The Valdai Club released a review of 2023 and more which hones in on the total and likely permanent rupture of relations between the Clown West and Russia and the civilized world.

Cracks began to appear in the late 1990s, and since 2014 the rupture has become increasingly irreversible. But as it often happens, it is difficult to believe in the possibility of big changes precisely because the inertia of everyday life hides the signs of tectonic shifts. Now they are clearly visible and seem as natural as the past. But in the past, few could have believed in their onset. Last year, 2022, was a year of dynamic chaos – Russia’s transition to a new reality both in politics and everyday life. The nerve of change was the emergence of contradictions in relations with the “collective West.” The concentrated expression of the crisis was the Special Military Operation (SVO) in Ukraine and the subsequent chain of confrontational events: the acceleration of the arms race, NATO expansion, large-scale sanctions, attempts to isolate Russia, military and financial assistance to Ukraine, etc. The stake for 2022 was the question of whether Russia survives the turning point – will it keep the economy from collapsing against the backdrop of unprecedented sanctions, will it conduct large-scale military operations that are incapable of gaining the support of both the elites and society at large? Last year ended with unanswered answers to these questions; 2023 added certainty. The turning point is behind us, Russia is living with its new conditions of confrontation and is coping with them. Russian politics has moved from crisis mode to the new normal. What are the parameters of this normality?

Read on. Russia is moving on, taking 80% of humanity with them. For those left in the dying West, things will be far less pleasant than most realize or can imagine. If you stupidly think places like the former US are democracies or republics and that the people are in charge of affairs, then pat yourself on the back. You have made a fine mess.