When I said above that Russia "has offered a check on the random but always self-serving projection of US power", I misspoke. The correct word is calculated, not random.
The US uses its power projection in a very calculated way to neutralise any possible chance of rivalry, and they have become very good at it. Or they have become very good at it in its initial stages. What is left in the wake of their projection is another matter. Consider the basket cases that are now Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia.
Chaos follows in their wake on such a predictable basis that one has to wonder if that was the objective all along.
I worry that Ukraine will follow this same road into sectarian violence, civil war and dismemberment.
And other than securing Crimea, what can Russia do? They don't seem to be very practised at fielding agents of chaos, but rather they deploy their army, even if sometimes without uniform insignia in place. Perhaps the best place for them to meet the now loosed dogs of war is at the border, not across it.
One reply to Suseonline, posted Friday, 7 March 2014 10:18:49 AM.
Yes, family values. Pussy Riot staged a perhaps normal by western standards but vulgar by Russian standards protest on the high altar of Russia's main cathedral. While this idea of a living, holy cathedral has lost all resonance in the West, it still means a great deal to Orthodox Christians in Russia.
Their protest was considered grossly inappropriate and manifestly offensive, and they got sent to jail for a couple years to think again. Good. Family values.
They are out now. Also good.

To understand the reasons for the present conflicts we have to know where the true world power centres originate.

It was Pres Dwight Eisenhower who warned us in the early sixties about the power of the Military Industrial Complex. This group is actually the Banking Military Industrial Complex that Webster Tarpley describes works like atrophism ie the way a plant reacts to light. They all act in unison to attain mutually acquired power.

Today we have a situation in which the financial with the industrial world have almost complete power over our Govts. Neither of or parties here will stand up to bankers or their interests. Russia used to be totally independent but joined the BIS in 1992 ie central banking cartels so they could trade internationally.

Russia and China however did not fully submit to the power of these banking cartels. This is why the conflicts exist. It has nothing to do with freedom and democracy but subjugation of the planet under their "New World Order".

There are now only a few countries that do not have a central bank controlled by this cartel. They are Syria, Iran and North Korea. Iraq and Libya used to be independent.

So the situation is that their whole central banking monetary system looks like falling apart and they could lose all their power.

After hundreds of years of power these oligarchs will not relinquish it easily and may choose nuclear war to subdue Russia and China.

A hint of Plagiarism?

Good article and inspired. Partly inspired by what I wrote:

In this article Tom wrote:

"Putin has obtained parliamentary approval for troop deployments not just in Crimea, but Ukraine as a whole...The Russian parliament, in its full rubber-stamping capacity..."

I commented on OLO on Monday, 3 March 2014 4:45:41PM http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=16071&page=0#279017 :

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

More standing on the shoulders of mild-mannered Pete-plantagenet rather than plagerism :)

Pete

Wow, the old SPA is alive and well.

Here's a suggestion: if it's so right for KGB Colonel Putin and his agents in Ukraine to demand that the people of Crimea should be able to express their preferences in a referendum, why not apply that principle to all of Mother Russia ? That ALL groups and peoples in the Russian Federation can - simultaneously with a Referendum in the Crimea - participate in a Referendum across Russia, to express their preferences for either staying under the heel of the neo-Tsarists OR of setting up their own independent states ?

After all, 'Russia' is made up of hundreds of ethnic groups, many big enough to set up states bigger than some Western European countries.

As well, now that Russia has more or less gone back on all treaties and agreements with Ukraine, what might happen if - before any Referendum - Ukraine revokes all dual citizenship, so that only people with Ukrainian-only citizenship can vote in such a Referendum ?

Just trying to help :)

Joe
www.firstsources.info

Hey Joe, I would reckon any Russian who tried to be as helpful as you, just might disappear, suddenly, without trace.

One of the only peaceful means, in the hands of the west, that could succeed, is to apply punitive sanctions on the Russian Oligarchs. Da?
Colonel Putin tends to cheery pick his version of international law? He rattled his Sabre, demanded the west stay out of internal domestic issues, respect Russian territory, and sovereignty, when he was invading Chechen, and or, re-annexed Georgia? Da?
By any reading, he is now doing exactly that in Ukraine, and almost as logical as France invading Canada, to protect the interests of Quebec's french speaking Canadians?
This is because the west patently doesn't posses the testicular Fortitude to stand up to him, and wait for him to blink! Da?
He will blink soon enough, if his actions, cause Russian Oligarchs to lose millions or billions!
Other than that, it seems the Ukraine may have extremely large shale gas and oil resources, and ought to be helped, ASAP, to develop those reserves; create complete energy self sufficiency; and indeed, compete with Russia, for European energy markets!
All of which, is very much in Europe's interests, given, Russia holds them by the short and curlies, due to their energy dependency!
Rhrosty.