Posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:54 AM PDT by elhombrelibre
Pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine reportedly have suffered their biggest battlefield setbacks in months as the U.S. and European countries prepare to ramp up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin by imposing more sanctions against Moscow later this week.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine army forces had made rapid gains near the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed July 17 and were apparently trying to split the territory held by the rebels into two parts between the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Officials on both sides of the fighting also told the Journal that the Ukraine army was attempting to cut off supply lines from Russia to the rebels.
Igor Girkin, a Russian citizen who is the top defense official in the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, also said Monday that more than 100 wounded separatist fighters had been evacuated to Russia because "I can't rule out the total siege of Donetsk from all sides."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
So weapons of war are used in defense of a country. What is your problem with it? Are you going for the shock effect of the words “ballistic missile” when describing SS-21 with a range of 50-100 miles depending on a model.
To answer your tagline - George Bush was not a Putinista. It is silly to suggest it.
The simple-minded will cheer the new sanctions right up until the first European Winter freeze when Putin turns off their gas.
Then they will say “whaaaaaat”?
Never saw it coming.
Any seriously overweight, heavily tattooed Wal-Mart biker guy would naturally gravitate toward the Russki over the girlie-man President. Of course, unable to read beyond 6th grade level, the majority of the American electorate has no idea where Russia, The Ukraine, or The Crimea (or their state capital) actually are, and doesn't really care about it. When faced with the loss of the EBT, Extended Unemployment, Disability, and whatever, they obviously found it easy to put aside their gender normative revulsion and vote for the weenie anyway! Somebody did.
Somehow, we have to figure out how to take away their candy and win these people back.
Let us hope Ukraine can FINISH OFF the Russian Insurgents! Maybe we need to recruit some Ukrainians to patrol our Southern border!
Lol!
The pain point isnt U.S. banking...it is European energy imports. The EU cant shut off Russian banking because they have to pay Russia for their natural gas...or freeze this Winter.
Quoting from the TELEGRAPH article: "The Kremlin can in theory use gas as a diplomatic weapon but this would ravage Russia’s own economy. It would not achieve much at this time of the year in any case since Europe has built up large gas reserves.
The EU has huge spare capacity for imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and there is no longer an acute shortage of global LNG supplies. Several pipelines have been modified since 2009 so that gas can be funnelled both ways, reaching most EU areas. Both Poland and Lithuania will be opening new LNG terminals this year.
Even if Russian cut off gas to Europe, the West could meet its power needs by a variety of means. “If we have to, we can fire up a lot of idle coal-powered plants. It would take time, but only months,” said Professor Alan Riley, from City University.
“The real danger is that we hit Russia too hard and crash the whole Russian economy. Nobody wants to do that,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10981648/Russia-vastly-outgunned-in-economic-showdown-with-West.html
Girkin (aka Lt. Col. Strelkov), has been identified (and in photos) as a Russian GRU (Military Intelligence) officer. He didn’t just pop-up like a piece of toast and assume command of the Donestk region.
He was an agent-in-place long before eastern Ukraine exploded in violent irredentism (to Russia). Remember, Hitler did the same think in the Sudetenland and Danzig, while having useful traitors like Quisling in Norway.
It’s the Russian-German way, now known as the Chicago Way in the US. Infiltrate - forment - conquer (while lying like a Democrat all the way home).
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