It will be easy to criticize me for taking a serious matter and trivializing it. The Russians are holding some Germans as prisoners. They obviously don't care what Germany thinks.
Any further discussion of Crimea seems to be over and the Russians have walked off with many millions of people. Europe has no military clout. It is obvious if Russia decides to reclaim Ukraine there won't be anybody to stop them. We haven't been able to stop the Syrian situation, the Cuban situation, the Iranian situation, the Venezuelan situation and on and on.
The issue is not about Ukraine; it is does Russia have designs on further incursion into Europe? If it does, no combination of forces in Europe can stop them. Putin sees that underneath recovering economies and strong stock markets lies a broad undertone of socialist and populist voting positions.
Russia needs a bigger population and its clear they intend to get one, one way or another. Trade trumps threats. We lose, they win and the long term is unknown.
Welcome to a Putin's Russia instead of a Gorbachev one.
Any further discussion of Crimea seems to be over and the Russians have walked off with many millions of people. Europe has no military clout. It is obvious if Russia decides to reclaim Ukraine there won't be anybody to stop them. We haven't been able to stop the Syrian situation, the Cuban situation, the Iranian situation, the Venezuelan situation and on and on.
The issue is not about Ukraine; it is does Russia have designs on further incursion into Europe? If it does, no combination of forces in Europe can stop them. Putin sees that underneath recovering economies and strong stock markets lies a broad undertone of socialist and populist voting positions.
Russia needs a bigger population and its clear they intend to get one, one way or another. Trade trumps threats. We lose, they win and the long term is unknown.
Welcome to a Putin's Russia instead of a Gorbachev one.
