6 hours ago
> The current Western discourse on post-war Russia, for all its variation in political packaging, aims at one thing: the destruction of that sovereignty or its radical limitation.
All I ever read are demands for Russia to end the war, acknowledge Ukraine as a state, retreat from all Ukraine territory.
I don’t see how that means “the destruction of that sovereignty or its radical limitation”. Do I see that wrong or did I miss other news?
6 hours ago
7 hours ago
This is an essay by Andrey Melnichenko, one of the richest Russians. He's mostly stayed out of politics, until now. Now he's worried about the future of Russia. He sees four possible paths, all either bad or very bad. None lead to a democratic Russia.
This is one of the more insightful views of the future of the world. This is someone who trained as a physicist, yet made his money by focusing on the fertilizer and used pipe industries after the USSR went down. (Essential industries, and mostly ignored by others with political power.) A very practical business type, knows everybody important from Putin on down, and looks at the future as a failure analysis problem.
6 hours ago
On the other hand, it read to me like an oligarch threatening a nuclear attack on Europe if Russia doesn't get its way.
Maybe that's a practical business take on matters but if anything it makes me less interested in saving Russia from its own stupid mistakes.
Maybe threats is how you make billions in post-Soviet-collapse finance. Clearly it's not by building a better society for the people who live there.
3 hours ago
Now do "why letting nations get away with international crimes is bad for the world".