Luckily for Kiev, however, some NATO and EU countries have preserved the old Soviet-era legacy, above all Bulgaria with its Arsenal, VMZ, Arcus and Emco factories. Sofia has for many years been supplying Soviet-designed weapons to African and Arab countries. Some of these weapons were even sent to anti-government militant groups in Syria.
Two weeks have changed the course of world history. There’s been over $100 billion worth of damage and counting – in Ukraine alone. Around the world, there’s been mayhem in the stock markets as energy and global supply chains are disrupted. A new global system is emerging, with geopolitical realignments that will have repercussions for decades to come.
SCOTT RITTER—The issue isn’t just qualitative, but also quantitative – even if the US military could stand toe-to-toe with a Russian adversary (which it can’t), it simply lacks the size to survive in any sustained battle or campaign. The low-intensity conflict that the US military waged in Iraq and Afghanistan has created an organizational ethos built around the idea that every American life is precious, and that all efforts will be made to evacuate the wounded so that they can receive life-saving medical attention in as short a timeframe as possible. This concept may have been viable where the US was in control of the environment in which fights were conducted. It is, however, pure fiction in large-scale combined arms warfare. There won’t be medical evacuation helicopters flying to the rescue – even if they launched, they would be shot down. There won’t be field ambulances – even if they arrived on the scene, they would be destroyed in short order. There won’t be field hospitals – even if they were established, they would be captured by Russian mobile forces.
DMITRY ORLOV—This speech came soon after a televised session of Russia’s Security Council at which all of the key ministers spoke and all of them spoke in favor of giving recognition to Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Prime Minster Mishustin said that they have been preparing for the inevitable fallout for some time and are ready for it, so let’s just do it. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, when asked whether it would be worthwhile to continue negotiations with the West over the Ukraine said that it is “a matter of taste” but that nothing would ever come of them. And Defense Minister Shoigu simply said, very quietly: “Let’s go ahead. Let’s do it.” The answer as to why Russia waited for so long to take this step is that it hadn’t been ready: the Russian economy hadn’t yet been bulletproofed against all possible sanctions; not all diplomatic methods of resolving the problem had been tried; and the military wasn’t quite ready to deal with the situation swiftly and efficiently.
XIA WENXIN—In fact, the US media coverage of the Winter Olympics has long strayed from the sports event itself. Judging from how they cover Gu’s story, it is evident they question or even deny an individual’s personal choices from a geopolitical perspective. Such a mistaken way of thinking has made US news reports biased.
For some US elites, Gu’s mistake is that she chose China, a country that is nothing but a “parvenu” in their eyes. Therefore, they cannot imagine or understand why people like Gu would “betray” the world’s greatest power.