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Is This Putin's Ukraine Strategy?
"The West is afraid of a major war and Putin is exploiting that," says one former Kremlin adviser, adding that "his end goal is a Ukraine that is a buffer state between Russia and the West." After the recent rebel offensive, it's now militarily possible to gain full control of Donetsk and Luhansk and to create a 'land bridge' to Crimea, and "without help, Russian troops can roll ever-deeper into Ukraine." As Bloomberg reports, Vladimir Putin will continue his shadow war until he's created quasi statelets in Ukraine’s easternmost regions with veto power over the country’s future, five current and former Russian officials and advisers said.
As Bloomberg summarizes, Putin's strategy appears to be...
[He] won’t settle for less than broad autonomy for Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, including the right to reject key decisions at the national level such as joining NATO, according to the people.
Putin is willing to wait until November, after Ukraine elects a new parliament and the heating season starts, to ensure his goals are met, in part by extending a natural gas cutoff to force a compromise if needed, one official said on condition of anonymity after speaking with Putin last week.
...
“Putin’s goal is to force Ukraine to its knees,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a Kremlin adviser during Putin’s first term who heads the Institute for National Strategy in Moscow. “He wants a federal structure to put part of the country under Moscow’s informal control and block NATO membership.”
Last week, Putin warned against any “aggression” toward Russia, noting the country remains “one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers.”
“The West is afraid of a major war and Putin is exploiting that,” said Belkovsky, the former Kremlin adviser. “The point is to frighten the West and Ukraine into thinking he’ll take Kiev and change the map of Europe unless he gets what he wants. He’s bluffing.”
Bluff or not, Putin’s strategy is clearly working, according to Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
“A cease-fire is an important victory for Russia,” Trenin said by phone. “If it actually goes through, Russia will be bargaining from a position of strength. Putin’s strategy is evolving. His end goal is a Ukraine that is a buffer state between Russia and the West.”
However, both the U.S. and the EU have ruled out military intervention in the current conflict.
That and the failure of sanctions to influence Russian behavior has given Putin a “free hand,” according to Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk research and consulting firm.
“For Putin, you have to feel that you’re not going to be challenged seriously,” Bremmer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Aug. 28.
The endgame?
Because of that, Ukraine’s only way out is to admit defeat, said Arbatov, the former deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s Defense Committee.
“The longer Ukraine waits, the more territory it will lose and the harsher demands it will face,” Arbatov said.
* * *
So that's all very ominous for the West. However, there is a different side of this coin...
From Grandmaster to Grand Farce (via Gavekal's James Barnes)
At first glance, Vladimir Putin’s strongman status was confirmed by the release of a seven point peace plan yesterday that reputedly had him call for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from areas of their own country. Such a demand followed Putin’s demand over the weekend that Kiev begin independence talks for southeastern Ukraine. These are the new realities that NATO leaders must chew over during a summit that starts today and is being billed as the most significant in 25 years. However, we would demur at the notion of a new leviathan in the Kremlin. In reality, Putin’s hugely risky escalation in eastern Ukraine was driven by a realization that his proxies had failed and Russian prestige was set for a battering.
Flushed with the glow of easy success in Crimea, Putin openly backed separatist rebels who were both militarily incompetent and enjoyed scant sympathy among most of eastern Ukraine’s population. His biggest mistake was concluding that Ukraine would cease to operate as a unitary state and so lack the will to fight. All this explains why the separatist rebels were on the brink of defeat ten days ago, resulting in a hastily arranged Russian invasion. Having cast himself as defender of the greater Russian Volk, defeat in Ukraine would have fatally weakened Putin’s credibility.
Putin may have staved off an immediate defeat, but the stakes have undoubtedly been hugely raised. As we see it there are three broad scenarios that could play out in the next few months:
Scenario #1: Moscow and Kiev reach a comprehensive peace agreement that provides autonomy for eastern Ukraine and protection for Russian speaking citizens, while at the same time allowing the country to pursue a closer economic relationship with the European Union. Membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be explicitly ruled out.
Scenario #2: The status quo holds and Russian soldiers advance no further. A frozen conflict develops akin to the situation in South Ossetia or Transnistria. Small scale fighting aimed at consolidating Russian gains may flare up, but this does not escalate into a larger conflict.
Scenario #3: A full invasion of Ukraine by Russia with the army operating openly to establish, at a minimum, an independent buffer region.
