I would say not as long as they remain neutral, but it depends on how much Europe crumbles this winter with a shortage of natural gas and our economy crumbles because it can't stand the strain of even a proxy war. If Putin thinks he could pull it off, and Finland has already made noises about joining NATO, or so the media says, who knows. That was always the risk of cajoling Zelensky into not settling with Russia. If Russia sees that it has a chance at more with little risk, why not? Same thing with China and Taiwan and the Middle East and Israel. If they decide the US wolf is just a chihuahua in throwing shadows on the wall, then really there's nothing in their way.
All the more reason to make the Ukraine invasion as painful as possible for Russia; so that they don't come to see invading neighbours as a "low risk" venture.
Well, as you can tell, it's also very painful for us. The price of oil is killing our economy and Germany's economy is teetering, and where it goes, the rest of the world soon follows. We raised rates to drive down inflation, but we'll have to lower rates when the recession deepens into depression, which will once again feed inflation. Hunger pangs tend to trump the imperial ambitions of our leaders. And have you wondered what happens if Putin just decides f--k it all and hits the button? You people live in a fairy land. Again, you can't have both: Putin is so insane and so dastardly that we must involve him in a quagmire in Ukraine to "teach him a lesson" (as if the US is in any position to take the moral high ground in "lesson teaching") and Putin is not so insane and so dastardly to take the rest of the world with him by resorting to nuclear war. I wonder how your brains work. And I see you still haven't read the article, or this would be a much different conversation.
If Putin hits the button, he dies. The man is many things, but suicidal isn't one of them. He doesn't want to see Moscow turned into a smoking crater by nuclear war.
Europe is about to pay for handing their energy policy over to Greta Thunberg, but the US and Canada will be mostly insulated from that. There will be a small recession in North America but nothing severe enough to drop interest rates back down and restart inflation.
Russia is feeling more pain than the West, by far. 80,000 dead Russian soldiers and counting, and calling in the draft will hurt their economy massively. Have you seen how many Russians are fleeing the country?
Also, we didn't "involve" Putin in Ukraine. He chose to invade; we're just helping make it a quagmire instead of an easy win.
So is Finland next for Vlad?
I think Finland today would make mincemeat of Russia in a conventional encounter.
I would say not as long as they remain neutral, but it depends on how much Europe crumbles this winter with a shortage of natural gas and our economy crumbles because it can't stand the strain of even a proxy war. If Putin thinks he could pull it off, and Finland has already made noises about joining NATO, or so the media says, who knows. That was always the risk of cajoling Zelensky into not settling with Russia. If Russia sees that it has a chance at more with little risk, why not? Same thing with China and Taiwan and the Middle East and Israel. If they decide the US wolf is just a chihuahua in throwing shadows on the wall, then really there's nothing in their way.
Again, things no one thought through.
I don't think Finland has much to worry about, given Russia's (non) performance militarily in Ukraine. It might be more the other way around.
All the more reason to make the Ukraine invasion as painful as possible for Russia; so that they don't come to see invading neighbours as a "low risk" venture.
Well, as you can tell, it's also very painful for us. The price of oil is killing our economy and Germany's economy is teetering, and where it goes, the rest of the world soon follows. We raised rates to drive down inflation, but we'll have to lower rates when the recession deepens into depression, which will once again feed inflation. Hunger pangs tend to trump the imperial ambitions of our leaders. And have you wondered what happens if Putin just decides f--k it all and hits the button? You people live in a fairy land. Again, you can't have both: Putin is so insane and so dastardly that we must involve him in a quagmire in Ukraine to "teach him a lesson" (as if the US is in any position to take the moral high ground in "lesson teaching") and Putin is not so insane and so dastardly to take the rest of the world with him by resorting to nuclear war. I wonder how your brains work. And I see you still haven't read the article, or this would be a much different conversation.
If Putin hits the button, he dies. The man is many things, but suicidal isn't one of them. He doesn't want to see Moscow turned into a smoking crater by nuclear war.
Europe is about to pay for handing their energy policy over to Greta Thunberg, but the US and Canada will be mostly insulated from that. There will be a small recession in North America but nothing severe enough to drop interest rates back down and restart inflation.
Russia is feeling more pain than the West, by far. 80,000 dead Russian soldiers and counting, and calling in the draft will hurt their economy massively. Have you seen how many Russians are fleeing the country?
Also, we didn't "involve" Putin in Ukraine. He chose to invade; we're just helping make it a quagmire instead of an easy win.