Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Well. Putin said  "In Ukraine revolution happened so this is absolutely new country. 1994 Budapest memorandum was signed with country that doesn't exist anymore and Russia will not follow it"

I guess that  means all loans and deals with Russia are canceled, too.

He is crazy

[10ebbor10]

Which means Russia broke the 2010 Kharkiv agreement that extend the lease for the Sevastopol base. So if Russia doesn't secure Crimean independence, they may lose their base in 2017.

Nope, they didn't. Or well, not now. Ukraine paid 400$ per per thousand cubic metres in 2013, so the discount appears to have disappeared much earlier. They have this nice loophole that Ukraine not paying(because it can't afford it) means that Ukraine technically fails to comply with agreement, which means they get to increase their prices.

[olemars]

Just watched Putin say there are no russian troops outside their black sea naval bases, while watching a live feed of a very russian Tigr truck with HMG mount blocking the entrance to a crimean airfield. [edit: reuters live feed ended]

Not sure if these feeds work outside Norway but here's an earlier clip of a confrontation between unarmed ukrainian air force personnel trying to get into the base and the blockading soldiers firing warning shots at them.

[kaian-a-coel]

Warning shots? Oh boy.

[Sheb]

You've got to admire their guts. Also, this is the manliest staring match ever.

[olemars]

I think the guy who fired is not a russian soldier but some sort of militia, while the guys with helmets are the actual soldiers.

[Sheb]

Apparently, those rumors about the frigate were fake, according to the Ukrainian MoD and the frigate's own FB page.

[timferius]

Because of course the frigate has a Facebook page...

[Steelmagic]

Does it have selfies? Drunk posts? Arguments with exes?

[Knit tie]

Interesting article, making the point that Putin ain't so much a chessmaster trying to take over the Free World(tm) as scrambling to save what can be saved of Russian influence in the region. After all, 25 years ago, Moscow controlled the whole Black Sea coast save for Turkey. Now, with Georgia definitely West and Ukraine heading that way too, all that's left is a small stretch of Russian coast and Abkhazia. The same dynamic is at play all over Europe, with the west (in the guise of the EU and NATO) surging eastward over the last 25 years.

Since as I said before Russia won't assimilate into the West, Putin understandably feel more and more isolated. After all, he may have taken Crimea, but over the last months he lost the rest of Ukraine. 

(Fun fact: the West now stretch all the way to 25° East.)

This

[kaian-a-coel]

Because of course the frigate has a Facebook page...

I want to sig this...

[Ghazkull]

gah finally catched up with the thread again.

But honestly if i were in UR's shoes i'd start loading a rifle or dust off the Russian flags, because relying on the incompetent bunch of nitwits that call themselves the government of germany is the last thing i would do...ever.

[timferius]

Because of course the frigate has a Facebook page...

I want to sig this...

Woo-hoo! I'm sig worthy!

All the major world leaders seem to be throwing down over this. Russia is saying they have the right to use force in Ukrain if they want, the members of the G8 (or at least our prime-minister) are threatening to throw russia out, everyone wants to saction everything. I'm pretty sure Russia has already pretty much destroyed their diplomatic position with the rest of the world. Do they have a secret massive army ammassing underground? Have we entered Bond-Movie territory yet?

[Dutchling]

Meh. As long as Putin avoids involving Poland I really don't see this turning out too bad for Russia.

Maybe a year or so of banned shampoo imports.

[mainiac]

Well, it's the threat that counts. Unless China or some other country accounts for that massive dump, then we will see massive problems all over the world. Hell, this would simply be a second economic collapse.

No it wouldn't trigger a second economic collapse.  If the Russians did this and it wasn't a big publicity stunt, the average man on the street wouldn't even notice.  Did you notice back in any of the massive shifts in treasury note buying habits that international investors have done over the past five years?  Some of those were larger then this Russian "threat".

Read this, it's about china but the same topic: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/chinas-water-pistol/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0