Russia will not invade. a) Putin is a player (and hopefully we all know that by now). b) Russia wants to make absolutely clear, how serious it is to them to not have Ukraine joining NATO. c) With Krim / Donbass there are two border strips, that could make problems in future. Putin knows that and fears, that a small battle there could lead to a fight with NATO in future, if Ukraine joins in.
Stock futures jump on report that Russia is returning some troops to bases https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/14/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Ah, some typical Russian logic right here. You have to love Russia even if Russia treats you like trash, as it does with almost all neighbouring countries. Objectively expressing why you don't want anything to do with Russia because you're focused on the future, not the past as Russia is backwards in almost every way compared to west, you get called "anti-Russia", "russophobic", "fascist" or any variation of it. The only solution for the west is complete economic blockade of Russia. Russia doesn't have a chip sector for example, they need foreign help with that. What's keeping Russia afloat now is oilgas money and eliminating this source will help a great deal. Throughout history Russia is simply desperate to conquer more land. But the ability to govern the land effectively is nonexistent, thus most Russian cities look like war zones and people's only focus is to escape.
I think you got it backwards. Russia is Israel. Ever expansive, legal basis irrelevant as is international condemnation. Israeli religious zealots simply moving into Palestinian land and starting setting up communities for themselves is not different from Russians going to Ukraine and claiming that "Ukraine is illegitimate".
Bruh, the US stopped giving a shit about Russia since Gorbachev. The only reason we still give that shithole the time of day is because of these attention whore acts by Putin
Regarding trade, we may not care. Regarding military might, we'd be clowns not to care. The simple fact is an Alpha nation cares about the nations trying to become Alpha nations. This should be obvious. You don't ignore your enemies who are trying to out-technology and out-gun you.
The point is we don't care enough to puppeteer "proxies" as this dude accuses the US of doing. It's asinine to think a country wouldn't want to detach from crumbling Russia out of its own free will. The cold war is over and done with. We care to keep rabid dogs caged and our neighbors to ensure said cage stays closed (NATO). You still don't care enough to give rabid dogs much thought in your day to day life do you?