vadimivich
Well-known member
Back when our country leveraged its instruments of power, we used to have the ability to economically isolate international actors who acted against our interests.
We have far more of that ability now than we had then, thanks to the globalization of the world economy and the centralization of banking in a few major western cities. We're able to put the squeeze on Russia far more now than we ever were on the Soviet Union in that manner.
Still - the reality is that trying to force a nation of 150 million people who are sitting on an incomprehensible pile of natural resources and occupy 1/8th of the world's land, all while possessing the 2nd largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world to do anything they don't feel like is really basically impossible.
In short, Russia is leveraging their instruments of power. And while they aren't quite as powerful as the US's, they are fucking enormous. Russia's oil and gas wealth alone makes them a big swinging dick at the table, but combined with a stockpile of ballistic missiles it pretty much makes them largely immune.