Thread by @koreanforeigner

This will raise gas prices, and everyone in the world will feel it. And it will hurt - especially, as usual, low-income earners. But this has to be done. This will be highly unpopular in Asia. It's even unpopular in Europe where they have the most to lose from Putin running amok.

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1501198044661964808

Germany, the biggest European economy, which just announced that it will completely overhaul the way it thinks about its defense spending and military policy, is far too addicted to Russian oil. Chancellor Scholz has rejected Biden's plan.

politico.eu/article/german…

If the Europeans are that upset about something that directly affects them, you can bet that Asians are going to be up in arms. For a lot of Asian countries, Ukraine is on the other side of the planet. Russia's invasion of Ukraine doesn't affect us that much.

People are going to be irate that a European war that doesn't affect day-to-day life in Asia is affecting us and stymying our economic growth - much of which had been suppressed for the past two years because of the global pandemic.

But Asians must support pummeling Russia with sanctions - even if that means that our economic prospects will also take a huge hit. And that's because even if we don't feel that we are affected, we certainly are affected because Russia and China are two sides of the same coin.

Russia and China have been partners from the start. When the Russians attacked Georgia and Ukraine (the first time around), China was busy installing artificial islands in the South China Sea.

When Russia was busy propping up Bashar al-Assad, China was busy propping up Kim Jong Un and Myanma's junta thugs.

When Russia was buying influence in Europe and America, China was buying influence in Southeast Asia, effectively neutralizing ASEAN.

When Russia was using its vast oil reserves as a cheap drug to push around the junkie that is Europe, China was using its billion-strong domestic market as a lure to force everyone in the world to adopt China's interests as our interests.

Russia and China are two sides of the same coin. They are the 21st century's Axis Powers. Where one goes, the other follows.

China cynically says that we should abandon the Cold War mentality. But it is they who have brought back the Cold War.

Make no mistake about it. We are in a new Cold War. And from the looks of it, it's already deadlier and hotter than the First Cold War. Regardless, we have to win it. Already, Russia turned the Cold War hot and has made nuclear threats.

The last Cold War lasted decades. We must not let this one last as long. We have the chance to take Russia out of the Second Cold War by crippling its economy and hopefully forcing Putin to get ousted by his own people. We cannot allow him to limp away to lick his wounds.

Putin will come back if we let him. We must take him off the board and do everything we can to make the Axis weaker. Because if Putin is allowed to win, even if he is too weak to threaten anyone else for the foreseeable future, Xi Jinping will simply await his turn at the wheel.

Even if we feel that Ukraine's war isn't our war, it really is because it's merely a part of their plans. And we really don't want their plans to succeed.

In 1950, Korea was the first victim of the First Cold War. In 2022, Ukraine because the Second Cold War's first victim.

Korea was the First Cold War's first victim, but it wasn't the last. Ukraine is the Second Cold War's first victim. We must not let there be more.

Putin must fail. Xi must fail. The Axis must fail. For that, high gas prices are a pittance.