Now that the US's ISIS gambit has been stymied by Russia -- they are raising the game in Europe to make Russia spend more on its military.
The long game by the US is to keep drawing Russia into conflicts while the russian economy is in a downturn -- the US clearly feels that breaking up USSR in 1991 did not go far enough. Of all the crises on the planet, the mofos in the US think Russia is the greatest threat! seriously?
When shit hits the fan, US don't want to worry about dealing with a hard nut like Russia.
In any future scenario, there are two powers that can really challenge US and severely hurt it - China and Russia
US isn't targeting China right now for reasons that I don't completely understand. Though I can think of two:
1. Economic interdependence part and Govt. treasury bonds etc.
2. For China, the neighboring India can be used as counterweights (and vice versa).
But there is nobody at their disposal to use as counter weight against Russia.
Except that they're by hook or crook trying to force EU in that role.
In an all hell broke loose scenario, the small fishes cannot pose existential threat to US. The big ones can, hence the homework.
Looks like no one listens to Kissinger these days. He just made a visit to Russia that was not given media space by the US govt. but given media publicity by the Russian govt. His views are sane for a change.
In a December interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, Kissinger said that he believes the West should understand there could be no resolution to the Syrian crisis and unity without Russia’s participation. He also said that one cannot defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISISL) militants in the Middle East using diplomatic means.
Britain responds to Russian threat by beefing up Royal Navy
Britain will send five warships to join Nato's maritime arm
Kim Sengupta Brussels
Wednesday 10 February 2016 08:58 BST
HMS Iron Duke, moored in Portsmouth Naval Base Getty Images
Britain is sending five warships and 530 naval personnel to join Nato’s maritime arm as the alliance boosts its military force to counter what it sees as a growing threat from Russia. British troops will also be stationed on the ground in the Baltic states, near to the Russian border, it has emerged.
Nato defence ministers are set to also approve measures including the stockpiling of weapons in bases in eastern Europe. The US has quadrupled its budget for forces in Europe to $3.4bn (£2.3bn) and has announced that half of this will be spent on a “heavy brigade” armour and artillery in western Europe.
Read more
Russian warships 'to conduct military drills in English Channel'
Global Hawk surveillance drones, previously used in Afghanistan, will be based in Sicily and used to gather intelligence from all the Nato’s borders.
The British deployment, the first to Nato’s maritime force in six years, will consist of a Type 23 frigate, HMS Iron Duke, a destroyer and three minesweepers. They will be in service in the Baltic, the North Atlantic, the North Sea and the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy’s largest warship, HMS Ocean, took part in a major “reassurance” exercise for eastern member states in the Baltic region last year.
Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said: “Increasing our Nato deployment sends a strong message to our enemies that we are ready to respond to any threat and defend our allies; 2016 will see a particular focus on the Baltic region with our ships sent there as part of the Maritime Group, the Mine Counter Measure Group and the Baltops exercise.”
NATO reinforces Baltic presence as tensions rise with Russia
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s Secretary-General, said that all member states were agreed on the need for action. He said: “I expect ministers to agree to enhance our forward presence in the eastern part of our Alliance. This will boost our collective defence and at the same time send a powerful signal to deter any aggression or intimidation.”
Western leaders regard the new measures as imperative because of increasing aggression by the Kremlin, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Former members of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact that are now part of Nato have repeatedly called for a show of strength from the alliance to head off Russian aggression.
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Michael Fallon says the deployment sends a message to ‘Nato’s enemies’ (Getty)
A Nato summit in Warsaw in the summer will work out the composition of western forces to be stationed in six Baltic states. It is believed that up to 6,000 troops will be stationed in these countries and each contingent will have a substantial proportion of soldiers from western Nato members, the UK, USA, Germany and France.
The US ambassador to Nato, Douglas Lute, denied that the moves were provocative towards Russia or broke an agreement between Nato and Russia which barred the establishment of bases by the alliance in former Warsaw Pact states. “We don’t agree with that at all. It isn’t provocative towards Russia and it does not violate the Nato-Russia Act,” he said. “This is not an aggressive move. Nato has not invaded anyone lately.”
Mr Lute insisted that the decision to station armour and artillery in western Europe rather than in the east was not to avoid breaching the agreement between Nato and Russia. “They will be there because there are better facilities, better transport links in the West,” he said. “It will also be less expensive because we can use the old Cold War bases.”
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Alexander Grushko, Russia’s envoy to Nato, said that the deployment of Nato forces in eastern Europe “cannot be left without a military answer” and added: “Russia won’t compromise its security interests”.
