Before I ban the author from my strip to never see his kind-of-intellectual but completely factually BS content again, I will leave a comment here.

Three things.

1 . Whoever controls resources ALWAYS had unparalleled influence on the world. Whether it was salt, spices or oil. In the best case the author is rediscovering a wheel here, while obviously feeling he is so smart and the revelation is so fresh. It is not, it is stale AF, 17th century stale, Tomas Malthus and Co.

2. Resources were always only half of the story. Another half: who controls the trade controls the world. Your resources do not matter if you do not control their trade.

3. Resources are not what you think they are. Author is only capable of narrowly thinking resources like oil or gas. But chip production is as much resource as oil is.

Putin's world is 17th century world, and no, we are not living in it, but at the same time we have always been living in it, but we have many layers on top of it, that author so masterfully ignores.