Crimea Nationalizes Energy Companies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3134180/posts
“5. Russia continues to challenge U.S. allies and create crisis. The Crimea crisis is hardly over, and may reach other parts of Ukraine, as well as NATO allies in Eastern Europe, as Putin tries the same trick again. He is also expanding Russian influence into Latin America. He will only stop when the U.S. stops retreating from any possible confrontation, and commits military resources to stopping his advance. That point is still very far away.”
Vladimir Putin will make a wrong move as he becomes overly assertive. Most Americans know nothing about Russian history viz a viz Islam. The Russians only recently, in historic terms, seized control of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire. They had built extensive naval facilities there and perceive the need to once again assert control there. Taking control of Crimea at this time, especially with Russian-Muslim relations in flux, could be viewed as defensive; if he moves against Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, then he will have made a wrong move. That is when Europe, especially Germany, Poland, and the Scandinavian nations, become militarized. This time, IMHO, they will know what to do against an over-assertive Russia.
Were it not not for Putin’s distaste for Islam, I would opine that Obama and Putin were working together and Obama was providing theater to make it look like they opposed each other. I say that because a lot of what Obama has done has played directly in favor of Putin, starting with the removal of the missile shield in Eastern Europe. Sabotaging the victory in Iraq and the war effort/ aftermath in Afghanistan also favored Putin, but Obama pulled those strings for the Muzzies. The result in Egypt was similar.
I think Syria was a turning point for the Putin/Obama relationship. Obama wanted to take down Assad for the benefit of Islamists. He was going to pull off some kind of attack, but the blowback he got and decision NOT to act made Putin take notice. I would bet my bottom dollar we have the Crimea situation BECAUSE of Obama’s actions in Syria. Putin is not finished.
With Obama, it seems to me that only his love of Islam trumps his Marxist ideolgy. Because of that, I think we risk war on some level with Russia, because Putin is very hard on Muslims. When Putin picks on Muzzies again, look for Obama to use our military to fight for his Muzzie friends. . . . IMHO
It's only a 3-mile gap, but there's no bridge, so the land route from Russia to Crimea goes through Ukraine.
Without the bridge, Crimea is disconnected from Russia like East Prussia was from Germany in 1920s and '30s.
This could put the breaks on the greening of EUrope.
Unfortunately, the article in its attempt to make concise points, does not fully connect the dots / project logically further into the future: The US’ weakness and unwillingness to provide a defensive umbrella for allies will force those allies to arm, in some cases with nuclear arms. Yet others will arm in kind or response. I could be wrong about the timing, but I figure on at least a medium size nuclear war, say, around 100 warheads involved, by 2050 or so.
More immediately, if the situation in Ukraine gets worse, and gas supplies are interrupted, Europe could have a very deadly winter of 2015. This should result in efforts toward energy independence, as mentioned, but it could also result in efforts to work with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to develop the huge gas reserves there and build pipelines to Europe, which pipelines themselves will be a huge security risk. Iran of course will use its even larger reserves as a lever to peel off Euro support for sanctions intended to slow down its nuclear program.