Russia isn't that interesting any longer, economy wise.

China is the competitor to the US nowadays. All Russia has is nukes and troll farms, and corruption.

Russia has all the minerals to support any size of Chinese war machine ramping. It’s not their economy that matters.

That doesn't make sense. The minerals don't disappear just because Putin fails invading Ukraine. The minerals will be waiting in the ground no matter what.

It seems that something like "they've trashed their economy" would have been a better choice of words.

But -- "destroyed"? What's that supposed to mean? What purpose is served by the use of such hyperbolic language?

I don't think US and friends would have any problem with them having a successful economy if they didn't use it to attack and threaten other countries.