Russia on the move

Who knows? At least I don't think the scandinavian countries have been a part of, or antagonistic to russia. Poland and parts of germany are different. But many feel Putin may want to rebuild russia. Don't forget. Once he took power, he kicked out those that helped put him there.

I think the best way to handle him is through mutual respect from a position of strength. The strength part, for the us, has declined for over a decade. The respect part went out the window not long after the move on crimea. That is to say that how I would have handled it is simply no longer possible, though I would have wanted him to simply back off and THAT was out of the question a couple days before the move.

Steve

Shhhh! Don't give them ideas's.

In all fairness, with the amount of troops and fire power Russia has on the Ukrainian border, if they go in, it'll be over pretty fast and I don't think anyone will be foolish enough to go up against them. I'm with Sarevok to some extent, Putin is a smart and ruthless man and he knows everyone knows it.

It's one nasty situation and it's also having the detrimental effect of putting Syria and other areas in the back of peoples minds.

Which brides are in fashion nowadays in Norway?

Actually, that would be a very clever strategy to make inroads into other nations. Oh wait, they've been doing it for many decades. Who else is doing that? Maybe Rupert Murdoch might know? ()

You guys should all checkout what's being said on the blog of Jack Matlock he's the former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union under Reagen/Bush snr. he says more sense than I lot of people I see in the media.

Here & Now: A Blog |

There's a lot of distortion of truth on both sides, but Russia is distorting the situation more. Some of the stuff coming out of Hawks like John McCain, Fox news is pure drivel, but I sometimes watch the Russia Today network and some of their spin is even more ludicrous. There are however a hell of a lot of westerners who actually sympathise with Putin because they think every foreign policy decision by the US is a neocon chess game- under Bush I'd probably agree but even given Obama's flaws i think he means well at heart. But it does no favours to the US when they see themselves (rightly or wrongly) as the world policemen when many countries resent American foreign policy after Iraq and the War On Terror.

The background is also very complex, Gorbachev was promised that NATO would not expand after the end of the Cold War, which has been reneged on numerous times. Also people Like John McCain were seen schoomzing with pseudo fascist groups like Right Sector before the change of government and I know a few Russians who think it was a CIA inspired coup like in Chile in the 70s. Also have Ukraine in NATO could be like a tinderbox. I broadly support NATO, but most intelligent commentators I've read have said they should stay out of Ukraine as it's history & culture is much closer to Russia's than that of the EU.

But there is no doubt a lot of neighbouring states in the Baltics, former Warsaw Pact countries like Poland who are are weary of Russia and probably suffered more under Stalin and his henchmen then they did under Hitler during World War 2 and during the cold war. Poland is particularly hawkish towards Russia and are very enthusiastic about NATO. I've spent a lot of time in former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe and saw the devastation left by Stalin's iron fist so can see why. Nobody forced these countries to join NATO unlike how Russia forced so many of them to join the Soviet Empire after World War 2.