In a rather ironic twist, as Europe slips into recession and Russia’s economy flourishes, we see articles attempting to assert that Russia will suffer from losing its ties with the West.
This demonstrates an astonishing lack of understanding on behalf of Western nations towards the Global Majority and their ability to thrive without reliance on the West.
Likewise, the analogies drawn with the Cold War are utterly baseless, as the situation today is diametrically opposed - during the Cold War, the West was the dominant economic powerhouse, while now it is the BRICS that hold sway.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Over the years, Moscow’s missteps have rallied support for NATO, prodded Congress toward action against Russia and angered European governments.
While policymakers cannot count on Russian blunders continuing, it’s worth considering the number of unforced errors Moscow has committed over the years and the consequences it has been forced to endure.
Ukraine has thwarted assaults on its largest cities (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa), recaptured half the land lost at the war’s outset and sunk or damaged a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
These outrages helped the West build support for the creation a year later of NATO, a military alliance the USSR despised.
In June 1979 amid fanfare in Moscow, Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter signed the SALT II Treaty to limit long-range nuclear arms.
When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, the West had other interests: NATO wanted and gained Russian rail access to supply its forces in Afghanistan, and the U.S. was eager for the 2010 New START Treaty, which reduced both sides’ long-range nuclear arms.
The original article contains 785 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!