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If Putin doesn't care about the opinion of his own voters, the whining of the Western world wont matter (China, Iran, Venzuela and others are not against Russia).

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But don't you think in a protracted conflict some power is bound to get involved, triggering an escalation? With each day, week and month the chances of this increase.

It's one thing for Putin to get it done in a week or so. Even then, how does he plan to hold his puppet government in Kiev?

I wish I could be as optimistic as you are about that but looking at Georgia, Belarus, and other recent historical examples makes that hard. China, Russia, and Iran (with hangers-on like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, et al) have been working hard at building an alternate global trade and financial system for more than a decade now, precisely to remove what little socio-economic leverage the west had. And, it's stil winter in Europe. The Germans and French need to heat their homes, which currently depends on Russian gas.

Also keep in mind that China is working towards this same "resolution" with Taiwan. It's in their interest for Russia to succeed here.

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