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ck1 | 20:56 Fri 28th Oct 2016 | News
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Is there any real threat from Putin or is it all just posturing?
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The equivalence I think is wealth per capita not GDP of course : that was idiotic of me. Tho wealth per capita is probably a meaningless statistic with Russia given the fantastic differences in wealth there
http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/26/troops-gather-on-border-between-europe-and-russia-6216655/

I wonder what we would do if Russia had sent troops to man the border between Russia and Europe?
Stop all this stupid sabre-rattling, says Rod Liddle (whom God preserve)
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/stop-this-stupid-sabre-rattling-against-russia/
Er, they already have AOG

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2073711/vladimir-putin-sends-330000-troops-eu-border-experts-reveal-threat/

In that link Ian Bond is right to say
"we should be resolute rather than frightened" - but "resolute" means responding

Mark Almond then says
"IF Vladimir Putin were to attack, say, Estonia in the Baltic, that would start a war with the rest of Nato and would be horrendous.
It would also be a war that Russia wouldn’t win."

But that scenario is only realistic if we fight back, and I am not sure we would. Defence and deterrence is the surest way of stopping any more of Putin's aggression. He is, as Bond say,s not reckless: for examplke we know there was a plan to invade Crimea and Ukraine, but only implemented at the opportune time. I don't doubt there's a similar plan for Moldova, the Baltic States, Georgia etc.
Rod Liddle is a complete ***, not to put too fine a point on it.
"He strikes me as amoral and ruthless and belligerent." he says about Putin. Er, yes, correct Rod and don't forget to remind people that youo are not a member of the "burgeoning, homophobic" Putin fan club of "people of his age, doubtless right wing (yuck), homophobic "gasp in horror")
Oh, no, our Rod is a good boy :-) Arguments as slippery as an eel, but a diamond geyser :-)
We love, more than anything, do we not, to be told that the people closest to us are up to no good, as it gives us a certain, smug feeling of superiority over the "lost ones" for whom life is too simple: an amoral, ruthless, belligerent leader, who doesn't just rattle sabres, but slashes peoples throats with them claiming it was someone else, could well be a threat to the west?
Nah, mate :-)
//Rod Liddle is a complete ***, not to put too fine a point on it.//
Pity, as he speaks so highly of you.
T O S S P O T was the censored word. Rather mild I thought :-)
From the Russians point of view, since the fall of he Iron Curtain, the threat to Russia has grown. With many former republics joining the EU or NATO (or both) and missiles and men being deployed at their border, they are alarmed.

Also there has been a concerted attempt to nullify the Russians naval capability on its western side.
1. The EU courting Ukraine. This posed a risk to Russia's Black Sea Fleet based at Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine. The Russians have used this base since the nineteenth century because of its strategic link to the Meditteranean. After failing to get assurances on their future access to the base, the Russians annexed Crimea, safeguarding its base.

2. The attempt to topple Syria and replace it with a Western puppet was another threat to a naval base, at Tartus, on Syrias Meditteranean coast. Their involvement in Syria is largely to keep their naval base.

3. Estonia on the Baltic. Estonia are now an EU member and member of NATO. It poses a threat to St. Petersburg in the Straits of Finland and to Russia gas pipelines. There is currently a huge build up of arms and troops by the west in Esia, and could be th next flashpoint.

26th Oct 2016
// Britain is to send tanks, drones, and 800 troops to Estonia to bolster Nato forces amid increasing tensions with Russia.

The UK troops will be deployed in the spring and will be joined by forces from France and Denmark, said Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. //
Don't you think those countries have a right to defend themselves. If the Baltic states had not joined NATO they'd be in dire straits now.
As it is NATO has made minimal military deployments to the east - and is now having radically to rethink the policy
Forgive me for a moment I thought you were telling us Estonia was a threat to Russia: I must have misheard.
Russia once ran a scheme inviting its erstwhile Soviet Russian citizens to resettle back in the motherland, all expenses paid.
Sixteen people took up the offer :-)
ichi; //Forgive me for a moment I thought you were telling us Estonia was a threat to Russia: I must have misheard.//
Estonia as such is, of course, no threat to Russia. But Russia was promised categorically that no arms would be placed near its borders and no encroachment of NATO; promises spectacularly betrayed.
Khandro,

Yep.
When Germany reunified, it meant that the former East Germany (DDR) which had formed part of the Warsaw Pact countries became, by joining West Germany, part of NATO. Not a comfortable move for Russia, bringing NATO closer to its borders, however, they agreed without quibble but on the agreed understanding that NATO would not extend further into Poland and the Baltic states, but boy! have they been betrayed on that! and the US and their lap dog the UK are now calling them belligerent.
Yes khandro, but Russia has proved a dangerous and hostile neighbour to Estonia. So now, belatedly, NATO, is having to respond. There's not a lot of point Rstomia being in NATO if it's not going to be protected properly. The NATO presence there is to defend that country and its neighbours and for no other.
I was at a talk recently by a former NATO general, confessing that the organisation had completely misread and underestimated Russian designs on its eastern flank . He also related his no doubt alcohol-oiled affable lunches with his Russian opposite number and I couldn't help thinking: 'too many liquid lunches and back slapping, general.'
So I'm puzzled you ultra right wingers really: gromit I can understand as he's typical of a lot of left wing posturers, but I don't get that whole Putin-UKIP love-in
ichi; // Russia has proved a dangerous and hostile neighbour to Estonia. So now, belatedly, NATO, is having to respond. //
To say you are "naive" is really to insult the naive.
So you disagree that Russia has threatened Estonia more or less ever since its independence? Does this small country not have every bit as much right to freedom and independence from a large corrupt political entity in the same way that you are always telling us the UK does from the wicked EU?
Like I say, UKIP + Putin - strange combination.

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