Hi Micro,
I think it is a really vital question -- and I am going to try to get some 2nd hand intel from boots on the ground in St.P, Russia.
If the average citizens in the cities aren't really struggling noticeably more than they were before February, I would say Russia's endeavor is quite sustainable.
Mostly I have been following the ruble vs dollar and the exports of Russian oil and other commodities (which are most of their GNP/export economy). Per naked economic statistics, even in the heaily censored US, Russia has hardly felt the Ukraine war. I'm not saying it isn't in their news, I'm saying Russia was already heavily "sanctioned" and ostracized before the war started. So they are more or less used to that... Also, the long period of getting used to the general status-quo of being the boogeyman of the Western elites, should make them extraordinarily resistant to further Western deprivations. So they can't get the latest Luis Vuitton handbags from Paris? Boohoo! So they can't get an easy visa to the US in order to participate in our transvestite Disneyland parades and monkeypox orgies? That must be really hard on them. You know, a crippling deprivation which drains their morale and spiritual strength. Not.
Plus, of course, they have all the "made in China" manufactured products they could want in terms of what the country, as a whole, can economically afford. All it costs is oil; and they have enough. But "country as a whole" is not the factor I'm most curious about; I think we should be most curious about how the average Russian in the city is doing...how their morale is holding up.
From what I've been reading from inside Russia expat bloggers, the average Russian inside Russia is doing just fine, thank-you-very-much, and has hardly been personally impacted by the active war in Ukraine. Now, do I KNOW that is true? No...BUT I KNOW THE US GOVERNMENT AND THE US MEDIA LIES THROUGH ITS TEETH ALL THE TIME ABOUT PRETTY NEAR EVERYTHING which might harm their "narrative" social control. I really miss the Russian Times (RTA) broadcasting as a counter propaganda.
That the US has to propagandize and censor the free inquiry of the average US citizen is NOT a good sign, at all, for the future of the US as a "superpower" or even as an economy and decent place to live.
I'm particularly concerned that a few on this board on the one hand seem to recognize that the US government is controlled by "enemies domestic" yet, on the other hand, seem to be rooting for the "enemies domestic" in their never-ending, global, military-industrial-complex endeavors. Personally, I note that the US has arguably lost ALL its real wars since WW2. By that metric, we are a complete ESTABLISHED bozo-loser as a "war" power.
Now, for the time, many of us may feel okay about our ALWAYS losing EVERY war since WW2, because we have derived economic perquisties from the US PETRO DOLLAR giving us about 1 TRILLION dollars a year of "free sh1+" from our empire's vassal countries. I know I, economically, have won big by betting on dollar devaluation over time (although I feel generally sick about that, because I didn't want to win that way). But don't we -- generally -- have the acuity to recognize this has come at a tremendous cost to our middle class, as they have not kept up. And to our freedoms/Republic. AND THAT THIS IS NOT SUSTAINABLE?
US proxy wars are kind of like drinking your own blood to sate your hunger. Or, if you don't like that metaphor, consider how “productive” and powerful methamphetamine/crack-cocaine can make you feel ... for a while. Not sustainable. Not intelligent to encourage nor support.
Personally, I WANT to see the US collapse...back to its roots...ASAP and, ideally, with some civility. That doesn't mean I'm not also afraid of that. But I know that living beyond our means via our forever-wars and petrodollar fraud eventually requires payback WITH INTEREST. And only then do we have a chance to get our Constitution and our self-determination back from our large class of parasitic "enemies domestic". So I, with considerable trepidation, choose US military-industrial collapse, and loss of our "empire".
And I think the Ukraine war has set that in accelerated motion. We idiotically tried the ultimate "sanctions" shtick one time too-many on a country which has massive natural resources, autarky, few "enemies domestic", borders with China, and ten years to prepare. Our predictable weaponizations of dollar reserves and SWIFT has blown up in our face. The world has just learned the US is a paper tiger, and worse.
I think we have already lost WW3. And it doesn't matter how long it takes, the US Deep-State and European WEF Elites are going to lose. And we should be happy for that, at least. Do I hope China takes over the world? Of course not; adamantly not!
But keep in mind the US military-industrial complex MADE China "made in China" to begin with. Our enemies-domestic did it all. We need to stop mentally conflating the US government with the US. We can easily lose the entire US government; and I hope we do. And then revitalize with the US Constitution, our freedom from government, and some hard work!
| 
