Russian financial institutions are rapidly moving their funds out of Western banks and accounts to avoid those assets being frozen when Russia begins its military offensives to reconquer the territories formerly possessed or otherwise controlled by the Soviet Union. The invasion, seizure, and conquest of the Crimea and the rest of the Ukraine is timed to allow the Russian army group/groups to establish themselves in the Ukraine before the Spring rains impede the movements of armored forces.
Upon completion of the invasion and conquest of the Ukraine, the Russian army group/s in the Ukraine may be, if the political circumstances offer the opportunity, moved into assembly areas along the Western and northern borders of the Ukraine for further offensive operations into Moldova and to pin Polish/NATO forces into defensive positions along the southern Polish borders. This existential threat may be used to deny NATO strength needed to defend Lithuania, Latvia, and/or Estonia against a Russian invasion and conquest of those nations, after attention has been directed towards the prior invasion of Moldova.
The timing of these events may be sometime in June 2014, after the Spring rains have abated and the ground is supportive of armored formations. If the situation still warrants doing so, Putin may then direct the Russian forces to further extend Russian offensive operations further into the West to destabilize and/or conquer as much of Central Europe as possible before the U.S. midterm elections can unseat the Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate and present the United States, Great Britain, and the resto of NATO with what Putin expects to be a fait accompli which NATO has no stomach to challenge.
...”Russian financial institutions are rapidly moving their funds out of Western banks and accounts to avoid those assets being frozen”...
US has already begun to freeze assets....Big Spenders got their’s out weeks ago and haven’t let it sit there.
But that’s nothing compared to the US sending plane to Ukriaine this week and removing all Ukraines gold in a 2am flight....now in the US Federal Reserves.
Feel bad about that as remember Germany asked for their’s back recently and had to settle for 50%. I doubt Ukraine will see it again...down payment for all the money US invested to help Ukranians ditch their president...and now will invest to shore up the bankrupt country.
Why would Russia want to recreate the Warsaw Pact? What’s in it for Russia? They will never be obedient satellites of the Kremlin.