Let me formulate a geopolitical hypothesis.

In 2008, American strategic planners performed a stress test of the oil production capacities, and they found out that the production had peaked in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. This triggered an alarm, because if the markets kept growing, this would result in a mass panic when others found out in “free market” ways, and the result would be an exponential rise in oil prices, which would greatly enrich Russia and Venezuela, which had the greatest reserves. This could not be allowed, since those countries are America’s political rivals.

For this reason, they triggered an artificial and controlled market deflation, and they also started the anti-hydrocarbon propaganda in form of the global warming panic which demonized the CO2. Also, they pressured Venezuela into destruction, so that its oil reserves would remain mostly untapped, and America could trivially invade them and take those by force at a later date. Furthermore, they started the process of international isolation and pressure against Russia, because such a technologically advanced country could not be allowed to funnel the profits from its vast oil and gas reserves into advancement of their industry and influence in the world.

Since the Arab countries basically ran out of petroleum reserves, they were prodded into internecine wars which are meant to consume all of their financial reserves.

Ukraine was intentionally kept in a state of depleted, impoverished, decivilized, corrupt shithole in which openly fascist gangs control the political scene, like a festering wound in Russia’s underbelly, where America introduced increasingly provocative elements in hope to make Russia invade and introduce order by force, which would trigger international sanctions, and the situation would be kept in perpetual Afghanistan-like war by helping the resistance movement while Russia would bleed resources, which would cause its demise. This is why the Americans now look like a cat that ate a canary, because they think everything went according to their plan. If Russia didn’t invade, they would actually invade Russia from Ukraine. If Russia invaded, it would trigger a trap.