UK faces the biggest hit to growth of all major economies thanks to the Iran War.

@ArishMell
This is good news. I will celebrate.

Did you know also you are being dragged down by funding war in Ukraine? And goading Putin every day. What if he were not so restrained?

@emiliya I was puzzled at first by your response then remembered you are Russian and very pro-Putin, but at least you do give us the Russian line on things....

@ArishMell What are you going to do about your energy woes?

@emiliya We will have to manage the best we can, just as any country facing the same problem will.

@ArishMell It is a problem you don't need to face. You should swallow your pride and say I will take cheap Russian gas, I will do what makes sense. And I will do it as a buyer, not a thief.

@ArishMell The long game you are playing is not working and it will have to be on Russia's terms.

@emiliya What "long game", and what has to be dictated by Russia?

The OP is about Israel's and the USA's war with Iran - though I know Iran is an ally of Russia.

@emiliya The long game is being played by Xi, he is the puppeteer.
Look at his BRICS Nations.

@peterlee I agree.

The People's Republic of China does have the advantage of being able to plan years, even decades, ahead, thanks to being a single-party totalitarian state designed for long-term continuity.

Similarly with some other nations that also do not trouble themselves with democracy and such notionn as offering any choice to their citizens.


Such as the Middle Eastern theocracies, albeit under very different ideology that would be anathema to the Communists - as the Uyghurs in China know only too well.

So too, North Korea as long as its Kim dynasty lasts - this peculiar ruling family even coined the term "Kimilism" for its odd cross between ancient kingly absolutism and hard-line Stalinist-style Communism. Both extremist strains are as much personality cults as tyrannical bureaucracies.

Russia and Belorus seem to differ from those in not appearing to have any long-term continuity aim. They are run by and for Presidents Putin and his pal Lukushenko respectively; so what will happen when they die or become too infirm to run the place, is anyone's guess. Military dictatorships, perhaps?


On the other hand China selects its Presidents nominally for life but more or less just caretakers of The System. Iran is similar although using a hard-line cleric rather than secular bureaucrat. Both know rulers are not immortal, whether they die naturally or by military attack; and they plan for it.


So yes, President Xi is indeed playing a long game, but I think he is as much, or more, an apparatchik of the system as a ruler of it; a figure-head rather than absolute emperor.

China is the world's second-largest economy and although its progress has apparently slowed in recent years - which might be a perfectly natural feature of such development rather than anything to worry it - it is so far on course to be Top Dog. Maybe not for a couple of decades yet, maybe even longer than that, but her government has the system, the ability and the patience to gain that.

@ArishMell The long game is you thinking that you can one day topple Russia. That is what Ukraine is about. Russia is busy fighting for its survival which is why you can't see an end game. To keep the mitts of EU and USA off Russia is the point.

What we know about China is that they want you to keep buying their goods. China is a business. Why do you think it is something else? Because it's a business that wants you to mind your business? Minding your business isn't what you do. You and @peterlee are here talking about everybody else but you. You should be doing something about your problems. Trump would have done better had he thought about US. But he can't begin to grapple with the problems of US and spends his time bombing with Israel and making a ruckus among the nations of the world. You are no better than he because that is what you do in EU and UK. Would Ukraine be able to war without you? And will you allow peace deal? Europe is why there is no peace deal. Don't come here complaining about Trump when you beat the war drum. A different war drum is still a war drum.

Those with sense won't let you forget.

@emiliya whgo wants Russia toppled? Ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin thinks everyone is out to get him, but whilst there are plenty in the world including no doubt many Russians who would be glad to see his regime end, no-one wants the country destroyed.

No-one wants to do to Russia, the nation, your home, what Russia's government is tryingto to to Ukraine, or Israel and Iran are trying to do to each other, or the USA is attempting to do to Iran.

Oh, and whenn you use the metaphor, be careful for your sake that you are not seen by your country's authorities as describing your government's attempted destruction of Ukraine as a war. It is officially a "special military operation" - and it is highly illgeal to question it, or to call it an invation or a war.

(That warning is if you are writing as a private citizen of your beloved Russia, not in an official capacity as a Kremlin press-office staff-member.)


As for minding our own nation's business, that's what Putin should be doing too, but sadly many wars do affect far many more countries and people than merely the combatant forces units.

@emiliya
There wouldn't be a war in Ukraine if Putin hadn't invaded a sovereign country. 'We' (I assume you mean the UK) want peace immediately, but Putin's bombs keep falling, so there is none. Bullies are running rampant at the moment.