Posted on 09/18/2014 11:39:08 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
President Vladimir Putin privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, according to a record of a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.
"If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest," Mr Putin allegedly told President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, reported Süddeustche Zeitung, a German newspaper.
If true, this would be the first time that Mr Putin has threatened to invade Nato or EU members. Any threat to send Russian troops into the capitals of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Romania would cause grave alarm among Western leaders.
If Mr Putin were to act on this, Britain could find itself at war with Russia. All five countries mentioned in this alleged conversation are members of both the EU and Nato. They are covered by the security guarantee in Article V of Nato's founding treaty, which states that "an attack on one is an attack on all". In a speech in Tallinn earlier this month, President Barack Obama confirmed Nato's commitment to this doctrine.
Mr Putin's alleged threat bears similarities to remarks he made to Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, in which he warned: "If I want to, I can take Kiev in two weeks".
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Is a statement of fact necessarily a threat?
“Nice house, hope nothing happens to it.”
Do any of you FReepers doubt the USA could convince the leaders of the Siberian area of Russia to sign an agreement aligning themselves with us; or, should we invade Siberia?
Is it bad that I actually have been laughing at this for the past 5 minutes?
(we are soooooo screwed)
First, why would Putin threaten Poland, Romania and the Baltics to Poroshenko?
Second, is there anyone to back this up besides someone who may have other reasons to make Putin look like a war-mongerer?
Definitely one way to look at it.
The other is "Don't piss me off. NATO won't do anything until I cross the Rhine, but I don't want to go there."
Greetings Puny Americans. I come for you next.
Putin was telling Poroshenko not to count on the Europeans because Putin could just invade them too.
Well, yeah . . . if this account is true, discussing whether it is a threat or a warning is a matter of semantics.
A projected strength is the best vitamin for sustained peace....
We are not projecting strength... Thanks Obama...
“Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States.”
Don’t fall for the enemy’s puffery.
The problem with The Telegraph: they make stuff up so often you can never, ever believe anything they print
Poland would have home field advantage and kick Russki butt just like in 1920.
Is a statement of fact necessarily a threat?
<><><><
Would you take it as a threat if someone suggested they could take out your family while you are work?
I probably would.
It is also a statement of fact.
Yep, some of these people don’t realize that the Russian army just doesn’t have the muscle or structure, or equipment to pull off large scale invasions against NATO.
Don’t worry folks.
Obama has promised he’ll play an extra 18 holes to fix this.
when will we ever find out if the NSA “heard” that conversation
if they did hear it
we can only guess what Obama’s reaction was when he was told
no we know - it was “Oh well”
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