“Russia has DEFEATED the Western SANCTIONS regime”

… is now abundantly clear

… was intended to cripple its economy and force its withdrawal from Ukraine

… Russia’s GDP grew by an impressive 5.5% in the third quarter of 2023

… for all of 2023 should exceed 3%

… the U.S. economy grew by 2.4%

… the German economy shrank

… the EU as a whole grew by less than 1%

… Russia has increased the size of its invasion force

… from 190,000 troops in February 2022 to more than 600,000 today

… Western countries imposed on Russia the most extensive sanctions regime seen since World War II

… only a mild recession in 2022 which the Russians quickly turned around

… How did they do it? … The Russians have a lot of gold, grain, oil, and friends

… Any realistic war game could have easily predicted all of this

… March of 2022, G7 member states froze $300 billion in Russian Central Bank reserves

… half of Russia’s foreign currency reserves

… supposed to “turn the ruble into rubble.” It did not

… Russian Central bank moved very quickly to peg the ruble to gold

… backed this up with its massive gold reserves and production capacity

… Russia began to shift its energy trade toward China and India by offering discounts

… Today, 90 percent of its crude oil exports go to these two nations

… Russia currently exports 7.5 million barrels of oil per day

… only slightly less than Saudi Arabia

… Russia remains the world’s largest producer of natural diamonds

… the world’s largest wheat exporter

… Russia’s share of global wheat exports actually increased over the past two years

… just had another bumper grain harvest

… NATO’s wonder-weapons … failed to fuel an effective Ukrainian counter-offensive

… Russia, which is busy reviewing numerous applications to join it in the BRICS organization

… Economic warfare has been a bust

… Russian Central Bank assets … are now proposing that these assets should be confiscated and handed over to Ukraine

… that is a very dumb idea

… would encourage just about everyone to find an alternative to the dollar as their reserve currency

… if the alternative is losing all your money if you annoy Washington, people will find a way

… Nothing would do more to unite the Russian people in their hatred of the West

… support for President Vladimir Putin

… determination to continue the war than stealing what they consider to be their money;

which, in fact, it is

… how do you think Putin would react?

… he will confiscate all Western assets in Russia

… Is the U.S. Treasury prepared to compensate the mostly German owners of those assets for their losses?

… Economic sanctions have certainly not changed the outcome in Ukraine

… Kyiv is out of men, out of money, out of artillery shells and out of time