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Jan 6
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August F Siemon's avatar

I agree absolutely. It might not happen for even a decade or two but the clock is ticking. I can only understand Russia's failure to recognize this as a refutation of Putin's professed nationalism and his exposure as nothing but a crime boss.

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Jan 7
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August F Siemon's avatar

He probably won't have to. China can play the long game and wait until Putin is gone and Russia declines, a process that China can control, to some extent, until Moscow reverts to it's historical past as a mongol vassal state.

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Nick Fotis's avatar

China doesn't even have to use military means, they can just exchange land concessions in Siberia for their continued support (and some billions of yuan) of the Moscow regime

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James Coffey's avatar

Complicating Russia's territorial defense needs is a land mass that is 10 time zones wide! With such long lines of communication defending the motherland from Asiatic interests is quite a challenge!

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August F Siemon's avatar

Even for a competent military.

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Russia News Reports's avatar

Inflation and exchange rate aren't interchangeable terms. And hoping for the "scheming Chinaman" to stab the Russian man in the back is, at best, wishful thinking.

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Donald Hill's avatar

I am not expecting China to attack Russia. I was simply calling attention to current items of interest to the Chinese and Taiwanese public and the history behind these sentiments.

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Hans Torvatn's avatar

You are of course right that inflation and exchange rates are not interchangeable. They are related though. And currently Russia is struggling with both. And China will not attack, but they will try to exploit the situation to their benefit. And those of us who are interested in conflict, foreign policy and war, should know about the fault lines.

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Russia News Reports's avatar

They're sort of related but the dollar-ruble exchange rate is the way it is mostly because the USA has shut down most of the ways to directly trade the two currencies. Most people who need to sell dollars for rubles, myself included, use bitcoin.

And sorry, but there just isn't a "fault line" here. China's population is contracting and 80% of their territory is close to uninhabited as people leave the countryside for the big cities on the coastline. There's no point in annexing territory when you can just pay people to sell you their stuff. That's not really a reason for wars anymore.

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Oskar Krempl's avatar

An extra thank you to Don for the link to the article written by Tatarigami . That is an excellent analysis.

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Donald Hill's avatar

Agreed. I hope it adds to the public pressure for reform.

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Dickson's avatar

Chinese seizing Russian territory. Just what we need.... another Pandora's Box.

"Kiev in 3 days!" heh

Does anyone remember anything anymore?

"Sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck."

-Somebody

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Russia News Reports's avatar

It's not a thing you need to lay awake worrying about because there's exactly zero chance of it happening.

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Spike's avatar

The way Russia would stop it's baltic sea game is by Denmark and Sweden check every ship passing out to the north sea via Kagarak straight. As this inspection have to be handled properly, traffic jams may occur for ships departed from a Russian port there. Germanies fleet could assist...

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Nick Fotis's avatar

Still irritated about the way the general staff treated the 72nd brigade as disposable tissue. The loss of Vuhledar (and the territories behind it) was unavoidable after the 72nd was left to wither away, while the Russians reconstituted their battered brigades for the third or fourth time, and repeated the attacks

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Brian L's avatar

Fyi, the Chinese video actually says that China should take over those territories (including Siberia) if the USA attacks the Russian federation and it disintegrates into multiple small states under the control of the USA. It doesn't say it should do it now. It is nonetheless a useful insight into how some Chinese nationalists are thinking about Russia's current weakness.

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