Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
Have they? Or maybe...there's a vested interest in at least one of Putin's silent partners (*cough*China*cough*) to keep him in the war.

Yes, they have.

And no, there's no vested interest on China's part. China doesn't care whether Russia includes Ukraine or not. The EU cares a great deal, which is why they're pouring money and guns into Ukraine. China has no security interests in that area, which is why they're not doing anything other than buying the energy that they would otherwise want.

China is an export-driven economy. Them cutting us off in favor of India and Russia is a disaster for them. They can't do it.

China has an economy that is entirely dependent on oil imports - they are the world's largest oil importer, and Russia is their largest supplier. Them cutting off Russia in favor of us would be a disaster for them. They can't do it.

So - once the U.S. puts them in that impossible choice, they'll take the least bad option. Which is Russia over us, because the U.S. is almost certainly going to try to severely their export-driven economy anyway for reasons unrelated to Ukraine. You can only kill a man once. If you're already going to impose the maximum tariff on China that you can impose without damaging your own economy, they're not going to be moved by your threats of future tariffs.

Wow, we see this completely different. I think they're being worn down too far.

Yes, we know you see it completely different. Because you have this weird idea that Ukraine's path to victory requires driving the Russians out instead of damaging them for long enough that they can't remain. But if Ukraine was in danger of not being able to continue the fight any time soon, they would be asking us to get them a ceasefire rather than asking us for guns and tanks and other weapons.