>The five stages of grief.

You're right but not in the way you think. Russia is desperate to prove they aren't isolated internationally.

And they're proving it. The Western block is around a billion people. There are nearly 8 billion people on the planet now.

You can buy fresh Mexican advocates from any grocery chain anywhere in Russia (the logistics behind that are not trivial). As can you Japanese whiskey, Korean appliances, Chinese cars and a whole other host of products that Soviet citizens could have never dreamed of.

Oh good maybe they can finally use some of their boondoggle nuclear cargo ships too

It’s comical to call cargo ships a boondoggle when the US can currently produce no more than ten per year (of the non-nuclear variety).

Seriously. And Canada is having real problems right now due to lack of adequate icebreakers.

in the UN votes condemning russian aggression and condemning russian annexations, russia received the support of fewer than 3% of countries in the world, representing less than 3% of people in the world, including themselves

seems they failed to prove they aren't isolated

Update on the SCO: https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-strengthens-relati...

> Russia is desperate to prove they aren't isolated internationally.

BRICS make up 40% of the world's population.

how much is made up by the R?

grouping the R in with the BICS doesn't seem appropriate anymore

~140 million or less than 5%.

And they have, particularly when overwhelming Western sanctions failed to shock the Russian economy and society to collapse.

Remember when Biden triumphantly announced that the ruble was reduced to "rubble"? That was the objective, and it failed catastrophically.

So, how is that Russian economy doing now? From sources not controlled by the Kremlin?

Russia expected (September 2022) [1]:

2022: -2.9% decline

2023: hoping for slight growth, possibility of slight decline

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IMF observed/predicts (January 2023) [2]:

2022: -2.2% decline

2023: slight growth

----

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-economy-contr...

[2] - https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/RUS

Try YouTube. Plenty of Westerners there posting videos of daily life.

Motte and Bailey. This is just vibes

Definitely. The geopolitical environment is very stable and Washington is firmly in control of the unipolar world order. The global USD is thriving.

Stage 1: Denial.

You should probably look at charts of things people talk about to you

What?

India being characterized as a member of an Anti Western bloc seems rather far fetched considering their partnership with Washington, against another member of that block (China).

You just have to look at how initiatives like "the Quad" have failed completely.

>India being characterized as a member of an Anti Western bloc

Binary thinkers forget there are 3 states, with us, against us, and independent.

BRICS countries aren't anti anyone, they are just asserting their independence in a world where Western countries have historically been hostile to that position.

I was responding to the OP who was claiming that "There is an enormous anti-Washington bloc" in reference to BRICS.

Non aligned movement has existed for a long time, but in the context here India is not completely non aligned. They have been the target of aggression by China which has resulted in the deaths of Indian soldiers. And the US has supported them against this aggression[1].

[1]: https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2023-03-20...

By "bloc" do you mean allies who would actually commit military forces to a war? Tributary puppet states like the Soviet Bloc?

Russia's list of allies:

1. Belarus (maybe, on a good day)

China's list of allies:

The anti-Western bloc is not interested in escalating war, so it is inaccurate to view it through the lens of formal military alliance.

Countries that want war right now: USA, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Azerbaijan, few others.

Countries that don't want war: >90% of human population.

I am delighted to hear China is not belicose. Spread the word. Seems like not many people know this.

All these fun little man-made island resorts with a full landing strip and a complement of fighter-bombers and medium range missiles, just for protection - they're just for tourism!

Who knew?

Why did China have to put its country in the middle of all those American overseas military bases? Such aggression!

a little over a year ago, russia literally escalated their 2014 war in Ukraine, seems russia wants war the most, having both started and escalated this one

Ukraine and Poland definitely don't want war right now, they'd very much just like the Russians to stop and leave.

The position of the countries that want "peace" is bizarre in the media: "you should just stop fighting the invader and then it's no longer war. You don't want war do you?"

They don't want war, yet they also don't want to make any concessions or de-escalations. So they get more war.

Not sure you can blame them can you? If they concede territory that's just a message of "invade later for more". It's also pretty hard to give concessions when the rhetoric of your opponent doesn't make any sense. Effectively Russia doesn't want Ukraine to be Ukraine one way or another.

> The position of the countries that want "peace" is bizarre in the media: "you should just stop fighting the invader and then it's no longer war. You don't want war do you?"

It’s not “bizarre” just calculated. Most of the world doesn’t give a shit about Ukraine and would be perfectly happy for Russia to annex it so long as the economic disruption from the sanctions and oil price increases stop. They can’t outright say it because western countries are big trade partners but that’s what they mean reading between the lines.

Perhaps you should got to Beijing and correct Xi Jingping then[1].

[1]: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/xi-jinping-says...