Russia rolling into Ukrane while Obama hits happy hour

[Strychnine]

It's all about the energy and Gazprom

No concern for a warm deep water port and Ukrainian leadership change?

[Moose242]

No concern for a warm deep water port and Ukrainian leadership change?

Russia has a port in Sevastopol already on a long term lease that is home to a sizeable fleet.

[BP]

It's all Truman and Eisenhower's fault. They should have listened to Patton and took out the Russians after WW2 when they were weak.

[helosailor]

Vladimir Putin be all like:

[Strychnine]

Russia has a port in Sevastopol already on a long term lease that is home to a sizeable fleet.

(opinion here) Exactly.

Russia has a warm deep water port, on the Crimean peninsula, that they are leasing from the Ukranian govt.

The pro-Russian leader of Ukraine (Viktor Yanukovych) was ousted and the new govt has is not going to be bent as easily. Hell, they introduced legislation that would "strip the Russian language of any official status." Combine that sort of nationalism with the fact that Ukraine would like to be part of the EU, and other things... what are the odds of this new Ukranian leadership honoring that port lease in the future?

The fact that that portion of Ukraine is still very pro-Russia, unlike the western half of the country, means that Putin and his boys have good odds of taking it without a shot being fired.

[Strychnine]

But then again, I also read this take on it this morning:

Having studied Russia for 4 years I would say it is not because of the port. It is because Ukraine reaches far into the EU. Russia wants to keep its buffer states from the EU as loyal as possible to keep the dividing line between Russia and the EU as far away as possible. To do so they must keep certain Eastern European countries on their side to accomplish this goal. Russia's worst nightmare are these Eastern European states falling into direct EU loyalty or US loyalty. Meaning the enemy from the west is now on its doorstep. Now Russia would lose all of its stand off distance in the event of a major war. It has nothing to do with the port, they just want you to think it does. The port is only a tiny slice of the pie in the scope of the bigger picture here. Think port tactical win, keeping Ukraine loyal as a buffer is the end strategic goal.

Or there's the possibility that Putin is just a dick and wants to look like the strong Russian leader his people want so he's going to bully the little kids on the block. I mean no one even talks about what he did in Georgia anymore. He's probably [correctly] betting that he'll get his way and no one will do a damn thing about it.

[Nash B.]

$1 billion and we got starving kids here.

god bless.

Excellent point. Let's send them some starving kids, too.

[talisman]

[The King]

Great pics talisman

[talisman]

Great pics talisman

They came from "God"s Facebook page!

[Strychnine]

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN DENIES there are Russian troops in Crimea, claiming uniformed gunmen — like these firing warning shots at the Belbek air base, outside Sevastopol — are 'local self-defense forces,' to which US Secretary of State John Kerry responded: 'He really denied there were troops in Crimea?'

Oh, and then there's this:

Russia test-fires Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, report says

Published March 04, 2014
FoxNews.com

DEVELOPING: Russia said it successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Tuesday, according to a Reuters report.

The Strategic Rocket Forces reportedly launched an RS-12M Topol missile from a region near the Caspian Sea, successfully hitting its target in Kazakhstan, Igor Yegorov, a Defense Ministry spokesman reportedly told RIA.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/04/russia-test-fires-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-report-says/

But, I mean, I'm sure that was planned long in advance and the timing is pure coincidence...

[SMKR]

So who are those missiles intended for? Ukraine? Us?

[YALE]

I bet they also want to keep Interpol off their doorstep. If Ukraine joins EU, that would be tough to avoid.

[jdgregory84]

Now we're just giving Ukraine a billion dollars?

http://news.yahoo.com/us-prepares-1b...-politics.html

Does it surprise you? Anytime Kerry goes to another country it costs tax payers at least 100 million.

[Machx2]

Does it surprise you? Anytime Kerry goes to another country it costs tax payers at least 100 million.

Maybe he will bring back some Ukrainian women.