Putin is suffering from the failure to understand that Russia is not the great power he thought it was. With his whole army tied down in Ukraine, Kazakhstan is using the opportunity to pull away. Putin’s attempts to maintain influence are likely backfiring.
https://twitter.com/b_nishanov/status/1545423984270999556
Xi Jinping’s ducking out of visiting Putin is also an interesting sign. China and India seem happy to take advantage of Russian weakness, but they don’t want to get too close. thetimes.co.uk/article/end-of…
We are seeing the huge problem of basing great power status solely on nuclear weapons. If all you can do is threaten to blow up the world to get your way, you are a well armed weak power. The USA or China never have to threaten nuclear attack to have others cooperate with them.
If Russia were a great power Finland and Sweden would not be in NATO, Kazakhstan and other central Asian states would not be pulling away, The Chinese would not be holding Russia at arms distance, RussIa would not have to sell its oil to China and India at a discount.
The borders of Russia would not be basically defenceless, it’s army would not have to rely increasingly on old and out of date equipment. Calling Russia a great power before the war was just wrong.
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