jimmydean

Personally I think it is a ruse to allow Russia to increase their pool of available Iced Hockey players for the next Olympics.............. they took their defeat very badly last month

jimmydean

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26424738

Surrender required by 0300GMT say the Russians.

Atlantic Xpat

It's all rather unsettling. Perhaps we need to reacquaint ourselves with certain public information films of the past?

Steve_

My personal take on it is that Putin clearly is on the weaker side of this whole thing in Ukraine, Kerry is right on that point.

I think Putin is genuinely worried about a bunch of protestors showing up on the doorstep of the Kremlin and pulling the same trick, because it nearly happened during the last Russian elections.

So to rouse all the nationalists in Russia he's decided to take over Crimea, otherwise he would be seen as being weak among the nationalists and the progressives would pounce.

Long-term, taking over Crimea is a bad move for Russia because their natural gas pipelines go through Ukraine and the one thing the Russians have been really worried about is the move towards natural gas frakking in eastern Europe. Now they've invaded Crimea that's not a possibility it's a 100% certainty and that means a long-term decline in Russian influence in eastern Europe.

But Putin only really cares about the short-term because he can't stay in power forever.

If I was Kerry and/or the govt. of Ukraine right now I would be offering tax incentives and anything else I could think of to get natural gas companies over there pdq.

orly

Bit sneaky with that Kaliningrad exclave they kept hold of

burks

Nord Stream and South Stream allows/will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine with their natural gas supplies to Central and Western Europe, which will in turn allow them to do whatever they want with Ukraine. Central Europe will still get their gas and so why do they care what happens?


The EU and USA need to get on the same page when it comes to these kind of situations. The Americans are talking about possible sanctions etc. and the EU are holding a meeting on Thursday which could discuss political sanctions.. but a UK Govt. document states that they will not impose economic sanctions or close London financial hub to the Russians.

Being realistic Crimea is lost now. It is Russian. But there are going to be a lot of unanswered questions. What happens to Ukrainian assets in Crimea? How will territorial waters be drawn? What will the status of Crimean citizens be? What happens to the Ukrainian minority?

I have read that the Russian are already planning to move ahead with a bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia so they can bypass Ukraine completely.

bats

If it's the end of the world (again) aren't we all supposed to do some random and copious shagging?

caretaker

Jingsamichty

Bags me ultrarunner.

Gozit

Yeah what happened to him, is he still here?

caretaker

Camp X.

Gozit

Well hes still on the member list so he's here somewhere waiting for just the right time to pop in

Steve_

Because a country they rely on for an essential supply of energy appears to be engaged in military actions right on their doorstep, perhaps?

Given the country is run by a nutcase who has invaded a neighbouring country, my take on it as someone running Poland etc. would be to remove Russia from the equation, they clearly aren't acting in a way conducive to national security. The Polish and Hungarians as well as the Baltic countries are always desperately worried about anything the Russians do that might threaten them, so I have no doubt gas frakking is high up on their to-do lists.

"**** the EU."

"**** the Americans."

Similar thought process as far as I can see.

I don't think it is lost actually, those Naval officers had very serious balls on them singing the Ukrainian national anthem in front of those Russians in front of TV cameras. 60% may be ethnically Russian but that doesn't mean they all agree and it also means 40% likely don't agree.

Which is bonkers, Putin has lost his mind.

Gozit

I dont think it was ever there ...

Shard

Just because you disagree with Putin's actions does not mean he's a nutcase. He seems to be one of the more capable leaders at present. Certainly decisive and shrewd.

There are parallels between the Crimea and Northern Ireland (in terms of loyalist populations) and Britain's response in the Seventies was not all that different.