Posted on 09/27/2014 8:21:12 PM PDT by Olog-hai
People in the Baltic states cannot feel secure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a plan he has been working on for over a decade. So says former adviser to President Putin, Andrey Illarionov.
Giving a presentation at a conference in Palanga, Lithuania, Illarionov, who advised Putin on economic policy in 2000-2005, referred to a question that was raised in the recent Riga Conference 2014: Can people in Riga sleep peacefully at night?
“The same question could be raised in Tallinn, Vilnius, Palanga, Bucharest and other cities. No one in Riga could reply to it in the positive,” Illarionov said. “From my side, though, the question should be rephrased, especially after Barack Obama visited Estonia and said that NATO was prepared to defend Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The situation seems safer after the statement, but we must look at military readiness, military equipment at hand, not words. From the point of view of military readiness, NATO forces in the Baltics are insufficient.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at en.delfi.lt ...
No match for NATO if NATO takes a stand.
Like I said, Putin is bluffing and trying to see what he can do before the big boys react.
What’s his bluff? So far, the bluffs have come from “our” side. Actual physical military firepower and manpower is no guarantee of success, and that’s a lesson straight out of history.
NATO is out of US control; has been since the 1990s, thanks to Clinton with respect to the Bosnia debacle. There have been reports of an “understanding” between Germany and Russia since 2008 as well, so if nothing was done six years ago, nothing significant will be done at this juncture, that is until stronger leadership shows itself.
His bluff is that he is trying to convince people like you that his military can handle NATO.
Rather than play this long game of little posts of tiny bits, why don’t you just spit out whatever your point is?
All warfare is based on deception. … (I:18)If the will is not in our leadership, then any demagogue will keep pushing to see where the limits are, and will breach the limits where deemed feasible. Same thing happened during the 1930s with Adolf. And there are too many people sympathetic with Vladimir in our own federal government, as I presume you well know (including Obama, obviously)—and just as many sympathizers in the EU.
That was your point?
OK.
Thank Obama. His fingerprints are all over the overthrow of Yanukovych. What did he think Putin would do? Suck his thumb? I’d say Putin is about two clicks away from invading Ukraine and taking Kiev by force. Gazprom will then dictate terms to the EU.
Sad, another major blunder by Obama.
I am not suggesting that renewables can replace carbon fuels, but they can certainly carry a much larger share of the load. Why else did T. Boone Pickens buy or lease large areas of windy west Texas and promote major grid improvements from west to east Texas? For those who don’t know, Pickens is a very rich Texas oil man.
Crony capitalism, with subsidies, was why.
Tell me, how is that wind farm going?
http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/16/wind-investments-blow-pickens-off-the-forbes-400-list/
One could say the same about any European colonial power, and members of their expanding colonies. It’s what we do, It’s what humans do.
That's all BS. Leftists and anti-American conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones keep claiming that Obama and Soros are supposedly behind what happened in Ukraine, forgetting that Yanukovych was beating people, stripping people naked in the snow, kidnapping and torturing people, and passing dictatorship laws, long before McCain or the U.S. started giving kudos to the growing number of protestors. There are also a great number of lies and misrepresentations spread by Russian media, and also lots of stupid people who vomit them up on this forum without checking if what they are reading is true or not.
Case in point, the association agreement is not for Ukraine to join the EU. It is a trade agreement, the same one countries like Israel also has with the EU. Yanukovych campaigned on it himself, until Putin told him to reverse course.
Don't know about racially, but there is definitely an element of their culture where they seem to prefer the Oriental Despotism they inherited from their Mongol conquerers than the Western system of rights and laws.
Ironically, Jefferson was one of the most prominent proponents of nation-building in North Africa, specifically Liberia, as a place to relocate former slaves from the U.S.
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