The Kremlin has ordered a military exercise in the northern Caucuses, the Crimea and areas close to Ukraine’s bordercompromise its security interests.”
America’s national intelligence director, James Clapper, told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that Russia’s aggressive military intervention in Ukraine and other moves could put Moscow and the US “into another Cold War-like spiral”, adding: “I think the Russians fundamentally are paranoid about Nato.”
Now that the US's ISIS gambit has been stymied by Russia -- they are raising the game in Europe to make Russia spend more on its military.
The long game by the US is to keep drawing Russia into conflicts while the russian economy is in a downturn -- the US clearly feels that breaking up USSR in 1991 did not go far enough. Of all the crises on the planet, the mofos in the US think Russia is the greatest threat! seriously?
When shit hits the fan, US don't want to worry about dealing with a hard nut like Russia.
In any future scenario, there are two powers that can really challenge US and severely hurt it - China and Russia US isn't targeting China right now for reasons that I don't completely understand. Though I can think of two:
1. Economic interdependence part and Govt. treasury bonds etc.
2. For China, the neighboring India can be used as counterweights (and vice versa).
But there is nobody at their disposal to use as counter weight against Russia.
Except that they're by hook or crook trying to force EU in that role.
In an all hell broke loose scenario, the small fishes cannot pose existential threat to US. The big ones can, hence the homework.
Regards,
Virendra
China (economy and political) was built by the help of US to counter the global power of Soviet and later Russia.
Chinese cheap labor was used for keeping the inflation down in US. The heavy subsidy of China govt is being exploited by US business for worldwide profits.
US wants to protect the chinese shipping lanes and merchant ships. These are lifeline of Chinese economy and worldwide trade. US helped in increasing China global trade profile and reach worldwide.
These are the reasons why US is not targeting China
Re: Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]
Posted: 11 Feb 2016 19:51
by Gyan
Except for USA, Russian economy is the most independent & super self sufficient economy. If Russia enters war economy mode then conventional calculations of GDP will not apply.
A poll released on Wednesday by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed that Ms. Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party – which was decimated in the 2014 election – is now the most popular party in the country, with 20.5 per cent support. Second was the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc, with 12.1 per cent, followed by the leftist Radical Party, at 11.6 per cent.
Didn't we say so on BRF aeons ago? Choco soldier will melt in the heat of Russia warming up to its CW levels of mil ops displayed in Syria. Europe cannot even deal with the refugee crisis.Imagine it dealing with Russia in a mano-a-mano mil faceoff over the UKR! Fraurer Merkel surely hasn't forgotten the Iron Chanmcellor Otto Von Bismarck's famous quote about the Balkans.You could easily read UKR instead.
Der ganze Balkan ist nicht die gesunden Knochen eines einzigen pommerschen Grenadiers wert.
The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.
He also said...
If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans
and finally...
The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.
Sadly,no one ever learns ...as he said...
What we learn from history is that no one learns from history.
Two Indian students have been attacked and killed in western Ukraine.
Re: Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]
Posted: 16 Apr 2016 12:43
by Bhurishrava
And while we lost focus, Ukraine has made the transition between Yatsneuk to Groisman. All the expat ministers are out. The Americans have been made laughing stock of, after the new cabinet came into being.
Apparently Washington wanted Natalie Jaresko to be made Prime Minister. Instead, she has left the cabinet. Most likely she will return home. Other western puppets are out too. The support from IMF will waver now.
Putin`s patience has paid off. Poroshenko and his bunch of thugs were never going to make it anyway.
Ridiculous stupidity by the western countries to needlessly meddle in Ukraine and ruin the lives of millions of people.
Re: Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]
Posted: 21 Apr 2016 14:54
by Yagnasri
Not their people. The will burn the world down to promote what their think as their interest. It is the idiots in Poland to Ukraine who are now believing that they can get great friends from NATO and Khan. Let them live in this dream for a decade of more and they will come to their senses.
Re: Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]
Posted: 25 Apr 2016 22:38
by Bhurishrava
RSoami wrote:EU has gotten into a really bad monkey trap. They wont get out of this without scratches whatsoever.
But for the weak state of Russian economy, Putin holds all the cards. And its not going to be worse than the 90s still.
IMHO, this fighting will continue. West will stop funding Ukraine. The junta will collapse. Ukrane will disintegrate.
The European Union on Thursday (21 April) rapped a proposed change in Ukrainian law that would let President Petro Poroshenko appoint an ally with no legal experience to the prosecutor general’s post.
The EU and Ukraine have postponed a summit scheduled for next month until September to give the pro-Western government in Kyiv more time for political and financial reforms, the EU said yesterday (27 April).