For the moment, Scenario #1 seems highly unlikely. Both sides would need to make major concessions and with Ukrainian parliamentary elections being held on October 26, President Petro Poroshenko will face intense pressure not to give an inch to the separatists. It is also unlikely that Putin would countenance deeper economic integration with Europe as this would frustrate his Eurasian Customs Union.
Scenario #3 also seems unlikely, for despite bellicose talk of taking Kiev in two weeks a full scale Russian invasion would be ruinously costly in blood and treasure. Despite Moscow’s claim that international sanctions will be ineffective in swaying domestic opinion, it should be remembered that Putin’s popularity has been built on rising living standards and sound economic management which followed the chaotic Yeltsin years. For all the talk of becoming a “war time” president, we doubt that Putin will abandon the promise of a Russian dream of rising middle class prosperity.
The most likely outcome is an inconclusive Scenario #2 with the emergence of an unstable buffer region in eastern Ukraine, blighted by low intensity conflict. To be sure, this is a more difficult conflict to contain than others in the Caucasus since Kiev has more capability to project force and the frontline is not contiguous or divided neatly by terrain features. However, the deterrent effect of huge costs for both sides in the event of a full-scale conflict should be enough to avoid Armageddon.
Longer term, the situation looks worse for Putin. Russia may have already lost the Ukrainian people; as recently as 2011 84% of the population held a favorable view of Russia with only 11% holding a negative one. As of a few months ago, 60% of Ukrainians viewed Russia badly with only 35% having a positive view. Considering that Ukraine is the birthplace of Russian civilization, Putin looks to have lost the PR war.
Russia may also face a resurgent NATO. Already NATO has said it will open bases in former Warsaw pact countries. A greater risk is that Russia’s actions in Ukraine finally shakes Europe out of its defense lethargy and induces rearmament. Despite the eurozone’s malaise, this may trigger realization that liberal states cannot rely on the US defense shield forever.
Most damagingly for Russia, its ‘special’ relationship with Germany may have ended. Since the Berlin Wall fell the integration of Russia into western economic, political and social norms has been a cornerstone of German politics. Now, however, Berlin is taking the tougher line over Ukraine, even while other European states vacillate over the economic fallout. Angela Merkel seems to have decided that a long-term stand on values is more important than short-term economic pain caused by sanctions. The German-Russian relationship seems to have ruptured and the impact on Russia’s economic modernization will be high.
* * *
In the meantime, US and Europe are agreeing on more sanctions for Russia
- *RHODES: U.S. IS WORKING ON PACKAGE FOR NEW RUSSIAN SANCTIONS
- *U.S. CONSULTING WITH EUROPE ON NEW RUSSIAN SANCTIONS: RHODES
- *U.S. WORKING ON NEW SANCTIONS 'FOR SOME TIME NOW,' RHODES SAYS
- *HOLLANDE SAYS EUROPE TO GIVE DETAILS ON SANCTIONS TOMORROW
So more costs for Europe...
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Knucks, if you have some kind of profound knowledge to share with us please don't hesitate. Otherwise, I don't care what you think. Your opinion is worth no more or less than mine. We could be friends, if you weren't such a dickhead.
Dickheads often respond in kind, what say you?
whut?
"Fuck the Eu" is the only
intelligent objective statement
that has come from Nuland-
everything else is unadulterated
ZioNazi/USAIPAC agenda
I smell bullshit with thie article.
NATOfags 0
Putin 1
Imagine being some douchebag merc working for the UkE gov (USA) getting your ass shot dead.
How's that paycheck workin ouit for you asshole?
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Can you spell LOOOOOSSSSEEERRRSSSSS?
Getting shiot dead is just 1 peril, Russia is building war crimes cases against all the officers as well as the political establishment, the Kiev coupsters are gonna get Slobo'd.
They're not releasing captured officers either.
This will eventualy bring down the leadership of both the Republican and Democrat parties with criminal prosecutions.
Russia has access to our legal system.
Waging an undeclared war against a friendly foreign state FOR CAMPAIGN DONATIONS breaks a whole rainbow of foreign and domestic laws and treaties, is an unwise move while subjecting yourself to US and international law with known communications vulnerabilities. (Snowden)
Israelis are in the NSA loop, Obama as well as Congress has given them ammo for their own criminal prosecution while simultaneously fucking them.
The people running our gvt are stupid evil.
Half of the State Department are Affirmative Action hires. What did you expect from negroes & womyn? Statecraft?
