What is going on with Russia!!!

[Victor]

Every few hours I am seeing some scary news about Russia, the latest breaking news is they are heading to Scotland to practice bombing!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...raids-near-Scotland-ahead-Syrian-mission.html

 

[CaliforniaBen]

The Daily Mail love scare mongering, just seen this come through!

Are you ready for WAR? Russia tells civilians to check bomb shelters and gas masks as their nuclear forces advance while US prepares cyber strike

 

[Velma's Dad]

The Black Dog assumes its readers love being scared by this stuff. Mind you, the Daily Express did run a headline "There Will Be No War in Europe"... on 1 September 1939. Oops.

 

[briwy]

Well Boris might be happy. He could send an Astute sub out to sink them before they reach Syria then it will save him sending the RAF to shoot them down.

 

[sidepod]

Two tribes all over again. I loved Frankie.

 

[sidepod]

Well Boris might be happy. He could send an Astute sub out to sink them before they reach Syria then it will save him sending the RAF to shoot them down.

Astute class aren't bombers are they? V class is what we need.

 

[jts46]

Some of this perhaps !!!!

 

[briwy]

Astute class aren't bombers are they? V class is what we need.

No they are hunter subs

 

[VW Cali]

Daily Mail?

Truth teller of the Nation. Loved and believed in equsl measure.

Beating heart of GB. Russia dare not come close once they see reader's comments on Daily Mail website.

 

[Amarillo]

Russia dare not come close once they see reader's comments on Daily Mail website.

I, and others I have shown them too, consider them highly defamatory.

I expect Russia will be forced to take further action...

 

[VW Cali]

I, and others I have shown them too, consider them highly defamatory.

I expect Russia will be forced to take further action...

We have a secret weapon in Nigel. Lover actually who will disarm Vladimir.

Given the man love between Donald and Vladimir, and between Donald and Nigel, it could be three way man love.

Putin will back off after Nigel draws the sting from his tail. Nigel will then introduce the 2nd amendment in Thanet, and beat Russian soldiers vodka with his beer intake.

Maybe Putin's war mongering is a smokescreen for the love and hand of Nigel.

 

[GrannyJen]

I feel sorry for Vlad. Outsmarted, outmanoeuvred and out-shouted by the Daily Mail.

He will probably address the Duma on Monday before offering a contrite and humble apology.

 

[sidepod]

No they are hunter subs

I was meaning "just level the entire country".

 

[VW Cali]

It could be a love triangle.

1. Donald loves Putin.

2. Farage looks up to Putin Alpha MALE Silverback. Love so great that while he told beta MALE weasel Obama to stay out of UK politics, Nigel hares across to glimpse Donald at every opportnity. Love so great that even when Theresa, the FEMALE, has copied everything about Nigel, Nigel has eyes only for Donald.

3. Watching Donald succumbing to Nigel's flirting and starry eyed love, Vladimir can't stand being sidelined. So he is coming to get Nigel.

"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?"

 

[AlanH99]

It will be interesting to see how things develop with Russia now the UK is not going to be part of any EU controlled military force.

Newspaper articles containing views like the one below rang alarm bells for me.

"The EU cannot, however, limit itself to the protection of its borders. If it wants to be a serious strategic player, it should build capacities to project force beyond its borders at short notice."

 

[VW Cali]

It will be interesting to see how things develop with Russia now the UK is not going to be part of any EU controlled military force.

Newspaper articles containing views like the one below rang alarm bells for me.

"The EU cannot, however, limit itself to the protection of its borders. If it wants to be a serious strategic player, it should build capacities to project force beyond its borders at short notice."

Thanks. Do you have the source/author?

GB will stay in NATO, or even if just England and Wales will still be NATO...

 

[jts46]

Don't want to be part of an EU military force

 

[Amarillo]

Thanks. Do you have the source/author?

GB will stay in NATO, or even if just England and Wales will still be NATO...

I expect Scotland will stay in too, even if not part of the UK.

