How Should the West Respond to the Potential (likely) Collapse of Russia?

[Patooka]

And once again, ukrainian losses are 10 times higher.

We all know that's bullshit. You're just shooting the same zombie 10 times. Stupid Russian conscripts, don't know to aim for the head.

 

[Bronzeage]

China and India developed economies from a standing start. Albeit with western investment and technology. Africa, Mid East, Russian Federation not so much.

Russian economics appears to be mafia like.

I think it comes down to culture. Stalin and the commuism that followed killed off the freethinking brain power it would have taken, followed by a mind numbing conformity that stifled initiative.

In the 80s the Russians had a bizarre program. they had school kids listening to western pop music thinking it might stimulate creativity.

Thereare ethnic Russians throughout the Federation that see themselves as Russian, as in Ukraine.

I don'tsee the Russian Federation collapsing. The oligarchs and the military will not let it happen.

The Russian Federation will collapse. The question is whether this result in a break up of the Federation.

Says.... you?

The cold hard fact is, there is no oil or gas in Russia. For convenience, we call it all "Russia", but the oil reserves are in sparsely populated areas far from Moscow. The only reason the Federation can maintain control over their Arctic oil fields is because there is not a native population who could seize the resources for themselves and declare independence. The revenue from the oil fields is controlled by Moscow. It's probably the worst conditions of any place in the world, and it's very expensive to maintain production. How long Russia can maintain production is anyone's guess, but when a pump or a compressor breaks down, they will not be able to replace it.

There are a lot of Oblasts(call them what you will) stretching from Muscovia all the way to the Pacific that are kept in line by the flow of cash from Moscow. Whether Moscow can maintain control when oil revenues slow to a trickle is the real question.

So your logic is following:
Putin does not seat directly on the oil field, hence Russia will collapse.

Got it.

The distance to the gas fields is the least of Putin's problems at the moment. The problem is Putin has left Russia with a petrochemical industry which is dependent on foreign engineering and no longer has access to that.

 

[Swammerdami]

Russia is a failed state because it is always run by depots. It is a mistake to say the Russians have no freedom because they are free to be imprisoned anytime they desire. All they have to do to earn same is make attempts to advance democracy. That'll get 'em a cell lickity split.

Why did Russia fail to become a liberal democracy? (Serious question — does someone have a thorough discussion?)

Two main reasons are
(1) Russia was never ruled liberally or as a democracy. They had no cultural memory of democratic values. (But while nobody would mistake the Soviet Union for a democracy many of its leaders had much more humane and utilitarian values than those of typical authoritarians.)
(2) Democracy is very very fragile. And — Warning! — it is much easier for democracy to die than for democracy to blossom anew.

But I wonder if something else played a role. There was extreme chaos throughout the remains of the fallen Soviet Empire, and desperate Russians sought help and advice from the West. Unfortunately a hyper-capitalist philosophy had overwhelmed U.S. political thinking: Rather than adopting democratic values, Russia followed the sentiments of top statesmen and businessmen who thought that concentrated wealth and power — even when concentrated in the hands of criminals — was better than anything resembling socialism.

 

[Jayjay]

I should, but I didn't.

Google is banned in Finland?

No, it means I did google it, but found nothing. Which means the colorful "story" of polish suicide squad probably only exists in Russian propaganda, and is so stupid that it's only used for domestic consumption in Russia.

And speaking of friendly fire incidents, one happened just recently:

So it is likely just a fabrication of Russian propaganda as usual.

No, russian propaganda, unlike western one, does not fabricate things.

I can point out Russian fabrications on almost daily basis, and you know it, because I've debunked dozens of them that you tried to peddle here without googling them first.

EDIT: I notice that the "let me google that for you" link points to the swastika story. But that's not what we were discussing here, so the confusion is all yours. This thread was about your outlandish claim about Polish mercenaries on a suicide mission gunning down Ukrainians.

 

[Elixir]

Can you call it friendly fire if they were acting on orders to shoot any Russian who tries to flee?

 

[steve_bank]

The Soviet Union collapsed.
The post communist regime failed.
Putin's regime is headed for collapse.

Whether Russia economically collapses is open to speculation. The self interest of the oligarchs will find a way.

Our free market system has positives and negatives. One positive is that it ptetty much runds itself. Different admistations chnage taxes and [rorgams, but the governmt has little direct control of the economy.

 

[steve_bank]

What is Russia's main diet?


The traditional Russian diet is heavy on meat and dairy products. An American doctor Tom Bell, who traveled extensively in Russia, wrote in the Washington Post, "There are four major food groups in the Russian diets: cabbage, bread, potatoes and grease." Many dishes feature red meat and animal fat.

Search on Russian diet nutrition deficiency. I remember something in the 90s about an essentail amino acid deficieny.