High-level meetings, like the one with #Trump in #Alaska, were meant to symbolize this ambition. #Lavrov even arrived there wearing a sweatshirt with the inscription #CCCP.

But, as #Jeremy_Shapiro, director of research and the #US program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, writes in #The_Atlantic, summits and symbolism do not make a country a superpower Real power is needed for that.

The war in #Ukraine, from #Putin's perspective, was supposed to demonstrate #Russia's might, but instead became a display of its decline — not a revival, but national self-destruction.

#Russia has invested enormous resources, people, and political will into aggression against a neighbouring country. But even if it manages to secure the captured territories and exclude #Ukraine from #NATO, #Moscow will only achieve a #Pyrrhic_victory: #Russia's future is destroyed for a few ruined square kms.

In other words, #Russia is effectively losing the war — not to #Ukraine, but to the rest of the world.

Whatever the outcome, #Ukraine will remain an armed and hostile neighbour to #Russia. #Europe will reject #Russian goods and build energy systems without #Gazprom.

The #Russian army, having lost equipment and its best personnel, will become dependent on foreign suppliers. Recovery will take years and billions, and the "achievements" in drone warfare will be outdated by then.

In the South Caucasus, Moscow's influence has also vanished. Armenia, which relied on Russian guarantees for many years, has suffered defeat twice in recent years by Azerbaijan, and today, peace talks are led by the USA.

The only real "success" of the Kremlin is uniting Europe against it. NATO has expanded with Finland and Sweden, and countries have increased their military budgets. By sacrificing young people in Donbas, Russia has effectively helped Europe strengthen its defence.

🇷🇺 Russia's economy increasingly resembles the stagnant Soviet model
Factories produce shells and missiles while the rest of the world invests in artificial intelligence, green energy, and microchips. Russia has built a "serf economy," protected more from the future than from enemies.

🇨🇳 The defeat is most clearly seen in relations with China
Russia is depleting its stock of precision weapons and increasingly depends on Chinese components and loans.

China buys up to 40% of Russian energy resources at discounted prices, turning Moscow into a junior partner. For Xi Jinping, the war has become a profitable deal; for Putin, a trap.

Instead of an imperial revival, Russia has received: a hostile Ukraine, a united Europe, a ruined economy, a weakened army, lost global standing, and dependence on Beijing. This is not a victory but self-destruction.

That is why the Kremlin is in no hurry to end the war: a peace agreement would show not defeat

on the front but a lack of strategy. Russia finds itself in a position where it can neither win the war nor afford to lose it.

By destroying Pokrovsk in Donbas, Moscow proved not its strength but its senselessness. The imperial destiny has not returned. Only the capacity for destruction remains — the only thing Russian foreign policy can offer today.

#аналитика

#ukraine #putinisamasskiller #putinisawarcriminal @kardinal691