While the mainstream media are full of victory dances over Ukraine’s territorial gains, and claims of Russian weakness, feeding copious amounts of hopium to idiots, whose minds are already fried by years of incessant Russophobic propaganda, there are those that look at things through a more sober lens:
In the absence of a critical root-and-branch analysis of Russia’s national power and strategic interests, American senior military leaders and their political bosses viewed Russia through a narrowly focused lens that magnified U.S. and Ukrainian strengths but ignored Russia’s strategic advantages—geographic depth, almost limitless natural resources, high social cohesion, and the military-industrial capacity to rapidly scale up its military power.
And…
…the Biden administration repeatedly commits the unpardonable sin in a democratic society of refusing to tell the American people the truth: contrary to the Western media’s popular “Ukrainian victory” narrative, which blocks any information that contradicts it, Ukraine is not winning and will not win this war.
Yesterday, I wrote a comment in Czech on Facebook, asking whether anyone still believes in Ukrainian victory. To my surprise, many do…
I really suggest you read that American Conservative article because it is a really good analysis of Russia’s strategy in Ukraine.
Insomniac Resurrected 
Speaking of social cohesion, this is something that neither US, EU nor even China has. However, as long as CCP is still around, things won’t get too out of control. I have my opinions on things such a as Zero COVID policies and all that, but I ain’t gonna show my asses over the whole deal, and it’s for a reason. The same can’t be said for US and EU, however. As I’ve said back in my Fuckbook days, US’ biggest strategic mistake is that it often confuses Russia and even Arab world with East Asia and EU, and that’s why we’re seeing political failures one after another when it comes down to it.
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Russia is an ethnostate of the Russians with bantustans for other ethnics. The US seems to think they can play strings with the latter but seem to run into problems. I don’t think the people responsible in the US don’t realise it, they have to work with what they have.
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I think part of what makes it so difficult for US to start anything like the whole stirring tension between Chinese and Uighurs/Tibetans/Mongols in China, is that
a. Russia makes its minorities feel like they belong to Russian society, instead of some sort of walking museum on non-white, non-Western cultures, which is what US and EU does with its immigrants and minorities.
b. On top of that, Russia makes its ethnic minorities feel dignified. There’s never a case where they make those ethnic minorities feel like a second-class citizen. From the vibe I’m getting on VK, Russia is actually a whole lot more chill when it comes to the concept of hierarchy. Such concept does exist in Russia though, just like it does with everywhere else. But your average Russians seem to be a bit less obsessed with it compares to most of Asia.
c. While I wouldn’t exactly call Russia a nation free of ethnic tension, one thing I’ve observed from Russians, is that they tend to spit it out. It’s true that most people can lie, but there are things that they never lie about. For Russians, I’d say it’s rare for them to lie about how they feel about someone compares to Americans, Europeans or East Asians, who tend to be more likely to lie about it. This is important, because while the words and the immediate actions may be harsh, but there’s less of that built up hatred, so it’s a bit less likely for any of the ethnicity to experience racial bullying (different from racial violence, which is usually short term; racial bullying is usually long term and a pain in the ass to avoid). Racial bullying tends to be the direct result of bottled-up hatred that got released all the sudden. However, for Russians, they make a habits of spitting it out instead of be smart ass about it and play all sorts of mind games, political correctness, passive aggression. This is why it makes Russians more tolerable – they’re straight up yet respectful at the same time…speaking of which, I was once told about the social consensus in Russia: be respectful; don’t start shit, and if you do start it, make sure you’re the one who finish it; and at the same time, don’t be a pussy and never let anyone walk all over you, and if someone undignifies you, you better do something about it. I think such social consensus can lead to a society with better common sense and therefore, bottled-up hatred tends to be less likely of an issue.
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Something needs to be understood. Russia came to dominate these lands already by the eighteenth century. The Soviets made a great effort to give every ethnicity its territory. Those that are in Russia don’t really want to leave Russia much like say the Zulus don’t want to leave South Africa. Also, any such nationalist and separatist attempts seem to be staunchly rejected. Prosvirnin fell out of a window and the Imarat Kavkaz were neutered by the FSB. Russia combines national autonomy with separatist repression. But the nature of the Russian state is not imperial. It is a Russian ethnostate with local pockets of diversity. Murica can try to play these groups and they did in the past, you had Russian nationalists, and Chechnya’s separatist, radical Muslims, and even Tatar nationalism. US exploited these groups because the repression was lax. RFE/RL has several local services aimed at Crimea, the Volga Region, Siberia etc.
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