about team work, it s about trust and building cohesive units. and none of that is going to happen with these russian new recruits. they will be thrown into the line as fillers for units that have been decimated and lost their commanders. so yeah, if they re attacked, they will probably shoot back initially to defend themselves. but a cohesive force, not going to happen in the near term. and wes, what should we make of putin s nuclear threats? they do seem to be having some effect. for example, this one person, donald trump, is saying if we don t have a negotiated peace between ukraine and russia, we re going to have world war iii. that s the spector that putin is raising by talking about nuclear weapons. i think that s right. the russians have spent 60 years trying to instill a fear of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the west. and they ve done this as recently as in august. when putin said no one could win
to germany, a country he thinks he knows very well because of his years serve thing in the kgb. but germany has not given in. confronted with these massive challenges, it has patiently sought to diversify away from dependance on russia, investing in green technology, buying liquefied natural gas, reopening coal fired plants and keeping two of its last three nuclear power plants open longer than planned. the european union suggested a 15% reduction in the use of natural gas this winter. germany is trying to achieve 20% cut just to be safe. initially, sholz was regarded as a lightweight, but angela merkel herself was seen similarly when she came power. over time, she gained the respect from all corners. when russia invaded ukraine in
are struggling around the globe and russia is already getting a billion dollars every few days in oil and gas revenues, why did opec slash production? everything has a price. we will explain. but first, here s my take. one of the few issues on which there is a consensus in washington, d.c. is that american policy toward china was built on an intellectual tariff. liberals and conservatives both believe that beijing s embrace of free markets and integration with the global market would fundamentally change china. but they didn t, so the consensus goes, we should recognize this was a naive belief. in fact, viewing china on the eve of the 20th party congress, i m struck by how little that line of analysis captures what has happened in china over the
explosion? i think it s very significant psychologically and politically. i think in terms of the military impact of it, it s too early to know. it s these a marginal impact, but certainly not a significant blow to what russia is doing in ukraine. not yet. it will be the subject, no doubt, of continuing efforts by the ukrainians. so if you look at the northeast, you know, the russian position seems to have collapsed. the ukrainians are just moving forward slowly but steadily. the real fight is in and around kherson. what is the ukrainian objective there, and why is it so important? well, kherson, if you can take it, it eliminates the russian bridge head on the west bank of the river there. and that stops the threat or at least reduces the threat to odesa. it gives more access to the
views it as a threat and shuts it down. at the heart of xi jinping s world view is his horror regarding the demise of soviet communism. xi has expressed the view that this happened because the communist party leaders lost faith in their ideology. he sees mikhail gorbachev as a foolish reformer. the lesson double down on lennonist party control. in the conditions of a totalitarian state, the changes produced by economic growth lead to the need for more and more repression, producing in china, and i would add russia, a reversion to neo-stalinism. putin and xi are similar in recognizing that too much contact in commerce with the west can undermine their power, inspiring them to make their countries less dependant on the west and to consolidate their