By Monica Showalter
[Am Thinker] As bad as Joe Biden and his wretched allies in Europe are, they aren't anywhere near the level of trouble that Vladimir Putin is, as the latter's war on Ukraine drags on with no results.
Not only has Putin has not won his war, but he is now in hock to China, as another Chinese puppet-string actor, which is a wretched booby prize. China's help is likely to provide some comfort to Putin's economy in Russia for now, but it leaves Putin in roughly the same position as Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, who stays in power only due to Russia's patronage.
Richard Fernandez, via Twitter, has some observations:
which I reformat slightly because I don't like the twitter quote thing- What am I getting wrong? By starting the war Putin lost the gas sale of the century, ruined this year's wheat harvest and is in hock to China. Where's he making it back?
- It seems inescapable that, by going to war, Putin has undermined the system of oligarchs and strongmen of which he occupies the apex. From now on, the Chinese ambassador is the second most important man in Moscow. The longer the war the bigger he gets.
Unless now Putin's the second most important man in Moscow, that's usually how the patronage game works.
- As every bum knows, when you have to cadge drinks and mooch meals, you can pretend to be the big man but who are you kidding?
My thought: The old Soviet Union had the tripod of the Party, the Military, and the KGB/whatever they are this week, which was stable. Modern Russia just has Putin, which isn't a tripod.
Putin's the bum in that one, because he's bumming favors off China — finance, wheat-buying, oil- and coal-buying, internet, help on bank and financial transactions.
Putin threw it all on the table when he opted to invade Ukraine, and he's losing his shirt. Russia's economy is ruined when it could have been so good what with all those gas sales.
And even with scorched-earth warfare, redolent of how he flattened Chechnya, he still doesn't have Ukraine in pocket.
He made a bad bet and won't be able to unwind it without some stunning fumbling from the West or Ukraine, which could happen but most likely won't, given that the Europeans are getting pretty canny about how to move.
I have my doubts about the last bit. Anyway... there's more formatting, go there if you want to read the rest. 
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