Posted on 02/28/2014 4:19:10 AM PST by Zhang Fei
Russian soldiers have occupied two key airports in Ukraine’s restive pro-Russia region of Crimea, Ukraine’s acting interior minister said Friday.
Soldiers wearing camouflage and bearing automatic weapons have taken up positions at Belbek Airport in Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and at the airport in Simferopol, the region’s capital, Arsen Avakov said.
He said the soldiers’ uniforms bore no identifying marks “but they do not hide their affiliation with the Russian armed forces.”
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Crimea was never Ukrainian in the first place.
88% of the population is Russian or Russophones, 98% speak Russian.
Guess where is Yalta situated?
In Crimea, for god’s sake!
Crimea is Ukrainian now. Regardless of the past, it is currently now part of Ukraine. That most of Crimeans are ethnically Russian doesn’t give Russia the right to invade with troops. Like I said before, that line of reasoning is wrong. It would mean that Mexico has the right to roll troops into the U.S. southwest because the majority there are hispanic. See? It doesn’t work that way.
“Barack Al-Obama will draw a red line in the sand to stop the Russkies!”
How is Ukraine the Barak’s business, anyway? Far, far away from home ...
Might is right.
America knows this saying too well.
It practiced it for so long.
I hope Ukraine is mighty enough to maintain itself and its own territory against the Russian invasion!
“See? It doesn’t work that way.”
On the contrary, IT WORKS.
Are you going to pull the Russians out of Crimea? Be their guests.
I understand the might is right philosophy, trust me. I know that it works. But I hope that something can be done to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion. I don’t know what that something is, since I think Russia is willing to pay a high price for capturing the Crimea. This is a tough situation!
“I hope ...”
Hope springs eternal.
Real politics doesn’t.
Ukraine has not the military strenght to oppose Russia’s.
“My point is that as a citizen of a wealthy industrialized country, the British consumer and/or taxpayer isn’t going to sweat the 10%-20% price difference.”
You’re not paying attention.
UK weather: 31,000 people DIED of the cold last winter
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-31000-people-died-2852677#ixzz2ucszzqkN
If you think that death toll is something that a consumer won’t sweat, you are clueless. That’s a big deal in the UK. People dying because they can’t keep warm due to rising energy prices may cost the Tories the next election.
My point is that if Russia turns off the natural gas, governments across the EU may fall. That includes Georgia.
“Don’t worry! Barack Al-Obama will draw a red line in the sand to stop the Russkies!”
Obama’s proven to be ridiculously weak. Russia can nuke Ukraine and Obama will say “I never said there would be costs”...
The US media will cheer Obama’s “BRILLIANT!” handling of the situation, and call anyone that doesn’t agree a “Racist that hates the idea of a black president!”
Yep. Pinochet was the good guy. Allende was the skilled gunman who shot himself in the back with the gun that Fidel gave him.
And your point is?
Of course we look at reality unvarnished by hope. Ukraine never really depended upon itself to defend her own territory against Russia. The idea all along has been for Ukraine to align with the US, EU, NATO, and the UN. There is a treaty. To be real, I’d say Russia can get away with this unless Putin tries to push into more territory than just Crimea. The only cost to Russia will be various sanctions. To Russia, apparently, this cost is worth the benefit of control over Crimea.
Actually, Mexico has been rolling very irregular troops across the US border for a long time and with the complicity of much of the American leadership.
Real politics doesn’t.
Ukraine has not the military strenght to oppose Russia’s."
Czechoslovakia had not the military strength to oppose Germany.
How did that work out?
There were 18,000 winter-related female deaths, a rise from 13,610 the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of excess male deaths was 13,100 - a rise from 10,590 observed in 2011/12.
This nets out to an increase of 7,000 people, out of a population of 63m people or a .01% increase, year-to-year. Sounds like they were just unprepared for the sub-freezing weather outdoors, which is actually somewhat atypical for England (where 5/6 of the population lives), which usually doesn't experience a freeze for more than a few days at a time.
For what it's worth, the Mirror is a far-left wing paper formerly headed up by CNN's Piers Morgan. Whining about the latest Tory outrage is its bread-and-butter.
Uhmmm...Do we really want to rub Russia’s feathers the wrong way at this time?
Cold war is over. We lost.
Russian troops are on the ground in the Ukraine. They took two airports and have been flying in transports of more troops. They are there and Putin has outmaneuvered the weak Obama and the EU. Even as Obama and Kerry continue to drone on about, “You better not do this,” Putin has already done it. So what do we do to keep all of Ukraine from falling in a a domino effect and eastern Europe being dominated by Russia?
1) Immediately have the US and the EU confer with Ukraine and tell them to NOT attack the Russian troops in the Crimea. Have them immediately mobilize their forces to their borders and take up positions and prepare and make any further Russian aggression have to come through their prepared positions. Right now the Crimea is lost, and attacking them there will only invite a much larger invasion and the potential loss of all of the Ukraine.
2) The US should immediately start flying C-17s into Kiev (the Ukraine Capitol) loaded with advisors, provisions, trainers, and a a security force for those people. We cannot get enough people there to stop Putin at this point, but we can show him that the price for taking the Ukraine has now gone up and would be too steep for him.
3) Have the NATO and Euopean countries (Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain) do the same thing (Number 2) at other critical points throughout the Ukraine.
4) Immediately move to make the rest of the Ukraine a part of NATO.
5) Hasten the Ukraine’s entry into the EU.
These measures will block Putin now, and hold him where he is with the gains he has made. It is not likely that the Ukraine will get the Crimea back, no more than Georgia will got its two lost provinces back. But we can limit the damage and build a strong coalition of the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary , Slovakia, the Czech Republic and western Europe to stop Russia where it is.
Otherwise we may see the whole of the Ukraine go over...and that would bne the first step in a process for Russia to once again establish a buffer between itself and western Europe.
Folks, when you elect a man who sat with the Russian Prime Minister Medvedev, just before the 2012 Elections, and told him...when he thought he was off microphone...that after the elections, he, Obama, “would be a lot more flexible,” with Putin...this is what you get.
We need to neuter this guy politically in 2014, and then run he and his ilk out of the White House for good in 2016. If we do not, things will get worse...much worse.
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