Writing for Asia Times, a paper based in Hong Kong, Renaud Foucart makes an interesting argument. It is his contention that Russia can neither afford to win nor to lose the war in Ukraine.
A British economist, Foucart argues that Russia is too poor to afford the cost of rebuilding Ukraine if they win, and are likely to disintegrate if they lose. The only thing they can afford to do is continue the war.
The problem I have with his argument is that a winning Russia might choose to not rebuild Ukraine. They might leave it in a shambles as an object lesson for any others who might consider fighting Russia.
The holodomor - a man-made famine Russia caused in Ukraine - suggests failure-to-rebuild is a genocide-lite option Russia might implement. Russian values, after all, are not first-world, European values.
