That's the problem with liberals, they think of themselves as exceptional. The G7/EU heads think they run the 'best' countries. So when they sit around a table and ask, 'Whose economy would survive a week of sanctions?' and they all shake in fear at the thought, they think it will have the same effect on everyone else. In many cases it would.

But they can't help but see Russia as backward—how could it possible withstand their worst nightmare? They're apparently unaware that they created the nightmare. Russia may be capitalist but it's not quite so neoliberal just-in-time. Still, I don't think the west understands what's happened; they're going to get a real shock when they try to turn up the dial on China because they haven't learned their lesson yet.