US Knows That If Russia Disintegrates, China Will Advance To Urals – OpEd
By Paul Goble
At the end of Soviet times, a wonderfully instructive political cartoon appeared in an American newspaper. It showed Mikhail Gorbachev holding a gun to his head and saying to the US, “give me your money or your friend gets it,” a kind of blackmail which it appears some Russians are prepared to engage in once again.
Given that the US now views China as the main enemy, Russian military commentator Konstantin Sivkov says, it needs to ensure that Russia remains not too strong but at least whole because “if Russia will be destroyed, China will advance to the Urals and no one will be able to stop it” (newizv.ru/article/general/16-08-2021/konstantin-sivkov-ssha-ponimayut-esli-rossiya-razrushitsya-kitaytsy-doydut-do-urala).
Because of that danger, the US must support Russian efforts to keep itself strong enough not to allow that to happen even if Washington doesn’t always approve of what Moscow does. In short, he is repeating the argument of the cartoon, do what we want as far as we are concerned or we will be destroyed – and you will suffer.
