At Chatham House, certain Keir Giles thinks Ukraine’s integration with the West would be catastrophic for Russia.
Ukraine’s existential challenge is that if it becomes a fully independent, fully functional democracy enjoying political, economic, cultural, and social integration with the West, this would be catastrophic for Russia.
It really bespeaks a supremacist delusion on the part of Western analysts when they think the Russians would want anything approaching Western values that are being imposed on Ukraine. Today’s West offers liberal democracy with gay pride parades, radical feminism, black lives matter, critical race theory, and other nice things. It is no longer the West that offers freedom of speech and free market capitalism, as it was during the Cold War.
Unfortunately, Ukraine is destined to be a peripheral nation far from Western markets if it integrates economically with the already developed West. Unfortunately, in the current game of Chicken, the winner will gain Ukraine, a prize that sucks. The West knows this deep down, and Russia knew this all along. Russia is only interested in not seeing Ukraine integrate with the West militarily because that poses a direct threat to Moscow. But invade Ukraine Moscow will not at the moment.
But otherwise, Moscow is not bothered by Ukraine’s overtures to the West. The West, thankfully has standards, and Ukraine does not meet them. Ukraine is not fit to join NATO, or the EU. Being at loggerheads with its large neighbour, Russia, is actually very damaging to the Ukrainian economy. And in order to get things back on track in Ukraine, these things should happen.
- Ukraine must find an accommodation with Russia. Give Donbass autonomy, perhaps even recognise the loss of Crimea and settle borders with Russia. Nobody wants to invest in a country, which is at war and has internal and external border disputes.
- Ukraine must clean the house of destructive elements like radical nationalism, corruption, banditry. discrimination of Russian speakers. No economy can function properly in the environment that is today’s Ukraine.
- Have a trade deal with Russia and the EU, and declare neutrality as its national policy. Ukraine has the chance to become a prosperous hub at the crossroads of East and West, and North and South.
Here in the West, we need to understand that we have little to offer Ukraine but perhaps some old grenades with which to kill themselves. The West does not need Ukraine’s industry, or markets.
Insomniac Resurrected 
Strictly speaking, there may be some risks involved for Russia if the West wanna bring it to Russian society. Based on what I’ve seen on VK’s /pol/ page, I’ve spotted a numbers of Russians who actually believe that the West is better. They’re usually young, probably would be immigrants…doubt most of them even hit 25 though. I believe in Putin’s ability at preventing them from becoming large, but if they do, then there may be some troubles.
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The types that have emigrated and speak English are usually very far from what the average Russian is. The reality is that even if the West was better, it does not mean things will get better in countries that associate with the West. Ukraine, Vietnam, Afghanistan are good examples. Some may even argue that association with the West was in many respects detrimental to Japan as well.
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For Japan, I’ve known about the post-WW2 US Asian policies and its effects on Far East all too well. Remember, I was the one who talked about the concept of MacArthurism when I was active on FB. Many countries in the region did experience rapid economic growth, but at the expense of the livelihood for everyone, especially among the commoners, and even the middle class had it shit too – actually, the ones who were born and raised middle and upper-middle class are the ones who have to put up with most familial pressure and societal repression, despite doesn’t have to put up with rents and enjoy an overall higher living standard. They’re richer than me, live better than me and technically they were raised with silver spoon (and a rattan cane/feather duster/belt/whatever their folks can find as punishment tool), but I honestly don’t feel jealous of them for one bit, after knowing their lifestyle and had first hand experience with their ignorance. Honestly, I often compare them with a blind donkey that got poked, whipped yet don’t know who their tormentors are. It’s really sad when you think about it.
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Russia is not worse off than the West though. Gas is cheaper there, Big Mac index is lower, and you can hit a jackpot if you find it. Russia is a country of immense possibilities to become wealthy.
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I should also add that the Russians pay 13% income tax, whereas Europeans pay around 20% or even more.
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Russia is indeed a good choice for investment. Since I’ve discovered the world of cryptocurrencies last year with some level of success, I began to pay attention to real stocks. I’ve bought NVidia’s and Yandex’s stock 2 months ago. Well Yandex is taking a dive now though, most likely due to the tension over Russian troops by Ukraine’s borders. But one thing worth to mention; it was climbing like crazy back in March 2020. I wish I could discover Yandex sooner. I have faith that it may climb back up again. I assume there will be more people who panic sell their Yandex holdings over the whole deal with Ukraine is over, and that’s when the smart folks who’re willing to take risk will buy them at dirt cheap price. I’m waiting to buy more and when Yandex finally come up again, I’ll be one rich mother fucker.
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Just get Stash. For those who live in the West, they can buy Yandex stocks on there.
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Buy Gazprom or Rosatom if they are on offer. Maybe some other Russian tech company like Ozon.ru, Russia’s Amazon.
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Will definitely look into it
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Karlin had a post on his old blog where he listed some companies he invested in.
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