[fooker]

They have destroyed the rest of their industrial capacity and economy in the process, an outcome very much desired by US and friends.

[cutemonster]

Russia isn't that interesting any longer, economy wise.

China is the competitor to the US nowadays. All Russia has is nukes and troll farms, and corruption.

[mensetmanusman]

Russia has all the minerals to support any size of Chinese war machine ramping. It’s not their economy that matters.

[cutemonster]

That doesn't make sense. The minerals don't disappear just because Putin fails invading Ukraine. The minerals will be waiting in the ground no matter what.

[aguaviva]

It seems that something like "they've trashed their economy" would have been a better choice of words.

But -- "destroyed"? What's that supposed to mean? What purpose is served by the use of such hyperbolic language?

[tim333]

I don't think US and friends would have any problem with them having a successful economy if they didn't use it to attack and threaten other countries.