a step back toward Cold War conditions, and a general disentanglement of international economic/financial systems. And a "swift" kick in the ass for globalist political and economic players everywhere.

To elaborate, Russia actually wants to get out of SWIFT, since it already has its own equivalent system. So do China and India. They'll resume trade among themselves (and Iran etc.) using their own national currencies, while the dollar effectively becomes defunct as the global reserve currency. The end result - greater financial stability in the East, preventing incidents such as the 2008 financial crisis, and a severe reduction of global banking cartel influence worldwide. Of which the US will actually benefit as well, since these conditions will be used as pretext to eliminate globalist financial actors on American soil as well.

As for the current theatrics - Ukraine is either being reinforced as a buffer state (with tons of military gear being dumped by both sides, Russian vehicles conveniently "running out of fuel" right after arrival, all while Russia continues to deliver gas and utility supplies to the Ukraine infrastructure), or even better - it'll plead its case to rapidly join the EU and get accepted on a pity vote... whereupon Russia will now have a proxy in the European pie, with no direct national obligations of its own.

All in all, not a bad game plan. There will be the obligatory barking and pretentious posturing by both sides, plenty of social media drivel as well, maybe some price increases and/or supply shortages for consumer goods, particularly in the EU. But other than that, it's nothing we haven't seen in the late 20th century already.