I worked out a long time ago that Putin's objective is to have Ukraine as a buffer state between the West and Russia. That is exactly what the USSR had to do with Eastern European countries to prevent the mother country being overrun by Western banksters.
The West (read Washington) wants to surround Russia with the intention of neutralising it, taking control of its resources for its own benefit and imposing the Western ponzi economic system on it.
The problem arises when the West discovers that Putin and Russian people are patriots and do not want their country run and dictated to by the West. They want to retain their own culture and carry on a mutually beneficial trading relationship with other countries.
Is there really anything wrong with that?
The serious defense minister of DNR (Donensk Republic aka rebels) has said the same thing.
He said every 50 to 70 years the West comes to there parrt of the world (Slavs) and wants to push their lifestyle and ways on these proud people. Everytime - they are destroyed. Their saying is you come there with a sword and you will die by that sword.
Same old shit just like Afghanistan. People come to conquer and get destroyed and winter has not even set in. Kiev was even more evil by getting their own people to kill each other just like the banksters did in the USA Civil War. The same people who were in the slave trade. They made sure to clip their lackey Lincoln in the end.
smacker, you sound like a touris.....eeerrrr....terrorist to me.
Gonna have to report you pronto.
to be honest tho Ukraine wanted a better deal than Russia could offer lol
.
if Asia will only be as free as Russia alows and all we can do is keep track bitchez
I have a lot of respect for Putin's brains and balls, but his tragic flaw is that he is obsessed with a long gone past in his fear/hatred of NATO, which haas less potency than my local Boy Scout Troop thanks to the hopelessly degenerate bankrupt Europeans. What an irony.
So how would you like it if let's say Russia puts long range missles in Canada and Mexico? What doi you think USA will say/do?
See, you need to start thinking for a change not just parrot propaganda. I KNOW thinking is hard but you MUST try.
NATO does not have any long-range missiles, vestigal brain, nor any long-range future. The EU and NATO are inploding. There are far more bureaucrats in NATO than actual fighting troops, and getting NATO to make any decision bigger than replacing the empty toilet paper rolls takes years. I know what I am saying from direct personal experience with NATO. Take your own advice, fool with too much keyboard, try to get your 2 remaining functioning neurons to cooperate and achieve a first - an act of reasoning.
i'm with knukles but
For starters
keep nato out
Socialismiscancer:I have a lot of respect for Putin's brains and balls, but his tragic flaw is that he is obsessed with a long gone past in his fear/hatred of NATO
The same NATOfags that want to ring fence him with missiles?
Yea, longstanding fear and all that shit...
Good for him.
You are a well-known socialist parasite and propagandist. What you write has the same value as your failed existence, ie Nothing. NATO has no missiles or other power that could threaten Russia. But don't let facts interfere with the spouting of your idiotic garbage.
Bombing and shelling your own country has GOT to be an epic episode of utter stupidity, but then what can you expect from a candy factory owner......
I am sorry ... but considering history, Putin would be sued for malpractise as Head of State if he did not try to do what he did!
this really is a shoddy piece of journalism.
Presstitution writ large.
This isn't news... it's a message for the massess. If Kiev doesn't shift the focus to peace, then the Ukraine will be the latest failed state - it's that simple. Even Ukraine's 'backers', the EU, have cut investments (see here)...
"...Ukraine is rapidly losing foreign investment. Since the beginning of the year direct foreign investment fell by 11.9%. Funny enough, leading the herd of running investors are members of the EU: Austria cut its investment by 404.9 million, UK by 354.5 million, the Netherlands by 193.8 million, Germany by 178.4 million, Italy by 128.2 million."
If Ukraine is broke (meaning they have NO money) how is it that the Ukraine Government can afford offensive operations?????? Where is the money coming from?
Billions from the IMF
Billions of soon to be worthless fiat Hvyrna...HA
Last time I checked the rebels in SE Ukraine were kicking the asses of the Ukrainian regular army. The article is full of bullshit.
P.S. If NATO is stupid enough to take on Russia in their own back yard they are going to get their asses royally kicked as well. The only thing that would accomplish is setting off a nuclear confrontation - and gee, that would be swell wouldn't it?
I don't know how someone can write an article like this without considering that the gas and currency/PM moves have not yet been fully played.
