Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko commented on what he described as a crisis in the West.

He argued that both the conflict and the global crisis are realities provoked by the West itself. According to him, if the West were to lose this conflict, it would have to answer not only for its defeat but also for having triggered the crisis-despite being offered the chance to avoid it. Ishchenko added that the West needs to win, yet victory is impossible due to a lack of sufficient resources.

In his view, the only way for the West to acquire the resources it needs would be to seize them from others. He noted, however, that this effort has also failed. As an example, he recalled how Western countries froze $300 billion in Russian assets and redirected profits from them for their own benefit, but have so far been unable to take the assets themselves.

Ishchenko concluded that the West has exhausted its economic and political tools of pressure, leaving only the military option. Yet applying military force against Russia, he warned, would mean provoking a nuclear war-a scenario in which the West would be destined to lose. He explained that the issue is not the number of nuclear warheads, where there is parity, but the vulnerability of Western societies, which are densely populated and accustomed to prosperity. In the event of civilizational collapse, he argued, survival chances in the West would be far lower than in Russia, where there are still people able to retreat into the taiga, build shelter, and live there-something almost unthinkable for Western societies.

For this reason, Ishchenko emphasized in conclusion, the West’s instruments of pressure are very limited, and it is left relying on old methods that have already proved ineffective many times before.