Posted on 08/27/2008 4:09:41 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
A new Cold War between Russia and the West grew steadily closer today after the Kremlin gave a warning about “direct confrontation” between American and Russian warships in the Black Sea.
Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, declared that Russia was taking “measures of precaution” against American and Nato naval ships. “Let’s hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that,” he said.
Any attempt by countries in the West to isolate Russia would “definitely harm the economic interests of those states”, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Even the European Union, which is to hold a summit next month, has downgraded its most likely response to the Russian military presence in Georgia from deploying peacekeepers to sending observers.
Russia needs to be slapped down, hard.
Buying time with lives, thats the conventional wisdom......Unfortunately the costs are always greater on the back than the front.Every step backs makes the Horde stronger to rest of the Dictators and evil cultures around the world.
Germany and France, both of whom opposed the US and Britain in April by blocking Georgian negotiations to join Nato, have been the most reluctant to punish Russia for the conflict of the past three weeks and are desperate to try to revive the Russia-Georgia peace plan mediated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France a fortnight ago.
Both Paris and Berlin agreed that the unilateral recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia left the peace plan ineffectual. A summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Monday will discuss Europe's options.
As usual, our 'allies' admit that their plan failed, but of course they'll be behind us all the way.
Waaaay behind us.
The bastard has played his hand and he is now in a box!
just who created the conditions that led to the capital flight?
putin.
that’s a major leverage that the west has over him.
We need pension funds to declare (or be told via law) not to invest in Russia, or in companies with operations in Russia. Do to Russia what has been done to Iran and South Korea...only better. And continue doing it for decades.
South Korea -> North Korea. Duh.
definitely harm the economic interests of those states”, he said
The number one issue from a Republican White house, should be total energy independence.
All fossil fuel opportunities with an honest attempt at integrating renewable technologies.
Not tied to Carbon wealth redistribution/ global warming lies.
Any Navy experts out there that can access what would the result be between Moskva w/fleet VS USS McFaul w/fleet?
Unfortunately, Europe has shown it is very vulnerable. Western Europe won’t stand up to anybody. Eastern Europe has a fuel problem (Russia supplies 95% of Poland’s oil).
And we are fighting a war all over the world that everyone should join in, but few help with.
The last four Presidential elections have shown that we are one or two percentage points from turning the reigns of government back over to the party of appeasement that is on TV right now.
We don’t have a very good hand to play with either, and Putin knows it. That’s why he bet big. Can we afford to call him? Can we afford to fold? I don’t know.
The problem is the USS McFaul and USCS Dallas are the only two U.S. ships in the Black Sea. The last article I read said 1 Spanish, 1 German and 4 Turkish ships. Not a lot of help.
There are supposedly 10 NATO ships in the Black Sea and 8 more on the way for scheduled exercises, but I wouldn’t bet too heavily on Europe to hold to its NATO agreement that an attack on one is an attack on all.
If you’re gonna fight a proxy war, fight a proxy war. Find out how many square miles of land are in the two provinces Russia just recognized and move Guantanamo’s fence that far across Cuba...freeing all the inhabitants and making them US Citizens in the process. Then tell Russia, that we’ll keep acquiring land and freeing those persecuted individuals with every mile they acquire in Eastern Europe. And when we are free with Cuba, we’ll start in on Venezuela or maybe start moving across the Bearing Straight to free the enslaved Inuits.
Any Navy experts out there that can access what would the result be between Moskva w/fleet VS USS McFaul w/fleet?
I’m a Navy cold war vet, definitely but not an expert of our present day Navy. It appears to me that the McFaul does not have the type of armament to slug it out in a close quarter gun battle - it would be close quarters in the Black Sea, its not the high seas like the Pacific - with the Russian fleet.
The McFaul is high tech, hardly any guns. And what about McFaul’s ASW capability? the Black Sea is probably crawling with Russian subs.
Where the hell is Bush?
PING
“from deploying peacekeepers to sending observers”
... to sending a strongly worded letter !
I would assume he is spending a lot more time watching developments in the Black Sea than watching the DNC convention. I would also guess that the people at the Pentagon responsible for moving around pieces on the map are probably working even later now than they have been.
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