Tempting. By the way, how much is the glorious acquisition of Crimea going to cost Russia, again? To build gas transport links, water transport links, the bridge, to plug its massive fiscal gap, double the pensions.......
If they do decide to develop Crimea, you don't think it'll be profitable for them in the long run? Btw what do you think about this? Does he have a point? http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/op...st-soviet-bloc-democr-201441512210693991.html
Why would it be profitable? What is there in Crimea that anyone wants, exactly? The beaches are mostly crap, and there are nicer ones an hour longer flight to Turkey or Cyprus. What's left, a strategic reserve of pensioners? As for that article, yes, institutions are obviously important.
What do you think Putin's play is in southeast Ukraine? Is he going to keep this up after the Ukrainian elections?
Good read. Translated in English from a Russian writer. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/let-the-past-collapse-on-time/
When the elections don't go his way, yes. Russia is carrying out these actions to influence elections, to attempt to strong arm Ukrainians away from self-determination.
In a less extreme version of this, I see many parallels to American society right now. The majority of both countries are somewhat easily deluded into believing they are the chosen ones, while a small group of people (smaller in Russia than the US) slowly grab control on all the levers of power.
Come on, there's got to be large differences, such as the established democracy, and, at least, an air of legitimacy...
Its the same army of the Gorbo years with a few new toys, and without effectual senior NCOs. The massive problems of rank abuse still run rampant. The hazing (what Putin set out to end) is worse than ever. Professional soldiers are still cast out as "mercenaries" by the commissioned officers. Equipment still suffers from neglect, lack of maintenance. Watching Russian forces maneuver is like watching Benny Hill with T-90s (Speaking of, a massive boondogle of 'Advanced systems' that completely fail to address the major short comings of the T-80/T-64. The armor is still butter soft to western APFSDS rounds, the ERA still blows off in entire panels when hit, the autoloader is comically slow, the svir missiles are less accurate than decades old saggers, and the non-missile ring type KEPs are so wobbly in flight that the commander is more likely to score a hit by throwing them at a tank than shooting them). No, I did not overstate anything. Russian military are a shadow of their Soviet forerunners. If you think they are of the same professionalism and EFS as comparable western and far eastern militarys then you are gravely mistaken
Technologically I agree they are light years behind the USA and it's western and Japanese and Korean allies. However we are talking about them vs Ukraine who are light years behind Russia. Russia has many problems in the army still abuse, low morale, corruption being high on the list however this fighting force even if it is degraded from prior soviet ones is much better the the Yeltsin years or the army who was defeated in Afghanistan.
Tactically yes. As did the US in Viet Nam. However the USSR failed to meet strategic goals. The war was lost. No matter how many battles were won.
What were these goals? If the goal was to leave a competent force in place after the limited contingent leaves - they certainly accomplished that. To fully pacify Afghanistan - sorry, no one has done it in 1000 years. And it is not pacified even today, despite an even longer participation of American forces. Let's not discuss whether USSR achieved strategic goals in Afghanistan without determining what they were. A major difference between US Vietnam effort and USSR's war in Afghanistan - USSR left the right people in charge when they left. US left as the South Vietnam was being overrun. The last US forces and diplomats were escaping literally from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon as it was being invested by the VietCong.
To the shock of noone. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/w...ed-men-in-east-ukraine-to-russia.html?hp&_r=0
I get it believe me, but the U.S. forced N. Vietnam into a peace treaty and won the war. Long term the war achieved nothing but the U.S. did in fact meet its goal, no?
Stay strong my brother. http://mashable.com/2014/04/22/vice...Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner
He'll keep this up until he has either decentralized Ukraine or put a pliable government in place. What exactly is the communist model? That's way, way, way overboard. The US current problem is one of plutocracy, which is entirely different from the Russian problem of the complete lack of social institutions. Besides, the "God's chosen people" crowd is in retreat - witness the Presidential results of the last decade.
You think Russia might really do this, or just gassing up the people in Crimea to keep them happy for now lol? https://news.vice.com/articles/crim...gas-of-russia?trk_source=homepage-in-the-news
He wants to turn Crimea into Russia's national resort, of course he'd be willing to do it. What other purpose does Crimea serve (yes, I know the naval stations - he already had them)?