While the US economy is far from doing well, access to cheap shale energy and a residual industrial base keeps it afloat compared to Europe. It’s also amazing that people are still regurgitating the myth that Russia is merely a gas station with nukes. This lazy analysis ignores Russia’s dominance in tangible material production. Russia is the world’s top exporter of natural gas, second-largest oil producer, largest wheat supplier, a key producers of fertilizers, palladium, and uranium just to name a few things. These aren’t abstract service-sector GDP numbers that form the basis of European economy, they’re the bedrock of global supply chains. When measured by output of physical goods such as energy, food, and metals, Russia’s economy dwarfs Europe, which having deindustrialized itself is left reliant on importing precisely these resources.

Europe’s lack of self-sufficiency is staggering. The EU imports around 60% of its energy and 45% of its food, with entire industries like chemicals and steel now dependent on overpriced US LNG or shaky Middle Eastern supply lines. Sanctions on Russia backfired spectacularly. Europe ended up cutting off cheap gas which led to collapse of the industrial base, spiking energy costs by 300% and leading many of the remaining factories to flee to the US or Asia. Meanwhile, Russia redirected exports to China, India, and the Global South, proving its commodities are indispensable. GDP metrics which count Belgian bureaucracy and Spanish tourism as “growth” are irrelevant to real economic power.

This is where BRICS flips the script. Countries like Hungary and Slovakia are already defying Russian sanctions decrees from EU to secure cheap gas and nuclear deals. BRICS offers these countries an economic lifeline with access to Russian energy, Chinese manufacturing, and a bloc representing 45% of humanity along with 30% of global GDP in purchasing power terms. Why cling to a stagnant EU that enforces austerity and energy poverty when BRICS provides affordable resources, infrastructure investment, and a path out of the dollar-dominated financial system? Hungary and Slovakia aren’t just posturing, they’re hedging against a EU so that they can keep lights on. Once one domino falls, others will follow, unraveling the myth of European unity.

In the end, GDP spreadsheets won’t save Brussels. Material reality is relentless, and either Europeans bow to American demands and decay, or pivots eastward where tangible material development is happening.