Moscow: Vang Wen - I spent half an hour walking from the 1st to 5th floors of the Galleria Shopping Mall, St. Petersburg's largest shopping mall, researching how many European and American brands had left the Russian market.
Most brands remain. The Apple Store clerk informs me that they have been open with only one day of closure since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. More interestingly, while McDonald's on the fifth floor is closed, KFC is open and doing well, with long lines throughout the day.
The mall was packed with people. The nearby Neva street was filled with tourists from all over the world, as were many attractions. It is clear that Western sanctions have had little effect on the daily life of Russians.
Of course, the restrictions have had an impact on the middle and upper classes. It is difficult for them to travel to Europe, and it is becoming more and more difficult to purchase certain European and American brands, high-tech products and replacement parts. Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. has ceased operations in Russia.
Russia, on the other hand, quickly found alternatives. For example, while the children's toy brand LEGO is now rarely seen in Russia, the Chinese toy brand Bella has quickly replaced the original LEGO market.
More impressively, I witnessed the thriving scenes in Russia at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in early September. The Eastern Economic Forum attracted visitors from 68 countries.
There was no representative from the United States, but there were some scholars and representatives from Japan, Norway and other countries.
On stage, President Vladimir Putin made an important speech. The main point was that the dominance of the United States in world politics is declining, and no country can separate Russia.
The audience applauded several times during Putin's speech. Perhaps everyone was implying that the rest of the world would go on without the United States of America! Washington's days were telling the rest of the world what to do.
A world without the United States is taking shape, especially in terms of Far Eastern integration. The Far East continues to be the world's largest industrial manufacturing region. China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN have established an international pattern of cross-border division of labor, and the region's total exports have already exceeded the combined exports of the European Union and North America.
Over the next two decades, the largest transfer of wealth in history will take place from both sides of the Atlantic to the Far East, where thousands of wealth management and trust companies will be established.
The Far East is emerging as the innovation hotspot of the smart revolution. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo are among the world's high-tech cities, and are characterized by driverless transportation, urban IoT deployment, sensor networks, cashless payments, energy-saving technologies, energy storage batteries, urban surveillance, And so are the technologies. Telemedicine is innovating and spreading much faster in the Far Eastern countries than in Europe, the United States and other countries.
The allure of technological innovation has attracted an increasing number of talented people to the Far East. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the number of Americans living abroad for work or permanent residence has more than doubled, from 4 million in 1999 to 10 million in 2019.
The Far East is fast becoming the most popular destination for Americans traveling abroad. China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore have national talent programs to entice entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators to relocate to the Far East for stable, long-term residency.
Russia is the most distinctive country which is accelerating its shift towards the East. According to this view, Western sanctions will not kill Russia, but will create a new Russia that is abandoning its illusions about the West and gradually becoming deeply integrated into the East, reaping the benefits of the rise of the East. Discovering a new self.
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