Ukraine's European Revolution?

[Barrister]

what if: the troops participating in the earlier "exercise" in Russia got sent back to barracks because the rubel and their stockmarket crumbled and the Ukrainians refused to serve a casus belli? Maybe Putin's original plans and schedule is now in schambles, hence his rambling at the press event?

Or what if Putin had no master plan to begin with?

[The Brain]

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call
it treason."

There is also a rhyming Russia saying: "Мятеж не может кончиться удачей, В противном случае его зовут иначе."

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

[garbon]

Meanwhile, newsreader on Russian Today speaks out against the Russian invasion of Crimea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZolXrjGIBJs

When she said "military intervention is never the answer", I started to wonder about what's the question.

[Tamas]

what if: the troops participating in the earlier "exercise" in Russia got sent back to barracks because the rubel and their stockmarket crumbled and the Ukrainians refused to serve a casus belli? Maybe Putin's original plans and schedule is now in schambles, hence his rambling at the press event?

Or what if Putin had no master plan to begin with?

In terms of not having Crimea in mind before Yanukovich's position started to crumble, that is a distinct possibility, yes. In terms of his troops occupying the peninsula before a plan of "let's pull a Georgia here" being in place, I highly doubt it.

[crazy canuck]

what if: the troops participating in the earlier "exercise" in Russia got sent back to barracks because the rubel and their stockmarket crumbled and the Ukrainians refused to serve a casus belli? Maybe Putin's original plans and schedule is now in schambles, hence his rambling at the press event?

Or what if Putin had no master plan to begin with?

That seems unlikely.

[DGuller]

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call
it treason."

There is also a rhyming Russia saying: "Мятеж не может кончиться удачей, В противном случае его зовут иначе."

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

Good God, do you people really speak with that language?

[crazy canuck]

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call
it treason."

There is also a rhyming Russia saying: "Мятеж не может кончиться удачей, В противном случае его зовут иначе."

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

Good God, do you people really speak with that language?

Pot meet kettle and all that.

But at least its not Hungarian or Finnish.

[The Brain]

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call
it treason."

There is also a rhyming Russia saying: "Мятеж не может кончиться удачей, В противном случае его зовут иначе."

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

Good God, do you people really speak with that language?

You don't feel so good...?

[celedhring]

ZOMG

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/ukraine-crisis-russia-warns-could-reduce-zero-economic-dependency-us-20140

kraine crisis: Russia warns of dropping US dollar as reserve currency if US imposes sanctions

Published on Mar 04, 2014   
4:39 PM

MOSCOW (REUTERS) – A Kremlin aide was quoted on Tuesday as saying that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to US banks.

Mr Sergei Glazyev, who is often used by the authorities to stake out a hardline stance but does not make policy, was cited by RIA news agency as saying Moscow could recommend that all holders of US treasuries sell them if Washington freezes the US accounts of Russian businesses and individuals.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is preparing legislation to provide support to Ukraine and consulting the Obama administration on possible sanctions against individual Russians, the committee's chairman said on Monday.

The committee was also consulting with President Barack Obama's administration on possible sanctions against individuals ranging from visa bans and asset freezes to suspending military cooperation and sales, as well as economic sanctions.

And what other currency does he intend to use that has any traction in international exchanges? Wait... the euro maybe? 

EDIT: Don't look at the comments unless you want to go insane.

[DGuller]

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

[alfred russel]

This is what Putin was counting on.  What probably surprised Putin is that even without the West imposing sanctions the Russian economy could suffer and that, as much as anything, is probably why is, for the moment, is waiting.  Yi turned out to be right.  But probably not for the reasons Yi thought.  The thing we will never know for sure is whether Putin would have carried out with the threat if the market hadnt tanked yesterday.

The market isn't the economy, and in any event it tanked in anticipation of potential sanctions and other bad stuff. If those don't come to pass, the market will recover quickly.

[crazy canuck]

ZOMG

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/ukraine-crisis-russia-warns-could-reduce-zero-economic-dependency-us-20140

kraine crisis: Russia warns of dropping US dollar as reserve currency if US imposes sanctions

Published on Mar 04, 2014   
4:39 PM

MOSCOW (REUTERS) – A Kremlin aide was quoted on Tuesday as saying that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to US banks.

Mr Sergei Glazyev, who is often used by the authorities to stake out a hardline stance but does not make policy, was cited by RIA news agency as saying Moscow could recommend that all holders of US treasuries sell them if Washington freezes the US accounts of Russian businesses and individuals.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is preparing legislation to provide support to Ukraine and consulting the Obama administration on possible sanctions against individual Russians, the committee's chairman said on Monday.

The committee was also consulting with President Barack Obama's administration on possible sanctions against individuals ranging from visa bans and asset freezes to suspending military cooperation and sales, as well as economic sanctions.

And what other currency does he intend to use that has any traction in international exchanges? Wait... the euro maybe? 

And they wonder why their currency crashed.

[Razgovory]

Wait, is that suppose to hurt us or them?

[Liep]

There's a Swedish saying: Hallå där, köp blåbär!

[Tamas]

BTW I think one thing this crisis shows is that indeed just how much western politicians are in fact totally in the pocket of various businessmen. I mean, all-out economic war with Russia in terms of blocking them from most everything would be an inconvenience for the western countries, but would totally crumble Putin's regime.
So cowardly shit like the UK leaked doc on not hurting business relations just shows that the priorities the politicians have/want to follow.

I know that you have only recently departed from a land most politicians probably are in the pockets of someone but in most Western Democracies most politicians also have an eye out for the ramificantions on their actions on the economy and therefore the well being of the citizenry at large.  The British were against financial sanctions because a significant part of the British economy is based on London being a major financial centre and financial sanctions would hurt Britain as well as Russia.  The Germans were against energy sanctions because they get a significant amount of energy commodities from Russia.


This is what Putin was counting on.  What probably surprised Putin is that even without the West imposing sanctions the Russian economy could suffer and that, as much as anything, is probably why is, for the moment, is waiting.  Yi turned out to be right.  But probably not for the reasons Yi thought.  The thing we will never know for sure is whether Putin would have carried out with the threat if the market hadnt tanked yesterday.

Why is every second reply to me is "oh, you are Hungarian, of course you don't know better"? Condescending, much?

Anyways, of course those things are a factor. But you need to put a stop of Russian bullying SOMETIME, and the cost of doing that at a later date, especially by military force, would be much greater than the cost of these sanctions. Plus as it was outlined already, if Europe is depending on Russia, then Russian is depending on Europe tenfold. Europe needs Russia to avoid short term problems. Russian needs Europe to survive.