Vocal Voices

Now this could hurt us.

Stopping our exports of foodstuff will be bad enough. Russia will seek alternatives from world markets meaning that there is less to go round - prices will rise. And if the threat to EU and US flights over Russian airspace comes to pass it will have an added impact - a game changer. A country's airspace reaches to the top of the atmosphere and we do not have planes to fly that high. Let's hope that Vladimir keeps his hands off the gas and oil taps.

It might be time to start thinking of getting in some tins and packets with a long shelf life, just in case.

I knew he wouldn't give up easily. He could well cause us a great deal of inconvenience. As you say, time to stockpile a bit perhaps.

The west seem to portray Putin as some knuckle dragging thug. In fact he's highly educated and a graduate of the KGB, finishing as a Colonel. Meaning he's a strategist and is skilful at manipulating people.

He knows his economy is going to suffer if he goes head to head with the West. So he's going to do the opposite. He's going to block the West out and look east. Not a bad move. What we want to watch next is construction of pipleliens to the east. Then we can really start worrying.

Putin doesn't bluster and he doesn't bluff. Unless we push him to all out war, he's going to grab the West's gonads and squeeze, slowly but firmly.

Should be interesting to watch. Russia has financial and economic advisers just as the West does. Even better, they could buy them from the West if need be. The western economies are fragile and won't take too much to push over the edge.

Russia and China already and oil deal making China the biggest market for Russian oil. They have also recently signed a 30 year gas deal; and as both deals are bilateral the US $ is taken out of the equation.

The media in this country has deliberately set out to paint Putin in the worst possible light. What is considerably less well reported or remembered is the decision to site US missiles in Poland, among other European countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_missi ... nce_system

Also well under-reported is the fact that when the EU went wooing the Ukraine, feelers were also out for Ukraine to join NATO.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... toout.html

So from a Russian point of view, for the last ten years the West has been building up arms right on Russia's doorstep and is trying to extend the boundaries of NATO right up to the Russian border. The Russians don't like this. Would the USA like Russia to form a military alliance with Mexico and have Russian missiles pointing at the US on Mexican soil? No, they wouldn't.

The whole episode really shows how the "news" in our country is more usually one-sided propaganda, with an awful lot of truth being left out on the grounds that it's inconvenient.

Another example of why neglecting the nuclear power issue, to provide for our own power needs, is coming home to roost