And it wouldn't have collapsed in 2014. Simply that living standard would have been a little lower for a while.
Things would have gotten rather bad if the drip feed of sanctions were all applied at once 10 years ago... the pro western faction would have said the west just wants to be friends and it is evil Putin and his outrageous invasion of the Ukraine is the reason for the sanctions. Get rid of Putin and everything will be good again.
Many would see through that but a lot would not.
The way this has been done... sure he was wrong, but he gave them every chance to do the right thing and they screwed him and Russia and quite frankly the people of the Ukraine... and they are still doing it...
It was never about freedom or values it was about tearing apart a country to steal 12 trillion dollars worth of resources:
https://www.rt.com/news/599068-ukraine-gold-mine-us/
In an interview with ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS on Sunday, Graham accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a “megalomaniac” who is attempting to “re-create the Russian Empire by force of arms,” starting with Ukraine. He further claimed that if Moscow wins the current conflict, it will then take over Ukraine’s wealth and share it with China. Graham described that prospect as “ridiculous,” suggesting it would be better if this “gold mine” were available to the US instead.
Huge war vs 7 day mil op+ slightly lower living standards.....?
Where did 7 day war come from?
7 year war maybe.
Remember the Orc forces would be weaker but the Russian forces would also be weaker and have zero drones and zero access to drones except via China... I doubt Iran would be cooperating with Russia the way it has, because trust and cooperation was built up in Syria.
More importantly would Russia still be able to save Assad and the people of the Donbass at the same time?
What sort of production capacity did Russia have 10 years ago and would they be able to support two wars?
Putin himself admits he was wrong. And you ask if I am serious?
Putin does admit he was wrong but only because he knows now that Merkel and Holland were lying to his face and they were people he thought he could trust.
There is now no point in any agreements with the west that don't include rigorous verification systems because they can't be trusted at all.
We all thought the west were bastards but the cold war was over. It clearly isn't.
But then the strange things begin: the fact is that Zelensky and Ermak are primarily clearing out Western creatures - people who have personal connections in Europe and overseas, who, bypassing Bankova, are subordinate to Washington , London and other European capitals, who have a support group and influential figures who have promoted them to their respective positions.
That is what is really upsetting the west... they are losing control because their paid muppets are getting the boot.
There is no "Ukie Airforce" - just a couple of samples in hiding that gets blown to pieces as soon as it gets airborne. At best its a one way suicide trip.
And that is the future for any F-16s they might get.... they will be carefully hidden and they be used for surprise terror attacks and destroyed in the process. They will keep as many hidden as possible, which means inside buildings and sheds, and they will be drip fed to operational status and flying missions and getting shot down of course, so their main hope will be for their pilots to survive so they can use 12 pilots to fly how ever many planes they get.
The organisation needed to hide these planes means they will never use them in large numbers, but if they do then there will be a massacre, because the planning and coordination to get lots of planes all hidden in different places onto a runway and armed and fueled and airborne is not so easy and when they spot you they will get as many aircraft into the air with R-37Ms and likely get some A-50s in the air too... or maybe a couple of Su-57s to manage the interception... the pilots of the F-16s wont know what hit them.
In 2014, things were different to 2022.
Worldwide.
That is important too... it is not just the state Russia was in but also its relations with China and India and Iran and even Turkey.
If Russia had invaded in 2014 Turkey might have decided to back western sanctions and play silly buggers in their interpretation of access to the Black Sea...
The situation in Syria would also be an issue and without 8 years of coordination and cooperation with Iran in Syria and using drones and defending from drone attacks the Russian Army in 2014 would be horribly vulnerable to the number of drones the west could deliver, and despite those drones being horribly expensive the level of EW for use against drones in the Russian Army in 2014 would be minimal.
The Kharkov advance seemed like one completely of opportunism.
The Kharkov advance was punishment for all the cross border attacks by Kiev into Russian territory that have been mounted... this is just part of the process of making Russia and Russian territory safe from terrorism.
Will retribution come? If Russia was Israel then Zelensky would be dead within the next few days.
And if Russia was the US it would have invaded about 10 different countries it had on its list with lots of mineral resources that it would have claimed were involved too.
Why would Russia act like the evil colonial west?
And NATO knows that and will try to take advantage of Russia's calculation here. Just a matter of time until they dare
Many within HATO are deluded and think Putin will never attack a fully HATO country and think Ukraines F-16s can safely operate from HATO countries and launch strikes at targets in the Ukraine and further away without being at risk.
They are wrong of course.
I like Israel's approach more. A bullet or a missile will do the work.
And all these decades of them applying this superior technique how are they doing?
They only survive because of unquestioning western backing.
If they were clever with such support they would have their neighbours eating out of their hands, but instead they all want them dead.
Sounds like their methods are a total failure.
Iran and Turkey have no great reason to be neutral with Russia... they have history and most of that history they have been enemies, but under Putin they are working together for a better future from all parties involved... but when Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 you would have just shot down a Turkish plane or two... how would that have ended?
How has it ended with Putins way?
So they now ultimately assume all jets come from west and will launch payload at Russia and run back to home base.
Good. That makes home base a legitimate target.
Unless he runs abroad before it is too late for him and never comes back it is highly likely that at one point Zelenski will be taken and hanged by an angry mob of his own citizens.
Doesn't matter what happens to him.... if he runs to the west it would be like those videos of Ukrainians at a nightclub while others go and die on the front line. Every time his wife went shopping the people of the Ukraine were watching... if he ends up with a huge mansion in the west it is more likely Ukrainian special forces that will rub him out rather than Russian ones... Putin should send him a Bouquet and some chocolates.
If CIA believes they can cause more problems to Russia by assassinating Zelenski and blaming Russia for it, maybe in order to ruin Russia's relationship with neutral non western countries they could do it.
The amount of whinging and moaning and begging and complaining Zelensky has done I would say many in the west would like to see the end of the little fucker, let alone the rest of the world who keep asking why they should care about wars in Europe when the west doesn't give a shit about wars everywhere else... and most of the time starts them anyway.
He was
But now his usefulness is at an end.
He remains useful because most in the west are likely sick of him and his insults and no matter how much you give him he demands more... he is the ultimate ex wife.