I think we can do away with accusing each other of "putting words in our fingers." I'm not running against you for Congress ;)

I thought our discussion was on Russia's future in the war? "virtually no possibility" has no place in predicting anything, war especially. Sorry. But yes I agree with you, it appears there is no possibility from a military viewpoint.

Profit is a complex topic A mafia can make a great profit, but it has money laundering costs which can make it no profit. An oil company in Russia cannot compete long term with an oil company that doesn't have to launder money. As for their financial transaction system. I work in finance. "saving money" has nothing to do with it financial exchange networks. You can continue to disagree or not.

I couldn't agree with you more, that the war with Russia is killing the planet and is causing needless pain for everyone. I believe it could have been avoided. I wrote on this BEFORE the war that the West was not taking the massing of troops seriously, that is, there was something Russia was very upset about. I didn't believe Russia would invade. It was a stupid move. But we all do stupid things. I lost $5K in a Russian ETF so I "feel" your pain too.

All that said, we are where we are. The Putin regime will fall, no one will get me, the little guy, his $5K back. They will re-purchase those assets for pennies on the dollar. World ain't fair ;)