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Comment by xianwen | Hacker News Reader

I wonder whether Russia will be as isolated as North Korea.

That type of repression isn’t possible in Russia. It requires a cult and people who haven’t heard of the free world for a generation.

It can be as isolated as Iran however, which is pretty remarkable considering how close the now prosperous St Petersburg is to Helsinki and Tallinn. The contrast from today to a year from now will be extreme.

It's difficult to overstate just how big of a turning point this is for the world, especially Europe, because I can't see how Russia returns to anything like normal relations in the foreseeable future. There's no way they leave Ukraine entirely, and therefore the sanctions will remain indefinitely.

Europe is still heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas, but this is clearly untenable. If and when that business dries up, they will be truly isolated from the west.

> they will be truly isolated from the west

Or they will simply use China as a middleman for whatever products they want from the West (that China doesn't already make).

It's extremely difficult to actually harm Russia in the long term thanks to China.

I think you're half right: China will allow Russia to circumvent trade sanctions, like they do with North Korea. But, like any irreplaceable middleman, China will extract as much as they can from Russia in the process. China loses a powerful ally, gains a loyal vassal state, and Russia loses its political power. All in all, not a terrible outcome for the West.

I don't think China will be quick to help them evade sanctions. There will certainly be some of that, but Chinese banks are already cutting ties with Russian businesses for fear of secondary sanctions.

Yeah, it was a massive, massive disaster. The expenses associated with the new (hopefully) cold war will make europe weak and irrelevant on the global stage. That includes Russia. And what was this all for?

Can't North Koreans freely travel to and from China?

> Can't North Koreans freely travel to and from China?

Of course not, NK is an open air prison for its nationals.

Yup, China literally built a wall to prevent North Koreans from entering China.

Many thousands of north koreans still work abroad every year. Hard to keep an entire population completely isolated from the world when you have thousands constantly travelling abroad.

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