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Reuters: War in Ukraine has cost Russia up to $211 billion, US official says
(kyivindependent.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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It's always easier to see these big numbers as time imo. 1 million seconds is around 11 days.
211 billion seconds is just under 7000 years.
What a waste for one tiny man
Russia was losing it's relevancy and influence for some time now. Putin and the Russian extant weren't happy about that. Are they happy with the war, probably not so much. But if anything, it has bound the population to a common goal, which Russia needed. This probably feels like an all or nothing gamble for their way of life, in a war of their own making.
Russia made billions off of gas sales to Europe. They could have easily turned their country into an economic powerhouse with a real manufacturing sector and real innovation. There was engineering and IT talent in the country that could have carried that transition.
Instead they chose this. Even if they "win" the few provinces they claim to annex, they lost the extremely profitable gas and trades to Europe, they lost the bit of trust left in the West, and they lost millions of people.
The people they lost have have been young men and prisoners, mostly - people they don't actually want, and are happy to find a way to remove.
And the dream of actually participating in world society is nice, but it would require them to stop the rampant corruption in their society. Which is unlikely, since all the way up the chain is a kleptocracy.