Posted on 03/16/2014 4:53:45 PM PDT by politisite
Russian debt to GDP is only 8.4%. Compare that to ours. Sorry - you are thinking of the old Russia. Ruskie military hardware has issues but they are still well able to dominate central and eastern Europe.
Free Europe needs to stop buying Russian gas. But they will not.
Obama will NEVER fire on warning...what survived after the 1st wave will be little...
The Caribbean is a Russian lake. Perhaps.
Russia would be lucky to finaciallly sustain a war with Ukraine for 30 days. If Putin were so unwise as to attempt to take over the Ukraine it would be a war of attrition and he would see the Ukranaian resistance blowing the pipeline up on a daily basis.
They are on shaky ground financially right now. The only things they produce are gas, oil, wheat and some weapons. They have not produced a new product since the early 70’s. They have a very modest economy and no infrastructure. Their army is conscripts.
The reason Russia is not at war with anybody because they can’t afford it. Putin will get Crimea because its easy.
Well, so much for the Mother Country of my ancestors. Time to make Borscht out of the motherland and turn that place into blood red green glass.
We can “Put on the Blitz, too, comrades”.
Look at the number of Americans who work for Russian Television (RT). You’ll be surprised who you see on it.
The rhetoric on both sides is escalating. Putin states that he could turn the US into radioactive dust.
This is off the wall, but what if MH370 is linked to what is happening in Crimea? What if MH370 was in response to Russian threats and sabre rattling in the Ukraine? The disappearance came soon after the Crimean invasion, perhaps Russia not backing down after 0.00’s comments, led someone in power to take the plane? After all, what about that Mercedes that was remotely taken over last year, crashed and killed reporter Michael Hasting?
What if MH370 was taken by US ‘spook’ interests, as a message to Moscow? ‘We’ll give you Crimea, but Ukraine will remain outside of your control. You see what we can do, any time, any place we want. We chose a Boeing 777, but next time it could be an Ilyushin Il-96-300PU operated by GTK Rossiya, with YOU on board, Mr. Putin!’ Would Vlad respond with a veiled threat to turn the US into a sea of green glass?
We know that DARPA has a large ‘official’ budget, how much additional money is hidden amongst other ‘white’ items? They have videos of some of the research the do, including all kinds of robots. What else do they have, that they do not (and should not) reveal to the public? The SR-71 Blackbird first flew in 1964, but was not made public for 15+ years. The F-117 Nighthawk first flew in 1981 but was not revealed until November 1988.
I suspect that the DARPA budget is like an iceberg, only the top 10% is visible. I suspect that we cannot even dream of the technology they possess. Perhaps the ability to take over an aircraft from a distance and fly it ‘stealthily’ is but one of their abilities.
In the end, some person or persons know what has happened to MH370, whether it was terrorists or a government, friendly or unfriendly that took the aircraft. We will only discover the whys and wherefores, when they see fit to reveal the details.
Obama is way too busy selling Obamacare to worry about Radioactive ash
Someone should ask him if exposure to radioactive ash is covered by Obamacare and if so, what type of care will it provide.
I have to disagree with your entire analysis.
Russia has reserves and can borrow.
What could possibly lead you to the conclusion there would be a “war of attrition”?
Pipelines can be guarded. GDP growth in Russia was only 1.5% last year but in reality (not appearance) they are in better shape than most of Europe. Their army is composed of moderately trained conscripts but is the fourth largest in the world. As compared to Europe which essentially has no armies.
The reason Russia is not at war with Europe is because Europe will not intervene over Crimea or even all of the Ukraine. They have neither the will or the ability.
All that said - up to now Putin has only absorbed territory that is majority Russian. I do not think there is any interest in the Kremlin in crossing that boundary at this time. We shall see.
The enemy just needs to knock out the power grid and the inner city youth will burn down and loot the cities for them. Patriotiism is dead with these people—its all about Me and what I can take. Its not a race thing—its a selfish thing.
One has to wonder about the negatives if Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles were reduced to radioactive ash. Would that be so bad?
LOL - good one.
What I find astounding, is that folks actually come here and prattle about an election run by the Russians to benefit the... wait for it... wait for it... RUSSIANS!
And it’s all in the tone as if they election was held in some county in our heartland.
Folks, buy a freakin’ clue will ya.
A while longer under this admin. and there won’t be much left for Russia to destroy or worry about. But if they do push the button, let me know so I can finish off that box of bon bons.
A couple of additional points. Yes the Ukraine has a pretty large army and Russian level equipment. But I really think they would back down in the face of a Russian invasion. Which isn’t going to happen under Putin.
Crimea is different. It is majority Russian, and it is a semi-autonomous region. Under treaty, signed by the government in Kiev, the Russians are authorized to maintain and support their bases in Crimea. They are allowed up to 25,000 troops to be active in Crimea. When this started and the press went crazy, they had 16k there, they did not import more, but rather just put them on alert. We did the same thing in Germany when the Wall fell. We patrolled and were in lockdown.
It is just not the Black sea port and naval base. They have two air bases and an army base, plus a few more outposts. Western governments know all this. They are going to have an election. Assuming it is as fair as US elections (ha!!) let them decide.
The Poles will defend Western Ukraine, because it used to belong to Poland, and they don’t want more Russian soldiers on their border, since they already have Kaliningrad to worry about.
And what would the effect be on global warming? That’s the real concern. /sarc
Damn, Hillary should have remembered to take that darn reset button back home with her instead of leaving it in Russia with Putin.
Hillary obviously never watched the Twilight Zone when she was growing up.
God help us if Putin's pet monkey gets ahold of the magical Hillary Clinton Russian Foreign Relations Reset Device, it's more dangerous than the Carl Rove weather making machine
When people comment about how many/much weapons or nukes a country has I always wonder how they could possibly know that. Where do you get this information from? I don’t want to step on any toes I’m just curious if it’s just folks estimating/guessing or something else?
Really? You don’t think the cadre in power now might say “well, we have to save the earth, we won’t retaliate for mankinds sake” and other crap like that as long as they can squirrel their wealth and families away from it and leave us swinging???
We all know the Russians have a spy ship parked in Cuba...
The Russians also seem to have this supersize tugboat off the coast of Florida...According to the article it sometimes hangs out with some of Russia’s nuclear submarines (maybe to tow them back and forth)
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2014/03/watching-russians-off-floridas-coast.html
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