Moreover, I have been told by a Ukrainian who follows all the Ukrainian boards, that the Ukes have been getting their pants whipped by the separatists and the fascists being sent to the front lines as poorly/ineptly backed cannon fodder are running out of steam fast. Hence all the dour noises coming from Kiev of late.
He went so far as to observe that the fascists are intentionally being sent to the frontlines to die, thus eliminating a serious internal threat.
2014 replay of the Tet Offensive where the VC were literally destroyed as a military fighting force - same to the Neo-Nazis??????
This is more then logical, well maybe u do not follow the Ua news, there is an internal fight Walzman (jew going by name Porosenko) against Kolomoiski (a jew )
Kolomoiski expoliting the Ua nacis as his private army, has to be destroyed and blamed. He has to loose the elections and the beautiful jewess Julia together with the jew Jaceniuk have to win the elections. And nacis have to be deswtroyed. Kolomoiski was stupid enough to send them to the front line and Walzman has benn clever enough to cut them off the supplies.
Otherwise Kolomoiski could comandeer them into Kiev Maidan and kick out the whole establishmend at the helm with Walzman....so they have to be used as the cannon fodder.
The propaganda continues... alleged "facts" and rhetoric designed to instruct the reader what to think.
Perhaps “Just Us” are believing their own BS “polls” which are designed to influence the herd as well.
A garbage in – garbage out feedback loop of fantasies and lies... which may be a contributing factor as to why, regardless of the “polls” - their propaganda is backfiring big time here on ZH and other forums.
The propaganda continues... alleged "facts" and rhetoric designed to instruct the reader what to think.
I'm not sure how long you've been participating in the comments on ZH but I can say for sure that very few readers/commenters on this site take much, if any, instruction on what to think by reading the articles posted here . . . . or what to say about them for that matter. Which is why ZH is one of the best sites on the web.
Duplicate.
Agree with you completely.
I was referring to the Bloomberg article and should have stated that explicitly.
The assumption that the West has any credible right to interfere in Ukraine is despicable. The whole tragedy is designed for the wester oil companies to acquire assets and to cripple Russia by creating an enemy on it's border. The media's complicity is infuriating.
Your post convinced me that marijuana should remain illegal.
And wherein is Russia right to INTERFET in Ukrainian affairs? Do you think they declared their independence because they loved Russians? Yeah the Russians only suppressed their language and culture for two hundred years. What's not to love about that?
Putin "words" in his mouth?
WAMO556 :If Ukraine is broke (meaning they have NO money) how is it that the Ukraine Government can afford offensive operations?????? Where is the money coming from?
Dunno
The Nuland (FUC the EU) crew in the State dept?
Mcinsane? hey he posed with ISIS and the bloke who eats raw hearts...hmmmmm.
Taxpayers?
all of the above?
Your pick!
Offensive operations are EXPENSIVE!!!
For example, to keep ONE American infantry Battalion in the field costs 1 Million dollars a day! 60% of budget goes to batteries!!
So these Nazis are on the cheap - lets go $400,000 usd a day - FOR ONE BATTALION! The UKE's are operating MULTIPLE Battalions in offensive operations. The numbers DO NOT include LOGISTICS. FUEL????
You get the numbers???
Amateurs talk tactics, Professionals talk logistics!
Damn right it is! EVERYBODY!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF39FkOvp10
Meanwhile back at the Ranch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uymMatRIvE
WARNING! Wear earplugs! Explosive stuff is loud and very, very distracting.
Russia will be crap if they are locked out of the swift system.
Not necessarily. Locking Russia out of swift will accelerate the already in progress decline of swift and dollar hegemony in general. Why do you think they haven't done it?
you really think so? i think it's more likely to horribly backfire and heap untold pain on to the economies of the west. that or force a "breaking of the ranks"- eastward.
if russia is out of the swift system how is the eu going to pay for its gas
Putin appears to actually run Russia; Obama reads his masters' lines from a teleprompter. Oldie but goodie; I laugh every time I look at this: http://www.tomatobubble.com/putin_obama.html
Would love it if Angela really thought about where all of this is headed, and then stood up and announced that "people have the right to self-determination." Can you imagine? :)
Putin's strategy is to not let Zionists* rape Russia and Russian (slavs mostly) people and assets anymore, 70 years of Socialism and 20 million body donations in WW2 are enough for any people to develope a learning curve.
Russia is no longer their* commie pig farm, and it's not open to unlimited Muslim "tenants" and diversity mandates imposed by them* anymore either, this new new capitalist Russian Russia, where they act in the interest of Russians with the same vigor as Israelis, they've paid more in blood than Israelis.
