Thanks one under god

There's hope, perhaps, for a free and funded Western Ukraine.

Meanwhile Eastern Ukraine will likely revert to Ukraine's usual status of being a Russian subject territory.

On March 1, 2014 Putin received Russian parliamentary (rubber stamp) approval permitting him to deploy Russian invasion forces anywhere in Ukraine - not just Crimea.

Pete

And now it begins comrades:

"Russia has begun a build-up of armoured vehicles on its side of a narrow stretch of water between Russia and the Ukrainian region of Crimea, Ukrainian border guards have said...There are armoured vehicles on the other side of the strait."

"I appeal to president Putin to urgently engage in direct dialogue with the authorities in Kiev," secretary general of the UN Ban Ki-moon has said.

Meanwhile, China and Russia are in broad agreement on the situation in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said after telephone talks between the countries' top diplomats."

see http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-03/ukraine-crisis-russian-build-up-of-armour-near-crimea/5295802

Parroting Putin's slogans is not helping.

Pete

Isn't it interesting. Russia went with a market economy in fact if not in name.

They redeveloped their petroleum & gas industry, & started to get rich.

With new riches they can pay the military, & arm it with excellent weapons. Now they will want to exploit every opportunity.

Europe, with it's green power generation tomfoolery, & anti fracking policies, is now totally dependent on Russia for gas.

They can't really challenge Russia, or they will turn off the gas. Half of the UK will not be able to cook, heat their homes, & for some the lights will go out.

They would be so busy saving a huge percentage of their population, those not currently flooded, that they could not mount any sort of military action, & probably not even an adequate defense.

The same goes for many of the NATO countries.

Russia has got them by the short & curlys, & can do whatever the hell they like, without ever having to fire a shot.

While the idiot Poms, Germans & French have been going all green, & busily saving the world, sensible folk like the Russians have been busy getting things in order in the real world.

Can you imagine the Poms, raw fish & chips, & no nice cup of tea! I wonder if the yanks can get their export facilities up soon enough to supply them fracked gas, before next winter.

Perhaps they could throw those ratbag protesters in jail, & get their own fracking going. Nah, they wouldn't have the guts.

God it's almost funny, apart from the poor buggers who will die because of it.

Russia has Europe by the gas pipeline throat !
Russia can shut down European industry overnight by shutting down the
gas pipelines that bring Russian gas into Europe.

Have a look at this url which has a map of the pipelines.

http://tinyurl.com/mtlqa2e

Europe will find it difficult to play hard ball with Russia.
However, Europe will never forgive Putin and Russia if he does in fact
close the valves. Putin may be cunning enough to realise that if he
does close the valves that Europe may take military action to help the
Ukraine. All in all it is a very dangerous situation.
There is the economy of Europe and the risk of the first gas war if
Putin makes a wrong move.

It's ironic that when Russia or its greedy Allies adopt American military tactics, the Western warmongers squeal like stuck pigs and there are cries of 'Fascists' and Stalin's name is head several times.

But when the Allies use invasions and occupation to grab military and strategic advantage, the Western warmongers on OLO give a cheer and offer their services, sorry, cancel the last four words.

I'd like to see Putin annexe the whole of the Ukraine before the Allies chips bits off it, make a serious statement that the game is on and Russia won't be playing catch-up anymore!

Of course, the real blowfly in the ointment is the U.S. which is driven by impossible imperial delusions. One tactical nuke, a small to medium one, dropped in an appropriate place on the American homeland might convince the nation of crooks, carpetbaggers and thugs to play a different tune, a more conciliatory one.

It is interesting that some of the best comment is coming from unexpected sources. For example, in yesterday's Guardian on line (Australian edition) former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser said things that the presstitutes of the mainstream media of Australia run away from.

Yesterday, Paul Craig Roberts, former deputy Secretary for the Treasury in the Reagan administration had this to say:

"Everyone needs to understand that Washington is lying about Ukraine just as Washington lied about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, just as Washington lied about Iranian nukes, just as Washington lied about Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons, just as Washington lied about Afghanistan, Libya, NSA spying, torture. What hasn’t Washington lied about?"

If only we could have such refreshing ideas discussed in our media (outside OLO of course).