Posted on 07/23/2014 11:57:11 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The most important thing for European ministers to remember during this crisis is how little they actually have to fear from Mr Putin – for Russia needs the West far more than the West needs Russia. Indeed, there is every possibility that denying Moscow access to the global capital markets, which is the strategy at the heart of Washington’s latest sanctions initiative, could ultimately result in Mr Putin’s downfall. For a start, thanks to the mismanagement and corruption that have dogged Russia’s economy since Mr Putin came to power, the country has nothing much else to offer other than its energy exports. The over-valued Russian currency has resulted in the erosion of Russia’s engineering and manufacturing sectors to the extent that without revenue earned from its oil gas and exports, it would be in severe financial difficulties.
Nor does Mr Putin’s threat to reduce Europe to darkness stand much scrutiny. Europe as a whole is not as dependent on Russia for its gas supplies as many politicians would like us to believe. Russian gas makes up only 30 per cent of Europe’s total energy needs. There have been abundant quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) acquired from countries such as Qatar and Algeria and stored at purpose-built terminals around Europe. According to industry experts, these could, in an emergency, be used to quickly fill any gaps in energy supply. A new network of two-way gas pipelines set up in the wake of the Georgia crisis – the latest services Poland and the Baltic states – could quickly be adjusted to supply adequate quantities of LNG to any country threatened with Russian cuts, although it might prove more costly than the present arrangements.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Russia “survives” through time, but while being about the worst place on earth that white people live in.
Russians are terrible people and have a terrible nation.
When it comes to defeating/putting the US it in it’s place ...I believe China would do it. Don’t forget South America. They have no love for the US. China could sell it’s products there....
China is going to look after their own interests first. They are taking advantage of Russia’s weakness. Anyone who thinks Russia is strong had better take another look. Just compare Russia’s GDP to China’s. China is not interested in subsidizing Russia.
Get back to me when all those nations start trading in Russian rubles.
Putin is clever alright. He’s a cold-blooded , ruthless murdering ex-KGB thug who’s playing Obama like a fiddle.
Re: “There have been abundant quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) acquired from countries such as Qatar and Algeria”
Why, of course.
The peace loving, stable, secular democracies in Qatar and Algeria are the perfect insurance policy against Russia and Mr. Putin.
Not to minimize what occurred, but I don’t think the timing of this will lead to a bad sequence of other events.
In that way, it is not like Duke Ferdinand. the battleship Maine, or the Tonkin incident at a some very dicey times in history. It will be more akin to our shoot down of that Iranian plane. Or even the Russian shoot down of the Korean airlines plane.
As to the evidence...I don’t think it’s up for argument. The plane was shot down. And few people look up. The plane was ripped apart by aero forces after the nose was probably opened up, splitting it apart like the aluminum and plastic can that it is. After the charge detonated there would be no further explosion noises until the wreckage hit the ground from 33K feet. The area is pretty tree’d in so visibility would be limited for most areas where people are. I am not clear on the population density but it does not look very crowded.
If someone did have video evidence, the chances that they are Russian nationals or sympathize with them are very high at it was close to the border. We will never see it.
I don’t know what else you need to know to make rational assumptions. The flight data recorders will not likely add to the evidence. I think the pilots were killed by the fragmentation charge. The data should show a cascade failure of all of the controls as it broke up. The wreckage of the plane will be the best witness you can get.
Maybe the only witness other than the audio intercepts.
China is selling their product there, and signing trade deals.
Vlad has stepped in it with this Ukranian misadventure. He is deep into his egg money just supplying material to the separatists. Now with all the hub bub from Europe the 40 or so oligarchs Putin answers to are bound to be getting upset that their business with Europe is going to suffer. And that all important credit window in the west is starting to shut.
Russia has a 3,000 mile border with China. They have always been worried about what that could potentially mean which is why they play nice with the ChiComs but they are not friends.
Ummmm......they are doing that now...
It won’t be much longer before the excess dollars used for global trade are no longer needed and pile up like the useless paper that it will be labeled. The Federal reserve will have a lot of work to do, trying to keep a lid on the mess.
Does not explain the 80% approval....in a recent poll...IMO
LOL
The ruble will never replace the dollar. The Chinese yuan, maybe, but not the ruble.
Are things really going to be as bad as they were even 20 years ago?
Well the Russian public is kept in the dark and fed BS worse than the American public so their perception of things doesn’t mean its the reality.
China has almost 10 times as many people as Russia.
GDP per capita is a more interesting statistic.
In that, Russia has a commanding lead:
$15,000 to $7,000.
Also, Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons and ICBMs.
No rational person is going to get into a shoving match with a former KGB colonel.
The larger ones are arranging direct trade between themselves using their own currencies as the article points out regarding Russia and China.
If this extends to the EURO, and it will do so in due time, then the US dollar will no longer be the currency of choice or the mandated currency globally.
It is estimated by some experts that the quality of life that US citizens have enjoyed via the ability to print money when needed will decline by at least 25 to 30 percent. That estimate is reasonable, I think, based on our debt and the fact that without the ability to print as we have been doing, and stacking the money in others state banks, we will be forced to devalue at a time when inflation is the primary financial problem.
The only thing holding us up right now is the plain fact that we are bad, but others are worse.
That situation is changing.
I would argue that.
The propaganda is just as thick here as it is there, since we now have a King.
It doesn’t here either. How can you say that in America people aren’t kept in the dark?
You know as well as I do that the media here is corrupt. That is not saying that people in Russia get anything different.
Enter lo info voters.
We sit here and argue this stuff and most of them don’t even know where Ukraine is. They don’t even know an airliner went down.
America needs to fix itself and protect its own sovereignty before entangling itself in more foreign wars.
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