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[Sergarr]

Could factors other than sanctions explain it though? Wierd that the sanctions aren't affecting Russian stocks that much.

Also, source?

According to this US apparently import thrice as much as it exports from Russia. Weird.

[Owlbread]

Alistair Darling, former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer under Gordon Brown, has been leader of the Unionist campaign in Scotland known as Better Together since 2012. He has regularly been accused of being overly negative and pursuing scare tactics to effectively "scare Scots" out of voting Yes.

Spoiler: This is Darling (click to show/hide)

Despite being a red-tied Tory nowadays (like the rest of the Labour leadership) he used to be a real radical in his youth, marching for a "Socialist Workers' Republic" as a Trotskyist. He even had a beard. After being advised by Tony Blair and his underlings to shave it off to make himself more presentable as a serious politician, he sold his soul to Satan himself tempered his views considerably and made it big. He also softened his accent to sound as English as possible, but that is common practise.

It's actually worth looking at those days, back when Darling was cool. That he should be accused of being overly negative in the modern era is rather amusing considering what he was like addressing the Labour Party Conference of 1981. It's unclear what he's talking about in that, but it seems to be something related to the Tories/Margaret Thatcher and some kind of insane conspiracy that will lead to chaos, rape and murder with the collusion of the police among our populace. Or so it seems.

Someone commented on the video on a pro-independence website, saying this:

The context of that speech was Alistair explaining to his kids why they couldn’t go to Legoland.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Russia Violated 1987 Nuclear Missile Treaty

[smjjames]

And one from CNN just because. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/28/politics/us-russia-missile-treaty/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

If the cruise missile testing started is 2008, why did it take 6 years to call them out on the treaty? The timing of it seems odd, like why now? Why not call them out on it last year?

[MarcAFK]

Technically it's a bullshit treaty since it bans medium range missiles but not the kinds of longer range nuclear capable missiles the US and Russia have in abundance... But still it's something...

[BlindKitty]

Technically it's a bullshit treaty since it bans medium range missiles but not the kinds of longer range nuclear capable missiles the US and Russia have in abundance... But still it's something...

It is important treaty for one reason - missiles with range bigger than 5500 kilometers are stratospheric, which means they give much, much more warning before hitting the target (due to some combination of ease of detection, long flight times and being quite specific, as in, there aren't all that many thing flying in the stratosphere) than medium-range missiles that don't go so high. Which means medium-range missiles can devastate whole Europe before anybody will find out what's going on, leading to a situation where mutually assured destruction isn't all that assured - first strike could conceivably eliminate enemy chance to retaliate almost without warning.

As for why take it out now - well, there is a chance that getting that plane shot down have opened some eyes here or there, and we are now going in direction of getting Russia's dirty laundry out in the open to convince people that some action could be in fact a good idea when a war erupts in Europe...

[MarcAFK]

With advances in hyper velocity scramjets and whatnot it won't be long until a small cruise missile could easily out range that distance without going stratospheric and in a fraction if the time.

[10ebbor10]

It's an old cold war treaty. I don't think it was supposed to last.

On a side note, Project Pluto is relevant here.

[BlindKitty]

With advances in hyper velocity scramjets and whatnot it won't be long until a small cruise missile could easily out range that distance without going stratospheric and in a fraction if the time.

Yeah, probably. Still, while it didn't happen, I, living between 500 and 5500 kilometers from Russia, would feel much safer without them having such rockets. But hey, it's not like anybody is respecting any international treaties until they are forced to, so...

[da_nang]

Russian Lawmakers Draft Bill On 'Aggressor Countries'

[GrizzlyAdamz]

Well, the 'aggressor' terminology is cute, but it's subtle enough that it might be a translation error.
From that site:

The "Izvestia" report quoted Yevgeny Fyodorov, a deputy from the ruling United Russia party, as saying the far-reaching proposals would allow the Russian government to restrict auditing and consulting companies registered in "aggressor countries" in their operations in Russia.

Many Russian companies need to be audited by these companies to meet conditions attached to various bond/equity covenants," (someone else) said. "If they go down this path they could be in breach of these, which could shut them totally off from international capital markets and provoke a brutal market reaction.

[ivze]

Russia Violated 1987 Nuclear Missile Treaty

I told you... It won't end good.
The reason, why two big Slavonic nations hate each other is because if we loved each other, that would be disastrous for THEM. The same applies to Poland.

UR, do you remember an attitude to Albanians, when there was an Yugoslavian war? We've starting to hate Ukrainian nationalists with the same unforgettable deep hate. With the feeling as powerful, as that, which drew Jews back to Jerusalem two thousand years after their expelling. This is the worse, that could happen...

We, Russians, Ukrainians are mighty people. How to destroy us? Idea: make us fight against each other!
If it all goes up to your wish, with your hands first THEY will destroy us. Then it will be time for you.

If you have anything behind your heart, consider stopping. It all goes into the abyss otherwise.

[smjjames]

Russia Violated 1987 Nuclear Missile Treaty

I told you... It won't end good.
The reason, why two big Slavonic nations hate each other is because if we loved each other, that would be disastrous for THEM. The same applies to Poland.

UR, do you remember an attitude to Albanians, when there was an Yugoslavian war? We've starting to hate Ukrainian nationalists with the same unforgettable deep hate. With the feeling as powerful, as that, which drew Jews back to Jerusalem two thousand years after their expelling. This is the worse, that could happen...

We, Russians, Ukrainians are mighty people. How to destroy us? Idea: make us fight against each other!
If it all goes up to your wish, with your hands first THEY will destroy us. Then it will be time for you.

If you have anything behind your heart, consider stopping. It all goes into the abyss otherwise.

What even are you saying? I'm having difficulty following your logic here..... and who's 'them'?

[ivze]

What even are you saying? I'm having difficulty following your logic here..... and who's 'them'?

Little remark: the forces, that started the conflict, and that benefit from the splitting of our nations.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Ivze, maybe you, Russians will consider going to the street and force that megalomaniac dwarf to stop killing Ukrainians?

Are you starting to hate Ukrainian nationalists all Ukrainians because we are fighting back? Well, that is a Russian problem

_________________

Meanwhile my friend from the front told me that Russian soldiers failed to survive that falling on their heads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTR-21_Tochka.
Oh I forgot, there are no Russian army in Ukraine... So that is  untrue, right?