Reliance Defence has signed an agreement with three Ukrainian state-owned firms — Ukroboronprom, Spetstechno Exports and Antonov — to collaborate on a range of military products including transport aircraft, armoured vehicles, maritime gas turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday appointed a close ally of President Petro Poroshenko with no legal background as general prosecutor, a position seen by the West as crucial for Kiev's plans to tackle entrenched corruption.
The appointment may disappoint the European Commission, which like the United States and the International Monetary Fund, has tied aid to Ukraine to Kiev's performance on corruption and reforms. Brussels had urged Poroshenko to nominate someone seen as independent who had a legal background.
“If the elites make the assumption that they could engage in political games as opposed to actually governing, that they can go slow on reform, that they don’t have to be serious about Minsk, they may find that in fact the West has turned away,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told the ninth annual Kyiv Security Forum the day after the Cabinet was announced.
Another approach the West ought to consider is investing in a counter-elite to the Ukrainian oligarchy, consisting of professionals committed to reform, Mr. Gaiday said. Such individuals include Vitaliy Shabunin, Dr. Olha Bohomolets and Yegor Sobolyev, the deputy parliamentary faction head of the Self-Reliance party.
He estimated that about 50 out of the 450 current members of the Verkhovna Rada could be considered part of the counter-elite.
“There needs to be ways of financing their promotional activity and communications with the public, which is the most valuable thing in politics,” he said. “Oligarchs have television and political ads, which people like Sobolyev don’t have.”
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told state-owned television Tuesday that Moscow would insist that the $3 billion debt repayment be stipulated in the new aid package for Ukraine - or Russia will veto it.
Russia derides Ukraine's hiring of ex-Nato chief
Russian MPs say appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as special adviser is a ‘hostile gesture’
“All this buffoonery serves one goal: to keep Ukraine in the centre of attention with its western partners at any cost,” Kosachyov said. “Because if this attention weakens, and they suggest that Ukraine engage in solving its own problems and no longer blame Russia or the ‘difficult legacy of the past’, it will be like death for the Kiev regime.”
Ukraine bans Russian journalists accused of 'stirring hatred'
Rights groups express concern over press freedoms as Kiev imposes sanctions on 17 people, including Ukrainian citizen.
Ukraine Struggles to Shake Off Legacy of Corruption
KIEV, Ukraine — The text message to Ukraine’s minister of economy and trade was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. The sender, a stranger, wrote that he wanted to be the new deputy minister.
The minister, Aivaras Abromavicius, a former investment banker from Lithuania, had joined the government amid promises by the new Western-backed leaders to clean up the country’s corrupt economy. Having no need or desire for a deputy, particularly someone he knew nothing about, Mr. Abromavicius tried to brush off the applicant.
“We don’t have the possibility to create a new position,” he wrote back.
“I think they will make one,” the man replied in another message, this one saved on the phone and released after Mr. Abromavicius resigned, in part over this exchange.
“I got this offer from the team of Petro Oleksiyovych,” the man wrote, referring to the country’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko. “Who specifically?” the minister asked.
Re: Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]
Posted: 17 Jun 2016 16:47
by Austin
Sergei Lavrov Grilled Live on Air by Famous Russian War Reporter
‘We hold no grudge’ & Putin’s other Friday SPIEF highlights on key intl issues
The situation in Ukraine, on the other hand, is a good example of how things should not be done in the international arena. “After the Arab Spring, [the US] sneaked up to our borders. Why did they need to support a coup in Ukraine?” Putin said. “Chances are, the opposition that is currently in power could have reached it through democratic elections, and we would have been working with them, just the way we worked with those who were in power before president Yanukovich.” “But no,” Putin went on, “they had to lead it to a bloody coup with victims, to cause civil war.”
Putin said that the course of events had “scared” Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population in the country’s southeast and Crimea, forcing Russia to take measures “to protect certain groups of people.”
However, NATO “needs a foreign enemy, otherwise what would be the reason for the existence of such an organization.” The whole conflict was forced on Ukraine “to substantiate the very existence of the North Atlantic alliance,” the Russian president concluded.
German minister warns NATO of 'saber-rattling' against Russia
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticized NATO's decision to stage military maneuvers in eastern Europe, warning such moves could worsen tensions with Russia.
His comments reflect growing divisions within Germany's ruling right-left coalition over policy toward Moscow. Steinmeier's Social Democrats (SPD) generally back a more conciliatory stance toward Russia than Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc.
Hilary Clinton's SDOTUS gang leading the applause. 