Widening fault lines over Ukraine

At the end of it, Russia will become an even lesser power in comparison with what it has been in the recent past

Irrespective of how the war in Ukraine ends on the battlefield, Russia is already a defeated country. Its adversary is not Ukraine but the West, led by the US. Its expectation was that the subjugation of Ukraine would be the point of entry to a new European order in which Russia would be a key stakeholder, and its security interests would be acknowledged and respected. This war aim will not be achieved even if its armed forces leave Ukraine as a pile of rubble. What Russia failed to appreciate is that we now live in a densely interconnected and networked