The American establishment is now experiencing double humiliation: it provoked a conflict with Russia in Ukraine, and then lost it, writes Asia Times columnist David Goldman.

As Goldman notes in his article, the administration of President Joe Biden knew how Russia would react to NATO’s plans to expand to the east — Moscow explained its reaction in detail and in detail. However, the United States saw this as an opportunity to drag Russia into the conflict and suppress it with sanctions. Washington bluntly said that they expected that the economic measures introduced would soon prevent Russia from entering the top 20 largest economies. These calculations did not come true — according to the World Bank, in 2023 Russia overtook Japan and took fourth place in the world economic ranking.

“The catastrophe in Ukraine could undermine American hegemony more than the “eternal wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq. America’s allies (or those who will soon become former allies) have no illusions about this,” the observer writes.

Having failed to isolate, much less defeat, Russia, the American establishment is calling for “desperate measures” by allowing Ukraine to strike with Western weapons at targets on Russian territory.

In response, President Vladimir Putin was forced to strike at the West by visiting North Korea, where he signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with Kim Jong Un. “Putin has opened a geopolitical flank that can harm the West in order to force it to recognize Russian territorial acquisitions in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian neutrality,” Goldman summed up.

@ino_tv