Heaven knows where Britain's Vanguard Class fleet will be harboured if or when Scotland leaves the UK, Devonport could only be a temporary measure.

 

[AlanH99]

Thanks. Do you have the source/author?

GB will stay in NATO, or even if just England and Wales will still be NATO...

Source - Der Speigel, September 1st 2016.

Author - Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former French diplomat and former United Nations' Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. President and CEO of International Crisis Group.

 

[AlanH99]

Daily Mail headlines don't scare me but this man does:

The Guardian March 8th 2015
The European Union needs its own army to help address the problem that it is not “taken entirely seriously” as an international force, the president of the European commission has said.

Jean-Claude Juncker said such a move would help the EU to persuade Russia that it was serious about defending its values in the face of the threat posed by Moscow.
--
Norbert Röttgen, head of the German parliament’s foreign policy committee, said having an EU army was “a European vision whose time has come”.
======================

Reuters March 8th 2015
Juncker said a common EU army could serve as a deterrent and would have been useful during the Ukraine crisis.

"With its own army, Europe could react more credibly to the threat to peace in a member state or in a neighboring state."
--
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Juncker's proposal: "Our future as Europeans will at some point be with a European army," she told German radio.
======================

React to threats in a neighbouring state? I'm glad we didn't have an EU army when the trouble in the Ukraine kicked off. If we had, we might not need to be asking "What's going on with Russia? We'd have EU troops facing Russian troops across a neighbouring country's border. That's if a more serious conflict hadn't broken out.

I don't think Putin will simply wait until Juncker and his German colleagues build up an EU army created to confront Russia. I'm glad we are getting out of it.

 

[Amarillo]

I don't think Putin will simply wait until Juncker and his German colleagues build up an EU army created to confront Russia. I'm glad we are getting out of it.

I really do not think that you understand the enormity of the treachery of Russia in its dealings with Ukraine, and, to a lessor extent, the treachery of the US with the EU looking on limp wristedly.

In 1994 Ukraine had the world's third largest nuclear arsenals. However, the US and Russia persuaded Ukraine to give us its arsenal in return for guaranteeing its borders (the Budapest Memorandum).

By annexing Crimea Russia has shown its willingness to tear up treaties willy nilly. Shame on the US and EU for allowing this to happen. The EU has five distinct land borders with Ukraine, it should have had the power to stand up to this bullying of its neighbour. It didn't.

This is not the first time that Western Europe has stood idly by while Russia has bullied Ukraine. The 1932-1933 holdomor killed an estimated 2.5-7.5 million Ukrainians, possibly a greater slaughter than the Holocaust if non-Jewish victims are excluded. Stalin went unpunished.

I do not agree with all that Boris Johnson says, but he is right when he calls Russia a pariah state. It should be treated as such and isolated.

I really do not know enough about the ideas of an EU army to know what form it would take: a loose allegiance of states acting under a unified command like the UN does in its peacekeeping roles; or a closer alliance like NATO; or even a fully integrated force acting more like a national army. But what I do know is that it would be no bad thing if the EU had the ability to project military power as a unified force to stand up to present and future threats (though perhaps not with Junker as its commander-in-chief).

 

[VW Cali]

Daily Mail headlines don't scare me but this man does:

The Guardian March 8th 2015
The European Union needs its own army to help address the problem that it is not “taken entirely seriously” as an international force, the president of the European commission has said.

Jean-Claude Juncker said such a move would help the EU to persuade Russia that it was serious about defending its values in the face of the threat posed by Moscow.
--
Norbert Röttgen, head of the German parliament’s foreign policy committee, said having an EU army was “a European vision whose time has come”.
======================

Reuters March 8th 2015
Juncker said a common EU army could serve as a deterrent and would have been useful during the Ukraine crisis.

