The issue is that Russia has shown us that they don’t give a shit about how large the benefit is, they would rather be imperially hostile. Germany and the EU thought that hundreds of billions in trade would be enough to deter Russia, but it clearly wasn’t.
The West is now, rightfully so, worried that China is thinking the same way in regards to Taiwan.
To be fair to Russia I think they envisioned a complete rolling of Ukraine, if they had known that it in fact would be a 2 year+ long war leaving 150k of their men dead and most of the equipment depleted they’d have maybe not done it.
The issue is that Russia has shown us that they don’t give a shit about how large the benefit is, they would rather be imperially hostile. Germany and the EU thought that hundreds of billions in trade would be enough to deter Russia, but it clearly wasn’t.
The West is now, rightfully so, worried that China is thinking the same way in regards to Taiwan.
To be fair to Russia I think they envisioned a complete rolling of Ukraine, if they had known that it in fact would be a 2 year+ long war leaving 150k of their men dead and most of the equipment depleted they’d have maybe not done it.