Re: Russia's unimportant economy
  By: Sean Dennis to Arelor on Thu Feb 24 2022 01:46 am

 > Hello Arelor,
 > 
 > 23 Feb 22 14:10, you wrote to me:
 > 
 >  Ar> Then some Russian minister grabs a mic, asks "Are you sure that you
 >  Ar> want to pay 2000 eur for each m┬│ of gas?" and leaves, because he
 >  Ar> needs say no more. I am sure Putin is afraid, scared to death and
 >  Ar> hidding behind his massive Spetznaz army because he fears Europeans.
 > 
 > Fun fact: Out of the four most recent US presidents, Trump is the only one
 > with Putin did not try to take over a soverign country.  I wonder why?
 > 
 > -- Sean

I think it was mostly the fact that there was a precarious balance most people
was ok with. Sure, the Putin wanted to recover the glory of the URSS empire,
but as long as he had no NATO bases at his gate and he could sell gas to
Western powers, he was at a Nash saddle point in which he could sit as the KIng
of his kitchen and be content with the situation.

Fast forward and the NATO tries to include UKraine in the deal. The Nash
equilibrium is broken so Putin starts brandishing tanks left and right because
he wants it back. Ukraine sees how bad things are going to be and declares they
are ok not being in NATO as a way to get the situation back to normal. The
European and American response is "fuck Russia, we are not gonna give an inch
to Putin!"

The problem when you tell somebody with tanks to fuck himself is that he fucks
you with his tanks. If Putin is not getting his saddle point equlibrium back he
may as well try and expand the URSS a bit more because the truce has been
obliterated anyway.

If Trump had any useful and groundbreaking political skill, it was that he knew
better than poking beehives whose bees were minding their business and
bothering nobody.




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