>>518682039
>The truth is that territorial concessions from Ukraine are not a Russian victory.
Are you sure about that?
>If the price for some depopulated territory is your global standing, a few million men, your currency being so valueless you trade in Chinese Yuan, the entirety of your oil and gas infrastructure, your stockpile of military surplus you've spent the last sixty years building, then can you really say it was worth it?
Russia doesn't care about half of that shit, and the other half can be rebuilt at a profit, at least for Putin and his oil baron buddies.
>Russia could have just bought that land and used soft power to influence things, but Russia couldn't outbid NATO,
NATO will have to make do with exploiting what's left of west Ukraine for loans and development firms. But then that was always the plan.
>But yes, they took some land they can exploit for resources; resourced that they will sell to China for less than what it cost to dig it up
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Donbas will be flooded with chechens, turks, and indians that pay half their annual wages for their visa papers. It'll be easy money.