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Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

China doesn't want alliances, it wants 'tribute', indebted countries, and vassal states. Russia is fooling itself if it thinks it has a strategic alliance with China. I would not be surprised if the Russian parts of Manchuria are taken back by China within the next 30-50 years.

So what? The BRICS countries are a thing, even if they do not trust each other.

Biden already repels Saudi Arabia, too:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/saudi-congre...

"Over the weekend, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on a visit to Riyadh, said that MBS had expressed interest in joining the BRICS nations, an economic bloc of major emerging economies including Russia."

That may be a false pre-election leak, but the current U.S. policy of repelling every country on the planet and treating Europe as vassals will backfire eventually.

> That may be a false pre-election leak, but the current U.S. policy of repelling every country on the planet and treating Europe as vassals will backfire eventually.

I live in a European country. While I love to shit on the US as much as anybody else, I'm wondering what you mean by European countries being US vassals. This sounds like Kremlin bullshit.

Also, I get frustrated when people make vague, unsubstantiated claims like that.

Ties with Russia were growing until they decided to start annexing other countries. You can’t cozy up to someone who is literally annexing their neighbors. Germany is finding this out the hard way.

> America badly flubbed its Russia-handling strategy in the last decade with the unreasoning anti-Russia rhetoric in an attempt to get Trump.

This is motivated thinking that doesn't match the actual timeline.

Russian expansionism - taking part of Georgia in 2008, parts of Ukraine in 2014 - significantly predates Trump's candidacy. Mitt Romney was, to his credit, warning about Russia in his debates versus Obama in 2012, as well.

Yeah all the mocking Mitt received from the correct answer was strange.

Russia shot down a plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17 and used lethal chemical weapons in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Sergei_and_Yulia_... ; the problems go further back than the election of Trump.

There was also the Russian spy in the NRA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Butina

> There was no strategic reason we couldn't have made friends with the Russians

This would cost a lot of Ukranian lives.

> The Saudis are much worse, and they are #1 allies.

This is also a serious problem, and plays out in the same way as the problems with Russia: petro-dollars funding Western political corruption to look the other way.

Not everything is about Trump. The annexation of Crimea was the nail in the coffin for a Russo-American friendship.

Stupid for who?

US leadership. They've got the most influence here on what Russia does, outside of what Russia itself.

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