Zakaria lists broader costs of the war: elevating oil prices, enriching Russia by $4-5 billion monthly, bringing China into Gulf diplomacy, weakening the dollar, and straining Western alliances.
Russia's Ministry of Digital Development is drafting legislation to mandate banks use MAX, a Kremlin-controlled messaging app, for confirming customer financial operations, granting officials broad discretion over transactions.
Bianco notes that Russia has received a monetary boost from higher oil prices, but Ukraine is gaining an advantage through asymmetric drone warfare, causing 30,000-35,000 Russian casualties per month this year.
SpaceX began as a philanthropic 'Mars Oasis' project to inspire public support for Mars exploration. Musk pivoted to building rockets after failing to buy one from Russia and realizing launch cost was the fundamental bottleneck.
Crooke links U.S. involvement in Ukraine to the same supremacist thinking driving the Iran conflict, citing historical Russian resentment over Bolshevik and 1990s oligarch eras. He argues political solutions are blocked by proxies.
Shapiro argues LNG and fertilizer shortages pose greater risks than oil, as Europe's post-Russia energy plan relied on new Gulf capacity and farmers have already missed annual application windows.
China's strategy toward Taiwan focuses on economic isolation and political erosion, not military invasion, a lesson reinforced by watching US and Russian failures in Iran and Ukraine.