Putin's mandate includes using nukes, and His replacement will be far more likely to use them.
Putin is threat to big government.
Those zionist Russian oligarchs that raped Russia and have had untimely demise(s) are rather interesting?
Wouldn't you say??????
Could this have been written by a Jewish committee?
The prevailing opinion among many seems to be that while Obama maybe the bumbling reincarnation of Neville Chamberlain they refuse to consider that Vladimir Putin maybe the reincarnate evil combination of Hitler and Stalin. Nevermind that Putin's tactics of chewing of pieces of neighboring states (South Ossetia, Crimea) and incarcerating or disappearing those who would dare call him what he is (Pussy Riot) is Hitleresque and his tactic of charterizing his targets as "fascists" or agents of foreign espionage operations is straight out of Stalin's NKVD play book. Before jumping to any conclusions or judgements we should all endeavor to understand the formative history of the current situation. Timothy Snyder's "Blood lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" is an excellent starting place.
www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465031471
Neither should we forget that there was never any accounting for the monstrous crimes of Soviet Russia, nor any reason that its victims should be forgiving.
You forgot to add in the interesting dilemma of history. Remember the Khan who moved through most of EuroAsia and KILLED everything?? Those peoples in Afghanistan and Iraq remember the hordes that came through and destroyed EVERYTHING!
There is a interesting article that talks about 1/12 people alive in EuroAsia have direct lineage to the Khans.
There is those that would say - NEVER AGAIN!!! Not just the zionists!
The slaughter of Gengus Khan is not within the living memory of anyone alive today or even within a dozen generations, not so with the crimes of the Nazis and the communists. We hanged or imprisoned the Nazis, the Soviet communist paid no price at all. Russian soldiers still stand guard at Lenin's tomb. The French tore down the Bastille. Lubyanka still stand and is still in use.
You do know that the Bolsheviks came from NYC and were tribe members right? They were financed by certain banksters.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p-4_Weber.html
And you do know, by and large, their victims that they murdered were Russian and Ukrainian Christians? And you do know that the people in the State Dept aka Nudelman come from the same stock as those NYC z-Bolsheviks?
And you do know that Putin, by and large, kicked those f**ker z-oligarchs out of Russia and the same type of z-oligarches in Kiev are running taht shit show including Soros.
The same z-Soros who owns Obama, McCain, z-Schumer and the other NeoCons plus owns the US voting machines.
If you do not know that they you know f**k all which means nothing.
I am not excusing the crimes of our current batch of politicians or their Wall Street puppet masters. I'm just saying that their crimes and historical ignorance does not excuse or negate history.
I am not now, nor will I ever be one of those naive and or poorly educated fools who tries to cram all of history into the box of some vast Jewish conspiricy. Whatever the ethnic origins of the masters of the Russian Revolution, as they claimed to be intellectually driven, their first and formost loyalty was to the communist party and Marxist ideology. As Marxism rejected all religion, making the claim that they were Zionist conspiritors nearly 100 years after the fact is patently absurd.
In fact there were as nearly as many of the party leadership that were ethnic Poles as there were ethnic Jews. This was especially true in the upper echelons of the NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB). None of their party loyalty kept Stalin and his henchmen from executiog hundreds of thousands for the "crime" of being Poles or Jewish Poles claimed to be part of the non-existant "Polish Military Organization" during the Great Terror of the late '30s. It was under Stalin's policy of "socialism in a single state" that the Soviet Union became "Russified" rather than internationalist as they outwardly claimed.
As I have said know the history before jumping to conclusions. Maskirovka didn't magically dissapear with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
So Putin Jailed Pussy Riot For a short time for desecrating the altar of an Othodox church and other hooliganisms. And now he is "Hitleresque" and "Stalinesque?" Best be concerned about Isis America. Obama/Hillary urged on the Arab Spring but not the Russian Ukraine Spring.?
So then you choose to ignore all the Polonium poisonings of journalists and former KGB whistle blowers? Yeah right never happened because the Kremlin said so.
cornflakesdisease:Russia will be crap if they are locked out of the swift system.
Funny how BRICS is starting their own "Swift" system. Who is it again that is getting locked out?
Oh yes, with about $1 billon to lend. That's spare change these days. China? $30 billon over 30 years? Woo hoo.
[The status quo holds and Russian soldiers advance no further.]
