[jokethrowaway]

I think they spent decades growing their economy and preparing to be independent of the west and now our sanctions are useless.

It feels like this situation is exactly what they want (and likely an historical inflection point, where we pit east vs west again). Dropping the cold war was needed because they had no resources (surprise, socialism doesn't work!).

I'm waiting for Taiwan next and then I'd say we are completely *** (especially looking at our reliance on the east for manufacturing / energy and how useless our governments are).

[astrange]

The point of sanctions isn't to hurt their economy (that would just make their people mad at us), it's to stop them from resupplying their military.

Their response is to become dependent on China instead.