Quote Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish View Post
Everyone says 'stand up' to Putin, 'be firm', but the harsh reality is that cutting off wealthy Russians from their foreign wealth & assets wouldn't bother Putin 1 bit. Also the pipeline is crucial to Germany and if it is stopped/cut off, Putin has now even bigger markets in China for his gas. And China is the key. There's a 100 years of pent up resentment against the West and China is now in a position to throw it's weight around in a more public, direct manner. Depending on the West's response to any invasion of Ukraine, China will judge when and how to do the same to Taiwan. And because of China, Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine until after the end of the winter olympics, ie Wednesday.
If China sides with Russia and then looks to expand ( they seem to have issues with borders anyway ) then it would be great to see the world shun them, our dependance of China for stuff is not a good place for the world to be, how we ( the rest of the world ) let ourselves get in this situation baffles me