Updated 2 years ago
Of course, Ukraine will join NATO. It has to join to secure its borders to attract investment to rebuild.
But that is only the very beginning.
Byelorussia is next, then Chechnya and Dagestan. South Ossetia will be returned to Georgia. Karelia will return to Finland. Kaliningrad will become a modern incarnation of Prussia. Japan will reclaim the Kuril Islands. Pieces here and there will keep flying off like an old jalopy.
The nuclear stockpile will be sold piecemeal by local officials to Western countries, and after much of the proceeds are stolen, a small percentage of the proceeds will help jumpstart their economies.
Like England and *all* other expansionary empires, and for the same reasons, Russia will more or less always exist, as reflected in modern times as a stripped-down ethnic nation-state, but without its past imperial possessions. It is not special.
History will look back on Putin as the primary driver who accelerated this process.
And afterward, like a phoenix from the ashes, freed of its authoritarian shackles and corruption, Russia will slowly rise again, economically and culturally, the very last Eurasian tiger, finally fulfilling the hopes of the early 20th century.
And the icing on the cake – Siberia, in a warming climate, will become a vacation paradise. Yes, that is how long this will all take.
