Russia - threadbanned users in OP

A NATO bordering China and North Korea? What could go wrong?

" So a pariah state for the majority of the world's economy, squeezed on a near weekly basis, with their oil and gas there only bargaining chip, one that is being eroded on the same near weekly basis? "

Im anti-war and have supported a number of anti-war demonstrations. Putin must be stopped. Im not sure though that our leaders in the West who dont have a great record in handling major catastrophres are capable of it, or capable of making the right decisions.

On an economic front the Russian ruble is near 15 year highs. Russian oil is only having to discount $15-$20 and India continues to increase its imports of Russian oil. Given the high price of oil, thats still a great deal for Putin and his regime. And over 100 nations turned up to the recent SPEIF Economic Forum in St Petersburg, all voicing support for increasing trade and interaction with Russia. Many poorer nations who have endured generations of colonialism, welath extraction and Western failures to deliver on promises , dont really care about Ukraine and see this as an opportunity to break that cycle.

And as Russia pivots to the East. people need to realise many countries in the East are embracing this and see it as their chance to escape a dollar denominated market and a US and EU hegemony.

So yes Russia is being squeezed out of Western Markets.. but on an economic front perhaps the East will fill that void for them.

As they say in the East... When your masters fight, the slaves suffer.

A lot of magical thinking in this post. Around what the notional value of the rouble is. And the thought that countries would abandon dollar denominated trade. For what? Throwing their lot with explicitly politically managed and price manipulated currencies with capital controls?

You think a central bank of a country or private firms wants to be forced into holding vast RMB or rouble reserves for the purpose of commodity exchange? Think about that for a second.

Theres no magical thinking involved.

Its already happening.as an example India Russian imports are up 60% over last year, and Indias exports to Russia are up 20%. - you see not magical thinking, its an economic fact.

India and Russia are in talks to revive a rouble-roupee exchange mechanism, similar to the 1953 Ruble-Rupee Mechanism, again bypassing dollar conversions and trading in their own currencies. Again no magical thinking, its a fact.

FT report China will double the permitted trading range between its currency and Russia’s rouble to help bolster trade between the two countries as the Russian economy reels from western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.

So again no wishful thinking. Its an economic fact and is happening and has already happened.

You may not like, you may wish it wasnt happening, but the market doesnt deal in wishful thinking. Many medium-large nations are only to happy to pivot to national currency trading away from the $ and ignore sanctions set by people in the WH and Brussels.

Money men dont care about Ukrainian people, if theres money to be made they will trade with the devil or Putin, either or. Will it replace western trade for Russia , probably not in total , but its naive to think there is no one willing to step into that void.

This coming winter will bring so much pressure on the macro events that I suspect many recent virtuous moves will be put aside in the interest of heating homes, powering society and putting food on the table across the globe.