Russia's special military operation against Ukraine has been going on for more than 40 days. The United States has led Western countries in launching rounds of sanctions against Russia, and the contents of the sanctions are all kinds of strange. It was almost crazy in the end, but Russia did not give in at all. Who gave Russia the courage to confront the entire Western countries?
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the world has changed to a dizzying degree. As a country, Ukraine’s words and promises are more casual than a child’s, which is shocking. But any normal person can see that this is not just a contest between Russia and Ukraine, but a contest between Russia and the United States and a number of Western countries.
On the side of the United States is almost the most developed and richest country in the world. The NATO organization they established is currently the largest military group in the world. The Group of 7 accounts for more than 60% of the world's wealth. Not to mention the entire NATO and the Group of 7, one of them, the United States, far surpasses Russia in terms of military and economic strength. But Russia has no fear because Russia is not isolated.
Today's Russia was born out of the former Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the original republics became independent. These newly independent countries formed a loose organization - the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia and Ukraine are both members of this organization. As the situation changes, Russia and Ukraine are now at war with each other, but the relationship between other CIS countries and Russia has not deteriorated. Among them, Belarus and Kazakhstan have closer ties with Russia.
In this conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Belarus clearly stands on the side of Russia. Although Belarus has a land area of less than 210,000 square kilometers and an army of less than 70,000 people, Belarus is a strong barrier to Russia in front of NATO. Don't underestimate Belarus. Its army was also part of the Soviet Red Army before. It is well-equipped and can quickly expand to 500,000 troops in wartime. It is very powerful.
NATO is too easy to provoke Belarus, because no country within NATO dares to compete with Belarus except the United States, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. Kazakhstan is a large country with a land area of 2.7 million square kilometers and a population of 20 million. Needless to say, the military strength of the republics also comes from the former Soviet Union. If it had not taken the initiative to abandon nuclear weapons, it would have become the fourth nuclear power after Russia, the United States and Ukraine, and the number of nuclear bombs it possesses far exceeds that of the five permanent members except the United States. The other three established nuclear powers besides Russia. It is conceivable that Kazakhstan's conventional military strength will not be that weak. At the same time, Kazakhstan is also a country rich in resources. Oil and natural gas are the mainstay of the country's economy.
In the thirty years since its independence, Kazakhstan has been developing in a low-key manner, and the current economic situation is still very good. Think about it, countries that also rely on selling oil and natural gas will not be too poor. And judging from the UN General Assembly vote on sanctions against Russia, the number of countries that voted in favor of the United States was about the same as the number of countries that abstained and voted against. This means that nearly half of the countries are not on the side of the United States, including large countries like India.
Not only that, the United States has not obtained unanimous recognition from the three most important permanent members of the Security Council except Russia. This shows that many countries see the underlying causes of the conflict in dealing with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and thus do not agree with the US approach. However, even if other countries do not agree with the actions of the United States and Western allies, they have not clearly expressed support for Russia's military actions in Ukraine. Why do the two small countries of Belarus and Kazakhstan support Russia so clearly and firmly?
Belarus and Russia have been merged together during the Tsarist Russia. They are both Slavs and believe in the Orthodox Church. There are no differences in race or religious beliefs, and there are no grudges in history.Nowadays, many Belarusians in Belarus can speak Russian, and they have a very strong sense of identification with Russia. The economic development of the former independent republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union was not very good, and Belarus and Kazakhstan are no exception.
Belarus is too small and Kazakhstan is large but a landlocked country. Russia selflessly helped these two countries even though its own economic development was also very difficult. In order to help Kazakhstan develop its economy, it lent its port to Kazakhstan to export oil and natural gas. It did not make things difficult for Kazakhstan because it was also an energy exporting country. These two countries also reciprocated and stepped forward in Russia's most difficult moments.
In addition to these two firm allies, Russia itself also has the capital to fight against Western countries led by the United States. Russia has the most extensive territory in the world. In addition to being rich in food crops such as wheat and wheat, it is also rich in oil and natural gas resources. Russia, which has these resources, is not afraid of sanctions from Western countries at all. At present, 60% of Western Europe's energy comes from Russia. Just a few days after the sanctions banning Russian energy exports were implemented, Western Europe itself cannot bear it. Although Russia's economy is in recession and there is a big gap between its economic scale and the other two big countries, it still ranks 11th in the world. The gap between Canada and South Korea, which ranks 9th and 10th, is not. big.
Russia has always given people the illusion that Russia's economy is very poor, especially this year when South Korea's economic aggregate surpassed it. In fact, Russia's economy is not as bad as people think. Although Russia has a huge land area, its total population is about the same as Japan's, with only over 100 million people. If it were not subject to perennial containment and sanctions from Western countries, Russia's economic development would be very good, because Russia is an industrial country, although its industry has already It is behind the times, but it is still different from the pure oil exporting countries of and in the Middle East.
We have always thought that the GDP of Saudi Arabia, which is very rich, is only ranked 18th, with a scale of approximately US$833.5 billion. In other words, we believe that the economy of very wealthy Saudi Arabia is not as large as the U.S. military spending next year. Therefore, Russia's economy is not as bad as people think, it just does not develop as well as the other two big countries.
Having firm allies and having food and energy in its hands gives Russia the confidence to directly confront the Western camp. What's more, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia also received an unlimited commitment from a major country to cooperate, and immediately announced to the world that it would open all Russian wheat imports. With this support Russia is certainly not afraid of the West.
