Russia - threadbanned users in OP

There would be natural resources in Siberia. China (if Russia collapsed) would be well capable of controlling local populations although 'controlling' is probably not the correct word.

Just because they will lose their imperial war against Ukraine does not mean Russia will collapse, no more so than the U.K. collapsed when we got our freedom.

Its part of the Russian propaganda narrative don't support Ukraine or there will be chaos and China will gain etc. etc.

China did have lands in a part of Siberia, but the were taken by Russia. And now, Xi is putting tne original Chinese names back on the signposts and villages etc, beside their Russian names. Sign of things to come???

Expect a new Chinese map with a new dash line ,I know they went back to the Chinese names of old Chinese territory last year, I think you may have posted the map and story about it

Russia is still a nuclear armed state. A very different and serious ball game to actually invade part of Russian territory. I'd say China would be happy to essentially have a kind of puppet leader in Russia, who ensures China get favorable terms and access to resources. I don't think China would actually launch an invasion.

Reclaiming what was once theirs, China would not consider that to be expansionist merely restoring a part of China back to the mainland, as in Hong-Kong, and presently Taiwan.

Beijing produced the “9-Dash Line” out of the ether to unilaterally claim ownership of damn near the entirety of the South China Sea. They claimed it was based on some “found” historic maps, but the reality is that they just wanted control of a resource-rich area. China will certainly try to expand when possible. They’re just slyer about it than the Russians.

There are sections of the Russian Far East that we know were actually part of China before, and Beijing would need to cook up considerably less fiction to make their case. Furthermore the CCP’s M-O in controlling territory isn’t about the headache of controlling non-Han people. Their record so far is to strictly regulate the local population and then plant Han migrants into the area until they outnumber the locals. This has been their tactics in Tibet & Xinjang and I fully imagine a repeat of that in Russia if they thought they could get away with it.

Good points that I agree with. Ukraine needs to make putin's adventure acting as a terrorist in their country as costly for him as possible and something will eventually breakdown for putin. Recent drone strikes by Ukraine on oil infrastructure are an important step in this. Warfare has moved a long way from armies marching out onto a field and victory going to the one left standing at the end of the day. Russia is the largest country in the world by land area and has long held nuclear weapons and maintained a large army so there is good reason to try deflate its aggression and tendency toward terrorism in as low key fashion as possible. I understand people being frustrated that there are not huge levels of NATO weapons publicly flowing into Ukraine to drive putin out but a glorious war against NATO is exactly what he has been looking for to cement himself into the history books as a great wartime leader. The faltering support that has been publicised means he can't even claim that it is the full efforts of NATO countries to support Ukriane that his forces are failing against. Although still costly in human life I think there may be an agreement behind the scenes that a long term draining of the resources of putin's terrorist state is the safest approach for Ukraine and the rest of Europe. More signs of unrest in putin's terrorist state reported today:

Russia are counting on that.

How long will that take, 10, 20, 30 years? Longer?

Unless their army is killed or injured at a high enough number to prevent continuation, that's it.

Withdrawal comes only from the military price being too high.

Sanctions always weaken over time and Russia has a lot of allies, sympathisers in Africa and Asia. Not of the economic power of the modern West but significant and enough to keep them going.

If people want Ukraine to free their land then they must get everything they need. An awful lot of people are content to say Slava etc etc and leave it at that, talk of Russian casualties and their economy going down the swanee.

Russia are pushing now because the Ukrainian counter offensive failed, that is what you call it when you are roughly where you were before it started.

They might feel Ukraine might have to fall back but it also might be to push over the faltering Western support.

Ukraine will not take back the land without an awful lot more Western support.

The Kremlin now can reasonably hope that they will keep the land they have taken, they mightn't but they have a chance again.

That's down to Ukraine not getting enough support.

The West should be in it to win it.

I believe they drink everything they can get their hands on. Brains eaten alive with chemicals.

It's a great platform that along with the Saab cv90s are probably the best of the bunch in Ukraine, haven't seen too many reports of the tow missiles being used be interested to see how many they actually received

And that's the reality, Russia is swallowing itself, but that's not the way Putin sees it in the dream world he lives in, and while he's the boss that's the way it will be. Until saner heads prevail.....