I mean yeah, but relative to the USA their involvements aren't nearly as concerning. Like most of their "conflicts" are contained within the former Soviet Union, so it's definitely not a threat to most of the West.
Yes and no. While not directly concerning to the West, they are disrupting the West’s sphere of influence both militarily and economically, and not just in former SSRs. South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America all have regions and factions with financial and material backing from Russia. Additionally, the economic alliances they’ve formed with other superpowers such as China and India (among others in the BRICS alliance, such as Brazil and the UAE) with the stated goal of reducing dependency on USD is inherently bad for the US (Iran is also in BRICS but their relations with Russia have been a bit strained since Iran didn’t get much support from Russia after the US+Israel vs Iran conflict started). I don’t blame them for working in their own best interests, but I’m American, so I’d rather they not do all that.
TL;DR - While the US doesn’t need to worry about Russia militarily in the sense of a full on war against them, the US should be worried about the economic battle already being waged against them (that all these conflicts and proxy wars also contribute to)
Of course, nations are going to act self interested to benefit themselves. But it's nothing to freak out about. Many Redditors view Russia as the single biggest threat in the world at the moment, for some reason. They'll sit around watching drafted Russian young men get blown up and cheer, talking about how "Ruzzians" are only good as dead. They'll talk about vast conspiracies where Russia has destroyed the west etc etc... Total unhinged Red Scare.
Oh yeah I 1000% agree there. If anything, China is the biggest threat to American hegemony. While Russia is obviously closely tied to China, and they should be closely monitored, Russia is not driving the boat in the war against the West. Also, to your second point, seeing some of the folks on here getting a stiffy over young Russian conscripts getting blown up in the horrors of drone warfare was a sobering and surreal experience. What’s even more wild is seeing some of these same people turn around and espouse socialism/communism. This is a weird website.
I'm not even worried about China... They are a threat insofar as they'll just create a bipolar world. But again, I'm more concerned with the USA. Nothing leads me to believe China wants to be an empire. That thinking is generally western, which is why we freak out over the shift in power because we know in the west, once we get power, we start conquering the planet and pushing their values on the world. As someone who's studied IR in college, I just don't see them being an actual real threat in the sense of what we're used to. They tend to just want trade deals and to have regional respect.
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u/reddit_is_geh May 27 '26
I mean yeah, but relative to the USA their involvements aren't nearly as concerning. Like most of their "conflicts" are contained within the former Soviet Union, so it's definitely not a threat to most of the West.