Don’t know how long Putin can stage this on the border...he has to feed these troops etc.
At any rate....the International Leaders continue to poke the Bear...and he clearly said “springs recoil when they’re pushed too hard.”
Until the crisis in Ukraine the EU and Russia were not geopolitical competitors......But as the EU kept expanding it’s membership to include ten new countries, many of them former Soviet satellites and three republics of the former Soviet Union from about 2004 on...Putins been warning the EU and the US......
The EU forced an “either-or of Russia or EU” choice, which Russia always warned against.....and then the active involvement of the US in their political affairs as we know now...helping to organize, support and fund the MAiden Protests. Even after concessions were made by their elected Pres the MAiden had requested...they refused...and the mess exploded.
So With this being directly on Russians border..and his warm water port...I cannot blame him for protecting it, we’d do the same...they called his bluff and here we are.
That maybe is key Caww. I’m thinking less than 72 hours. Don’t know where it goes, if it goes down.
I pity dear Comrade Vladi . . . all those tiny nations on the Russian periphery, with the freedom to do as they please without asking his permission.
Stronger trading blocks do not “poke” the bear. Russia alone with its eleven time zones can market its wares and natural resources to Europe no matter how strong Europe is economically. Putin knows Europe is not a threat militarily unless he has ambitions for rolling into places he shouldn’t.
What's the problem with that? Trucks don't have roads to drive on? It's a very, very short logistics tail.