Stopped reading at that point.... all BS to advance what I call backdoor propaganda.
R
gadfly/rejected;
My thoughts exactly, the main strream press has a funny way of ignoring Nuland and Nato's role. How many Nato "advisors" and blackwater mercs are in Ukraine. How much miltary equipment and amunition does the west supply. The US Navy warships in the Black Sea. The build up of Nato forces in Poland.
Oh, but no, it's all Russia's fault because Nato says so. Where are the god damn black boxes and tower voice recordings.
There is no media coverage, only propaganda, and it's not too hard to figure out who the biggest liars are.
"As Bloomberg summarizes..." Enough said. This article is pure bullshit. Designed to make Putin look like the primary actor in this fiasco and an evil villain to boot. All you have to do is completely ignore the real facts, and that the West is trying to gang-fuck and destablize Russia, then maybe the article makes some sense. The real insideous part of the article is its premise that Putin is playing on our desire not to go to war. So what the author is trying to achieve is to convince us that its time to man up and be ready to go to war so Putin doesn't take advantabe of us. What a crock of shit. You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind to belive this bullshit.
BINGO
Are you demoralized yet, goyim?
Not at all douche bag.
I'll be your mirror
Putin could have gone early in the Ukraine, would have saved a lot of blood in the streets but didn't do that. We also must not forget that Russia would have been seen as aggressor while no human blood was wasted yet mind you. Russia would have lost the opinion war especially in the West-Ukraine.
Instead a bloody civil war broke out between West and East Ukraine. West-Ukraine learned now what it means to live under Langley's fascist yoke backed by the the EU and the IMF. This leaves more room for Putin acceptance for ending the war and reinstating order.
West-Ukraine can have it's elections anyways and probably more reliable under the Russians than under Langley's unelected mafia boss Poroshenko. So Langley must go as does NATO. West-Ukraine is not self governing by any means now but has been take over by a bunch of fascistic street thugs backed by the West.
At this point Putin holds all the cards, this will become more obvious as winter nears and events unfold. It seems both Russia and many of the separatist in Eastern Ukraine would support federalization. Surely, no reason exist for Kiev to be opposed other than a loss of power. A more federalized government is also the most plausible way of keeping Ukraine intact.
Support for sanctions is mixed in Europe as some countries fear Russia and have an ax to grind with Putin while others wish to move forward. Saber rattling has only lead to death and destruction. As I see it little good will come from further bloodshed and it is time for the West to stop sending money to Kiev so they can ramp up the violence and continue the civil war. More on the progress being made in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/08/eu-moving-towards-deal-on-ukraine...
Federalisation was on the table before the ukies started shelling civilians. The people of Donbass are in a much different mood now and they are carving out an strong position for negotiations.
The west isn't afraid of war, they are trying to egg it on. Fits with the Queen of England's depopulation goal.
Special relationship: Germany - Russia. At last count over 3,000 German companies are doing business with Russia. The Germans are not going to wreck their economy for U.S./Anglo interests. The political crowd in Germany both domestic (Merkel etc) and with the E.U. may be under the bankers fiancial spell but the manufacturers and the voting public will change this up fairly quickjly. Merkel is finished. Look for the Germans to turn towards trade and cooperation with the east more and more and leave the corruption and violence of the U.S./Anglo NATO systems behind.
SHEESH!
What the hell passes for brains amongst these so-called "analysts and experts" in the MSM????
Bloomberg News is hopelessly infected with morons that can't think with their intellect, only with their ideological passions. Wishful thinking in the West portrays Putin's Russia as frantically grasping at straws to claim a victory in Ukraine.
Let'em keep indulging in such garbage "analysis" - it's clear to me that the West's leaders gobble this shit up and use it to plot their non-strategies. Good.
When they wake up to a complete geopolitical loss, that's when they will finally get a clue - but far, far too late for them.
"What the hell passes for brains amongst these so-called "analysts and experts" in the MSM??"
Europe is just as bad.
I say Poland and Lithuania move into Kalingrad then...
Putin will listen to his financial backer China. China want a protracted conflict to sap the economic strength of EC and send a message to the rest of non-EC nations to co-operate or be used as a proxy.
It is escalation that the Russia-China axis does not want when they are mending their own economies.
@ hedgiex:
buddy, you better check your bank balance. Sap economic strength of EU?
hahaha - good joke!
