> Everyone I personally knew in Russia has left
> People I know
Everyone I know in my home country which has absolutely no relation with any of these has also left. The 99.9% of the population have not. Your personal circle and the specific demographics you belong to do not constitute statistics.
> 3) Indisputable military points of clarity from global news are that Russia failed to capture Ukraine's capital after planning and attempting to do so
Angloamerican and satellite media outlets are not 'global', not to mention that all the 'experts' that they rely on are full of sh_t just like how they were back in 2003. Their sole job is to sell this war so that US and satellite taxpayer money can be channeled back to US defense corporations via Ukraine. The result is that Raytheon et al are posting record profits.
> 4) Russia's petro-diplomacy clearly backfired: the entire world
You people say these delirious things. 80% of the world has increased its business relations with Russia instead of decreasing it. India even told a bipartisan British parliamentary delegation to sod off when they went to India to lecture them about how they should cut their relations with Russia. Here's 'the entire world':
https://www.politico.eu/article/west-more-united-also-isolat...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/02/23/world/russia-...
Even NYT admits that the West is isolated and 'the world' is literally with Russia. But you people contradict your own establishment mouthpieces.
Here in Europe we are still buying Russian oil and gas, even more than before, EXCEPT THROUGH INDIA, GABON and other intermediaries. Gabon, a tiny African country, increased its merchant marine to 100 ships in a few months just to sell Russian oil and gas to Europe. Europe's exports to Russia cratered, but its exports to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and various neighboring countries skyrocketed with the EXACT percentage with which its exports to Russia cratered. Go figure. Everything is the same as before in Europe related to Russia, and yet imports are more expensive because it goes through intermediaries.
> the entire world has pivoted away from fossil fuels
Another self-propagated delirium that is the product of too much Angloamerican media consumption. Hasnt happened.
> I think any summary version of reality that includes Russia 'winning' at this stage
The summary version of the reality in which Russia is winning is this reality.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/opinion/ukraine-military-...
"Ukraine Doesn’t Need All Its Territory to Defeat Putin"
Your establishment has gone from "Ukraine will get to Moscow in 3 months" to "Ukraine doesn't need its territory to win". They are making 'perception management' to manage you people as if you were idiots. And they seem to be succeeding too.
> The Chinese will suffer too, because this aids Xi Jinping's narrative of resisting the west during a period in which he is asserting authoritarian nationalism and increasing financial, economic and cultural controls.
Nobody needs to 'resist' 'the West'. Its bankrupt. Its capitalist class started to eat the societies alive by trying to profit from housing, healthcare, education and even basic foodstuffs as they exhausted the means to exploit other countries. Dollar lost its place as the foreign exchange currency and unused dollars are now flowing back to the US, causing inflation. 99% of Americans are estimated to be going to be never own a house whereas 80% of 30 year olds and 90% of 40 year olds own their houses in China, which they paid with their own money.
'The West' is so in knee-deep sh*t that this is what's happening there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/
You people are delusional and speak delirious. This is how it must have been in the late stages of Roman empire as it was nearing its end: Delusion and denial.