I think the Russians ' Grossly ' understate the ability of the West to ' Choke ' their Economy off over the longer haul.
And just looking at some of the numbers , it almost becomes a joke when you measure up not just the comparable Military spend of just the US , but also the absolute power of Wall Street and the ' Mighty ' US Dollar whom everyone in any international project not only want but has to have on its books.
So looking at just some of the straight up numbers. The US had a total combine Defense Budget of US$ 753.5 Billion in 2021 verses approximately US$62 Billion for Russia and US$210 Billion for China.
The US FED still has a US$9 Trillion dollar Balance Sheet to do with what is wishes and when verses a total Russian GDP of ONLY around US$1.7 Trillion - and which is only a around US$100 Billion more than Canada's at US$1.67 Trillion and only a few hundred billion US dollars over Australia's at US$1.37 Trillion recorded in 2021........with the U.K's coming in at over US$ 2 Trillion and Germany's over US$4.2 Trillion. France was another US$2.9 Trillion , and Italy was around $US 1.9 Trillion .
The number ONE , TWO , and THREE world ranked GDP's squared off with the US at $23 Trillion v China at US$18.2 Trillion , and Japan just hanging onto third at US $5.2 Trillion.
So that's the overall quick look at the comparable GDP's where you can see the West is overwhelmingly superior.
Looking at the US dollar relationship - particularly against the Russian ruble , the ruble has given up approximately 14.7% since 26th October with more than half of that being surrendered since only the 8th February to now.
So they may have the superior troop strength to mount an invasion of the Ukraine which will come with their own significant human casualties - But i don;t reckon that have the ability or the stomach to last a prolonged economic strangulation of their Economy.
Reminds me of one of the Rocky Movies where Rocky ends up giving the BIG Russian a good ole fashioned ' Arse Whooping ' ......
(20min delay)