Russia

When Putin came to power some 26 years ago, he said that the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century was the fall of the USSR and he set a goal to revive the past glory as he perceived it to be. His attempt failed and he now sees the futility of the Ukraine War and will not attempt to gain the upper hand by using tactical nuclear weapons. At age 73 and his influence waning a new group will take power. Their goal will also be to bring Russia back to its USSR position in the world but their approach will be much different. They will become part of the Western world economically and will begin to rebuild. By establishing an open society and conducting free and fair trading with Europe and the US they will revive their country. Europe can once again use cheap Russian natural gas and reverse their trend toward deindustrialization. The world will welcome the natural resources from Russia and will prosper. This means that NATO will become irrelevant and the EU will no longer depend on the US for safety from Russia.