"With its own army, Europe could react more credibly to the threat to peace in a member state or in a neighboring state."
--
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Juncker's proposal: "Our future as Europeans will at some point be with a European army," she told German radio.
======================

React to threats in a neighbouring state? I'm glad we didn't have an EU army when the trouble in the Ukraine kicked off. If we had, we might not need to be asking "What's going on with Russia? We'd have EU troops facing Russian troops across a neighbouring country's border. That's if a more serious conflict hadn't broken out.

I don't think Putin will simply wait until Juncker and his German colleagues build up an EU army created to confront Russia. I'm glad we are getting out of it.

Russia will leave us alone.

They know James Bond is British. They know his vehicle of choice, Aston Martin DB5, is British. They know he can reverse seduce their swallows.

They know Nigel Farage is British. They know Spitfire Mark 2 was British. They know that Farage can not only seduce their swallows , he already seduced more than 51% of the British population, both male and female. A few Spitfire sorties from our dashing Nigel will effortlessly lay to waste all Russian plans.

Nigel with both hands off controls too, mnd you - one for fag, and other for beer.

Plus Russians know their history. If we hadn't rescued them in World War 2 where would they be? Good thing we engaged the Germans to prevent the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

[VW Cali]

I really do not think that you understand the enormity of the treachery of Russia in its dealings with Ukraine, and, to a lessor extent, the treachery of the US with the EU looking on limp wristedly.

In 1994 Ukraine had the world's third largest nuclear arsenals. However, the US and Russia persuaded Ukraine to give us its arsenal in return for guaranteeing its borders (the Budapest Memorandum).

By annexing Crimea Russia has shown its willingness to tear up treaties willy nilly. Shame on the US and EU for allowing this to happen. The EU has five distinct land borders with Ukraine, it should have had the power to stand up to this bullying of its neighbour. It didn't.

This is not the first time that Western Europe has stood idly by while Russia has bullied Ukraine. The 1932-1933 holdomor killed an estimated 2.5-7.5 million Ukrainians, possibly a greater slaughter than the Holocaust if non-Jewish victims are excluded. Stalin went unpunished.

I do not agree with all that Boris Johnson says, but he is right when he calls Russia a pariah state. It should be treated as such and isolated.

I really do not know enough about the ideas of an EU army to know what form it would take: a loose allegiance of states acting under a unified command like the UN does in its peacekeeping roles; or a closer alliance like NATO; or even a fully integrated force acting more like a national army. But what I do know is that it would be no bad thing if the EU had the ability to project military power as a unified force to stand up to present and future threats (though perhaps not with Junker as its commander-in-chief).

Agree with nearly all of what you say.

However "pariah" state is a convenient label to attach to others for their wrong doing. The West's performance in the Middle East in the last 15 years has hardly been exemplary.

International geopolitics is not a clean game. One needs to be wary of the Industrial-military-media complex that incentivise/execute/justify foreign adventures.

Even from a purely selfish point of view of what's better for me, it is doubtful that this adventurism is to the benefit of the majority in the West. At best equivalent to a greedy algorithm that eschews global optima for local ones, but in reality rarely ever good, far less optimal, in any utilitarian sense.

General Smedley Butler with his "War is a racket" 80 years ago got it pretty much bang on.

With current media, if we just follow the one, we get trapped in their inclusions, exclusions, and emphasesm. But going across competing media, one can get a better overall picture.

Very few countries, once they have some power, have behaved with restraint or with respect for so called international law.

 

[Amarillo]

The West's performance in the Middle East in the last 15 years has hardly been exemplary.

It is difficult to know what is best:
1 - go in heavy like the US and UK in Iraq
2 - light touch like the UK and France in Libya
3 - Stand back like the west in Syria (initially at least)

So then what is the least worst option? Probably number 2, but I really don't know.

What I do know is that the Russians have made it very unlikely that any country with nuclear weapons will trust a treaty to protect their sovereignty in return for giving up their nuclear arsenal.

 

[Adamvanman]

Did you see the crap coming out the funnels of the Russian fleet that went past the south coast today ?