Russians to patrol the Gulf

Don't worry. This is simply Putin waving "hi". He's doing the same thing to Sweden, Finland, Ukraine and a number of other sovereign nations.

It appears Russia is longing for a return to the Cold War in which it's people were starving while it tried to keep up militarily with the West.

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In a related story, Obama plans to issue an executive order next week granting amnesty for pilots of these missions after discovering most would vote democrat.
 
Putin realizes Russia doesn't have the economic structure to go it alone against the United States. He has said as much himself. But the growing alliance with China complements the strengths of Russia. And if the EU implodes, Germany may find they have more in common with Russia than with the United States.

As far as ignoring Russia, that is preposterous. For now, the press has ignored Ukraine but the problems haven't gone away. The sanctions, threatens of more sanctions,pressure on Europe to apply sanctions, and increasing maneuvers within NATO indicate you couldn't be more off base.

The US leadership sees Russia as a threat for several reasons:
1) The alliance with China
2) The combined reserves of oil and gas of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and the 'stan countries
3) The US wants to control all of Europe, set the trade parameters, and if possible gain a greater share of any energy extraction such as fracking, where feasible.
4) Asia's large population centers such as India could easily partner with Russia at the exclusion of the US. India is one of the BRICS.
5. If the petrodollar breaks down, the US would no longer be able to finance an empire. Russia and China figure prominently in this development.

When the USSR disintegrated, Russia became a basket case. Putin has done much to weed out the corruption and hopes to eventually diversify the economy. To accomplish that, he feels that Russia must be able to lessen its dependence on the dollar system. The US rightly sees this as a threat. Its not so much that Putin and Russia are plotting against the US, as it is that Russia wants to do what is best for Russia, and in so doing, the status quo is threatened.
 
How is this any different that US warships basically patrolling around every other country in the world? If the Gulf of Mexico is international waters, then who gives a ****? But oh, we are the USA! USA! USA! Only we can go off the coast of other countries and spy on them and menace them with our carrier fleets. But no one else is allowed to do it to us?

Nothing to see here. Move along.
 
Husker, Putin's popularity lies with the populace, not the elite. Putin used his power to destroy many of the oligarchs - most of which favor Europe to Russia. The populace looks to them as traitors.

As for as the US vs Russia or the US vs China, that is the incorrect perspective going forward. Putin is a leader and a uniter and the struggle the US is involved must be viewed in that context. Not only have these nations signed energy contracts, they are increasingly working toward joint military drills and conducting trade outside of the dollar system. Putin wants a bipolar system and not necessarily an adversarial system. For this to happen, the US would have to scale down militarism and accept a change from the unilateral system we have now. That ain't going to happen. This eventually either ends in a catastrophic war or economic collapse; whatever happens first. It's possible everyone collapses which is bad enough, but preferable to nuclear war.
 
I talked to my favorite Ukrainian this morning and she really hates Putin and Russia. She thinks that Putin will try to take Kyiv (which I do not believe) and that the Ukrainians will fight to the death over this. I hope she is wrong, but this is the mentality of many people in Ukraine.

I have talked to several Ukrainians about Putin and Russia and none of them care for either one at all. They also all see the Russian news services as being propaganda arms of the Russian government.
 
Sorry...I meant '00's not the 90's. I work in a building with a small Russian custom software development company. They are on the verge of closing up shop because they now are struggling to gain the confidence of US firms fearful of the US/Russia relations closing off their offshore development options in Moscow. I had lunch with the owner and he was one Russian that felt Putin was tearing apart the Russian economy, freedom by freedom. He appreciated Putin's attempts at squeezing the corruption out of the system but acknowledged that it's come directly at the expense of a move towards the Cold War version of Russia where the corruption is no longer in private citizens but in the government itself.

I am curious how in your view Putin has tried to work with the US?
 
One example would be Exxon. If I'm not mistaken, Exxon has been pleading with Obama to drop the sanctions because they have joint projects with Russia. There are quite a few multinational US corporations within Russia. McDonald's comes to mind (personally, I hate McDonald's).

Outside of economics, Russia has offered to help fight militant Islam which of course has been quite a thorn in Russia's side. But rather than working with Russia, Obama has chosen to work with the Saudi's and have the CIA train jihadists to do our dirty work, first in Libya and next in Syria. And then our leaders have the nerve to say we are fighting ISIS while at the same time we've made their mini-caliphate possible.
 
Better get used to it?

Russia's economy is imploding. If the US can get CNG going to the EU by 2016, we can finish them.

I do not understand your admiration for Putin. He is a brutal KGB thug. If Russia did not have nuclear weapons, the US would wipe them out in a good afternoon.
 
The US will NEVER export liquified natural gas. It is too expensive to ship to Europe and cannot compete with gas transported by pipeline (which is why Qatar wants Assad ousted).

In reply to:
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The fact that the Novorussia term is still being used should tell you all you need to know, Musburger. Russia still longs for the lands they'd previously conquered but lost when it collapsed in 1917. In the end, this is all about lost glory, IMHO.
 
I guess I should have qualified my post. I want the aggressive empire-seeking Russia to fail and be destroyed. I also want the dictatorship overthrown or replaced. I feel this same way about China.

Our government has significant faults, but Russia and China are light years worse. There is no rational comparison.

CNG will be exported by the US probably in 2015. There are something like 9 ports being licensed with two licensed. The price of natural gas is much higher in the EU than in the US.

The Link

I would love to see the US give Ukraine a couple of billion dollars in export credits for CNG. This would be perfect.

Russia has and is committing acts of aggression against a sovereign nation. Its actions in Crimea and Ukraine are completely indefensible.
 
While we are all in the holiday spirit, I'll state that I too don't want to see Russia fail. Being a better partner on the International stage is certainly expected. Partnership on combating islamic terrorists is helpful. All the crap they are doing yet saying the opposite in Ukraine has to stop.
 
Obama: "push this rock off my should"
Putin: (Hits Obama's Shoulder and rock falls to the ground)
Obama: ( reaches down to the ground and places the rock back on his shoulder). "I dare you to push it off again"
Putin: (Pushes shoulder a lot harder and rock falls to the ground again).

Obama leaves with his tail tucked.
 
LOL. Oh boy. Okay let me spell it out for you. No other leaders respect Obama. If they did the rock wouldn't get pushed off the shoulder. That's what happens when you talk tough by drawing red lines then don't back it up.
 
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