The EU/USA aren't just broke - they're trillions in debt....
everything is not what it seems. from reddit:
@ new trader1:
Idiot - you've got that report up-side-down...
[Russia doesn't want to invade us - we're all broke - nothing in it for them]
Reddit, right!
want a educated opinion, here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-030914.html
"If EU and US will provide slightly higher pressure (some more sanctions + help to Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova) - there is good chance to see the fall of Soviet Reunion before World Cup 18."
of course RU will do nothing and the EU is going to get hit in the *ss because it is supporting Georgia and Moldova sounds like a fair trade. LOL
"because population of RuFed is close to boiling point, government's bankruptcy and/or severe sanctions may spark explosion of separatism. "
Putin's popularity is 80%.
trader1 - i hope your trading choices are better than your reading mat'l. Dumb f*cking post of a dumb f*cking article.
I guess the pre RU election BS is starting early.
News Flash:
TSA has put Obama and company on the 'No Fly List' -
[should he or his aircraft get within 1,000 mi of US Border it will be shot out-of-the-air]
Russia does not bluff and that is where there is serious issues between a bluffing west, who believes in bluffing and a Russia that does not understand that game. Russia does not bluff...
Never heard of Maskirovka?
The Obamao strategy: have a shaft in the mouth or in the hands
Western psychos make a grab for Syria after laying waste to three other countries, get stuffed there and overthrow the Ukrainian gov to install crooked puppets, the natives freak the fuck out and turn to Russia...
And y'all are trying to figure out PUTIN'S angle??
How about "these Yankees are tucking nuts!"
That's his angle. Not a fan, don't like Russia for all the obvious reasons and PUTIN'S a cold blooded fucker but he can't even hold a candle to this manufactured shitstorm. Props to him and hope he doesn't get us all killed standing in the way of the insane fucks running my military industrial complex these days.
ZH becomes a MSM outlet?
Bloomberg?
Kosher jewish lies....
Why the hell is Tyler doiong this?
Does he want to be a replacement of CNN?
C'mon debate is debate; and one must look at the rubic cube from all angles.
Stop being a sectarian. You are your worst enemy if you wear blinkers and looking in the mirror is never a bad thing.
How you judge the situation afterwards is your own free will; but there will always be consequences for one's acts, as one is NEVER all alone.
Living with others not like yourself is what its all about.
I can look at it from this angle, "factor it in", and still call bullshit...
This article is BULLSH*T
Tell the author that the NovoRussian forces have just kicked the ass of the Ukrainian military forces and are headed in the general direction of Kiev . . . and so are the defeated nazis, who are pissed and intend to kick ass in Kiev, too. Porkoshenko better have packed more than one bag because he may not want to return home to be lynched.
Clearly the US policy of backing a nazi government in Kiev has really paid off. Of course, the only way the rabid neocons here can interpret this is to blame everything on Russia and the supremely evil PUTIN/SATAN.
And the solution is to prepare a 4,000 rapid deployment force which NATO can use to DEFEAT the RUSSIAN ARMY!!!
hahahahahahahahahahha
"separatist rebels who were both militarily incompetent and enjoyed scant sympathy among most of eastern Ukraine’s population"
this is BS. for months we've been being told Ukrainians were just about to crush the rebels only to see UA forces smashed again and again. it was rebels' strategy to let them in deep and attack by suprise from 3 sides.
"All this explains why the separatist rebels were on the brink of defeat ten days ago"
they weren't
"resulting in a hastily arranged Russian invasion" of invisible tanks that apparently no US satellite can see.
"2011 84% of the population held a favorable view of Russia with only 11% holding a negative one"
"As of a few months ago, 60% of Ukrainians viewed Russia badly with only 35% having a positive view"
In 2011 all Ukraine was polled. Now, I guess only western part was surveyed. Did someone poll the eastern, besieged civilians that are being bombed by their own government? And how about the 1 mln refugee that 80% of fled to Russia? Am I supposed to believe all these people love Kiev that bombed them more and hate Russia that let them in for refugee now?
Is This Putin's Ukraine Strategy?
Who would stand to gain if a dirty bomb went off in the region? I am referring to this headline in the press.
