Go big or go home. “Russia starts using nukes and us government blames ukrainians for it”

he would prefer it to stay reasonably rich

I think he’d much rather eliminate one of the top economies and make more room for the Russian economy to recover. I’d imagine the simplified version of the plan goes something like this:

1. Make the US destroy all its current trade relationships
2. In manufactured desperation, the US drops sanctions and tries to lean on Russia as a new partner
3. ???
4. Profit