Three months into the Russian military operation in Ukraine and especially after the request of Finland and Sweden to join NATO, which was followed by Biden's dubious visit to Asia, where does the world stand today and where is it heading?

The general expectations from people and countries, who support the stand views of Russia, was that it is going to be a fast operation in which Russia will subjugate Western elements in Ukraine and then it will be supported by China and the BRICS, and in a few years, the Western hegemony will be over and our children will live in a multipolar world. This is a simplification of the most dangerous world conflict after the second world war, and it lacks an understanding of how the West thinks and operates. 

There is no doubt that prior to the Russian operation in Ukraine, both Russia and the West felt that they are facing an existential threat and that they have to do something serious about it; each for their own reasons of course. The Russians felt that NATO is going to reach their doorsteps and that if they do not do something, the West will check Russia off from world weight, not to mention that anti-Russian militias in Ukraine were perpetrating crimes against the people of Donetsk and Lugansk. Thus, Russia had to make a stand to warn the West that they cannot trample on Russia and get away with it. The US, on the other hand, felt that if Russia succeeds in proving that it is a world power, it will be followed by China, Iran, India, and perhaps many other countries, and thus the US would lose its hegemony and its ability to dictate the terms of world order or even the US terms with no order and no international law and no UN just as it is doing today by playing the role of world police, punishing any country it wants without any approval of Security Council and imposing sanctions on any country it chooses and even changing governments or prime ministers to fit its own agenda. 

The stakes in Ukraine were so high for the US, because it may constitute a precedent for the behavior of other countries, particularly in Asia and South America. That is why the US imposed its will on all European countries to support it against the very interests of their own people on four crucial counts: First to send thousands of mercenaries to fight Russian troops in Ukraine; second, to devote large budgets to send unprecedented amounts of armaments to the Ukrainian authorities and the Neo-Nazis already holding important junctures in Ukraine; and third, to open their countries and people's houses to receive millions of Ukrainian refugees, and last but not least to demonize Russia and President Putin and win the media battle before the military one. 

The visit of Joe Biden to South Korea and Japan and his statements in which he actually threatened India, China, and 18 other Asian countries from supporting Russia are indications that the US will fight Russia by proxy in Ukraine, not only to the last Ukrainian, but also to the last European or Asian if need be. The crucial problem is that the US threatens countries and enforces its will on them to follow its dictate, while Russia cannot do that with Asian and Eastern countries. The result of this unprecedented and most dangerous world war depends on the awareness of Asian and European countries of the danger of US hegemony and the price it is pushing the entire population of the world to pay in order to keep controlling them and looting their resources to accumulate the wealth of the bobbies of American military industries. The US is using every means in order to keep its hegemony and prevent the birth of the multi-polar world system but it is in the interest of all countries in the world to make a real stand and seriously participate in making the birth of this system possible and the sooner it is done, the better it is for real-world peace and security.