Kazakhstan authorities on high alert after radioactive container goes missing Military involved in efforts to find caesium-137, which may have fallen off a vehicle in Mangistau
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/02/kazakhstan-caesium-137-radioactive-container-missing-astana-nuclear-isotope
If it went off in Donetsk for example, who would rush to the aide of irradiated and dyeing victims? If it had been given the additional explosive force of a suitcase nuke for another example and depending on which way the wind was blowing, this may require a military intervention from either side, would it not? Ergo => check => NATO arrive => check mate to NATO or
=> check => RUSSIA arrive => check mate to NATO
Fucking lies. Dirty lies.
There I feel better now.
I see a simple propaganda narrative forming here: the rebels were incompetent and unpopular and so Russia had to invade.
Unfortunately, the rebels are both competent and popular and the Russans didn't invade.
You'll notice that most outlets are now saying the rebels were just about defeated two weeks ago. I don't know if this is a coordinated effort or just a sad reflection of how much they all listen to Kiev without checking any facts.
Let's put this in terms even a schoolchild can understand (and probably still deny): The presence of imperialist dirt on NATO banker puppet skirts doesn't wash the same imperialist dirt off of Russian skirts.
Perhaps. Perhaps not. What matters of course is not how much imperialist dirt is on Russian and NATO skirts, but rather how much more hypocrisy we can stomach from the NATO powers claiming to occupy the moral high ground. The British and Americans have lost ALL credibility as promoters of peace and democracy. Not some credibility. ALL credibility. That's why it makes me physically sick to hear them and their supporters on their soap boxes dictating how other nations should behave.
when you say former I'm guessing you are referring to Western puppets, as if they were Russian, clearly they would not provide such comments. I guess the lies filter to every corner of the digital sphere.
"As Bloomberg reports".... enough said. Sounds like a CIA propaganda piece...
Bloomberg is a zionist propaganda arm.
Furthermore, while saying the federal deficit does indeed need to be curtailed, Mr. Bloomberg argued the United States could owe “an infinite amount of money” and there is no specific amount that would cause the country to default.
“We are spending money we don’t have,” Mr. Bloomberg explained. “It’s not like your household. In your household, people are saying, ‘Oh, you can’t spend money you don’t have.’ That is true for your household because nobody is going to lend you an infinite amount of money. When it comes to the United States federal government, people do seem willing to lend us an infinite amount of money. … Our debt is so big and so many people own it that it’s preposterous to think that they would stop selling us more. It’s the old story: If you owe the bank $50,000, you got a problem. If you owe the bank $50 million, they got a problem. And that’s a problem for the lenders. They can’t stop lending us more money.”
~ Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (2013), also the founder and owner of Bloomberg L.P., the financial service company.
a full scale Russian invasion would be ruinously costly in blood and treasure?
Not for Russia. Kiev is broke and broken. If it were not for the CIA/US puppet masters their government would be shit (if it's not already)...
It's great to have some variety of views and insights but this article is so bad that it devalues ZH itself. Need for some serious quality control.
The Ukraine is not the birthplace of the Russian (Rus) people; the City of Vladimir (50 miles east of Moscow) is.
Trotting out the First Chronicle?
But of course we know where Rurik's family moved to, don't we?
They moved to Kiev.
James Barnes should consider writing in the non-fiction area. Surprised he managed to finish that piece with NATOs dick so far up his arse.
German/Russian relationship fractured? That is some laughable shit.
Barnes,
It is far from certain that the Russian-German relationship has fractured.
However, the idiot-Russian General's statement that Russia should have a nuclear first strike policy if Germany didn't buy enough gas from them put a hell of a dent in it.
Somehow customers don't like it when vendors use nukes and threats as a haggling technique.
Death threats tend to alienate customers.
Over the months, we have read a lot of these "Putin's Strategy" pieces and all they do is reflect what the writer wishes would happen.
Unfortunately this piece falls into the same category.
The writer wishes that strategy #2 would work because it is one of the worst for RU.
As for surveys, we've all been dosed with surveys on ZH and all of them support what the writer wants to prove.
Where was the survey taken? In the East? In the West? In Kiew? In Kolomosky's ghetto? useless BS.
As for RU relationship with DE, the author must have access to obummer's 'provable facts' to come up with this fantasy piece.
He doesn't know any more than the rest of the world what is with DE and RU.
Overall the article serves the western propaganda effort, but not very well.
It is quite juvenile in its premises, conclusions and of course provable but missing facts.
Just another contender for Rasmussen's Foghorn award.
Gavekal's James Barnes is a complete IDIOT!!!! Oh... wait... that's right! He's just a Western mouthpiece shill... Ah, but I repeat myself!!!