Russia and Ukraine

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

A Russian perspective on the sanctions:

Russian writer Egor Kotkin said economic sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine last month have illustrated continued Western power in the economic realm.

“Right now, the balance of power, producing power, population power, economic power, is shifted very much to outside of the West. And the rest of the world is looking to Russian example and they see now the West still controls much of the relationship through the economic power,” Kotkin said while appearing on HillTV’s “Rising.”

“If you act politically as a sovereign country —— even talking about some aggressive acts of violence like invasion or war or some domestic oppressions, particularly independently from the West — you will be called out economically. You might be destroyed,” he added.

Nonetheless, Kotkin said support for Putin is growing in Russia, like it did after his 2014 invasion of Crimea and for President Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Kotkin said Russians feel that sanctions are another form of war as Moscow continued its assault on Ukraine.

“I mean Russian people feel these economic sanctions as a separate war and it’s actual a separate war or at least a separate front of the same war,” he said.

“There is going on an economic assault on Russia,” he added.

https://thehill.com/news/3256472-egor-ko...ing-power/

It's comparable to Clausewitz's aphorism that "war is an extension of politics."

I wonder how accurate is the idea that Putin's support is growing domestically. I can't argue against that, except to point out that only a fool would express dissent in Russia at this point.

He’s clearly hugely popular - he tends to win all of his free and fair elections with 90-95% of the vote.

Boru