Posted on 04/20/2006 1:21:50 AM PDT by familyop
MOSCOW, April 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russia will maintain neutrality in a possible armed conflict between Iran and the United States, Russian army chief of staff Yuri Baluyevsky stated on Wednesday, as he was answering Itar-Tass questions.
"Unequivocally, and I'm saying it as chief of the General Staff, Russia will not be offering the use of its armed forces on this or that side," Gen Baluyevsky said.
He called for resolving the Iranian nuclear problems through negotiations.
"A diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear problem is the only right path; one should walk on it, the nuclear problem should be resolved under strict control by the International Atomic Energy Agency," he underlined.
By "Neutral" They mean they will be selling there best stuff to the Iranians until the bombing starts!
"Russia will maintain neutrality"
Neutral like the Swiss handling the gold from teeth and jewelry from murdered Jews in WWII?
Then quit selling them military equipment.
neutral my butt.
Russia is not our friend. Russia will do whatever they can to hurt America. Russia will sell arms and intelligence to Iran that will tell of any troop movements and that will kill American heros.
Hey russia, screw you.
---------------------------
Russia To Sell Air Defense System To Iran
April 19, 2006 8:35 p.m. EST
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Contributor
Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russia will implement a contract to supply Tor-M1 air defense systems to Iran, Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Baluyevsky said on Wednesday.
Baluyevsky made the statement after his talks with James Johns, Supreme Commander of the United States and NATO forces in Europe.
Roughly 30 Tor-M1 complexes are planned to be supplied to Tehran which will defend the key state and military facilities, foremost nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Bushehr, Tehran and in the east of the country.
The contract, worth 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, is the biggest arms deal Iran and Russia has ever concluded.
Tor-M1 is an all-weather air defense system intended which ensures effective protection from cruise missiles, guided bombs, warplanes, helicopters, and pilotless and remotely controlled attack aircraft.
Roughly 30 Tor-M1 complexes are planned to be supplied to Tehran which will defend the key state and military facilities, foremost nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Bushehr, Tehran and in the east of the country.
A little tidbit to add to the EOB files.
It's only a mistake for Russia if they don't collect on the contract before we take out the Iranian regime.
Fortunatly this would be their best stuff - not good enough stuff.
The problem will not be to win airspace or to defeat their heavy arms.
People won't die because of Thor M1 but because of Semtex, .50 sniper rifles and RPGs.
So this is good news actually. Russia gets some Money, Iran get's some targets and the US- Airforce, Navy and Army get's some practice.
The real problem will be - what do you do once your in ? What's the next step in the escalation. How much cash can we litteraly burn there without having the chineese and the russians up our backs. Can we convince the mullahs to go away and the 'normal people' to get used to freedom and applepie ?
Pootie-poot has already shown us what "neutral" really means.
It means anything that opposes American policy . . . . . . . . and peace for the rest of the world.
Poor Russia, first We screw them out of their Iraq contracts and now, Iran. Neutrality would be their best bet.
Actually, I think the Russians know their helicopters are irrelevant. They just want the cash.
I think it's short-sighted of Putin et al. to try playing balance-of-power politics between the US and Islam, particularly given Russia's Chechen problem, but major powers often use b-of-p vis-a-vis bigger powers.
"It's only a mistake for Russia if they don't collect on the contract before we take out the Iranian regime."
It is probably cash before any delivery. The cash has to be Euros or $'s or gold. Oil futures will not count after what happened to the holders of Iraq's oil futures in that recent war.
Oil is being priced right now for war. If there's a negotiated settlement, the price is going to fall hard. If there's a war, it'll spike some more but methinks a lot is already priced in.
I think that you are correct.
Today, I plan to recalculate my loss stop orders on any of our index funds with connections to the oil industry to a current 6-8% max loss on the new gains. That will preserve most of the gains this past month.
Tuesday was the best over all day for our 401ks and IRAS mutual funds and ETF's since the phoney baloney days of the Clintoon/Enron days. The gains were across the board with some of the foriegn funds gaining well over 3% Tuesday and followed by 1+% gains yesterday. Many American funds ran at about 2% for the day. Many of our funds are running at excellent ytd rates versus last year and the 3 years before.
Fidelity's money funds are bringing in about 4.4% current rate and they have a lot of FDIC CDs at well over 5% without that long of a holding time. So I may be trimming off the gains where I can without a penalty re holding the funds for too short of a time.
There are a lot of nice alternatives out there for those of us who look for them.
Russia doesn't want this to come to a fight because, once again their equipment will fail to stop us. They were embarrassed in Desert Storm, and saw an immediate drop in sales as our equipment sales increased. As you accurately point out, we can defeat their stuff quickly, though it is still a threat, one American life is too much to lose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.