Russia - Ukraine - Economic Chaos and Possible World War III?

 

On the 17th January, which was my last blog, I wrote about the imminent invasion and possible war between Russia and Ukraine. Well, officially, Russia invaded its neighbour yesterday, the 24th February. This will go down in history as possibly the beginning of World War III. As I write this blog, it is my birthday - I am now 70 years old - but I still feel like 30 years old, even younger!!

 Looking at the developments in Ukraine over the last 48 hours, I can only feel absolute pity and utter concern for the Ukrainian people. They are facing death, destruction and possible financial collapse and it's all down to one single individual - Vladimir Putin. This insane, totally mentally deranged dictator, I think just doesn't fully understand what he has just done. I'm not sure he is completely cognizant of what is ludicrous actions will have for Europe and the rest of the world. And, yes, I have concern also for the innocent Russian people who are witnessing their country causing chaos and death in Ukraine. Yesterday there was footage on Sky news showing people on the streets of Moscow 'demonstrating' about what their leader has just done. Clearly, the people of Russia are showing concern.

 Because much of my interests in life surround politics and economics, I am reflecting on what Putin's actions will have on the Russian economy. Yes, it is going to devastate not only European economics but throughout the world. Overnight all Russian stock markets hit record lows, the rouble hit an all-time low against the US dollar and all major banks put trading on hold as the country's invasion of Ukraine began to hurt the Russian economy almost immediately. As British, European, American and G7 sanctions begin to get a grip on Russian financial interests, I predict the complete collapse of the Russian economy. This will be the lasting memory of the despicable, blood-infested fascist, Vladimir Putin.

Now that I have been on this planet for 70 years I can look back with a certain amount of depression about how peoples, countries, nations just cannot live in peace. I was born just seven years after World War II and as I grew up throughout my early years, into my teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond, all I have witnessed is war: Korean War, Vietnam War, the Falklands War, Bosnian War, war in Afghanistan, the Iraq war, the wars in Syria, in Yemen and many others in between. But now we have a war breaking out in Ukraine that could easily expand into World War III. As a Buddhist, and looking back all of my years, I just cannot get my head around why we need wars. Of course, we can go back hundreds of years and, yes, wars and conflicts seem to have dominated life. The Buddha declared 2,600 years ago that life is suffering (dukkha) caused by change (annica) and it was all down to man’s constant desire for everything in life. And when you couldn’t get what you wanted in life, this led to anger and hatred . . .

So I shall finish this blog by saying this, as time goes by, Vladimir Putin will be seen as a war criminal and a subject of crimes against humanity. I have for several years now dating back to his backing of Basher Al-Assad in Syria where 1000s of innocent lost their lives have questioned Putin’s future intentions. But, I don’t so much believe in karma, I KNOW karma exists and works in every single aspect of life. Putin’s heinous crimes in Ukraine will come back to haunt him - create bad karma and bad karma will come back to plague him.

When I look at Putin I see Adolf Hitler and we all know what eventually happened to him!