Posted on 04/12/2014 1:53:32 PM PDT by Lorianne
Russia might very soon do something rather counter-intuitive: nothing at all.
All the signs are that the freaks in Kiev have decided to put down the demonstrations in Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk by force. YouTube is full of amateur footage showing all sorts of militarized units, APCs and even artillery pieces being moved towards these cities. Local people have tried to stop them, but without success.
It appears that the attacking force will include loyal cops from other cities, regular military units, private contractors hired by the oligarchs, riot police, "anti-terrorist" units of the SBU and volunteers from the Right Sector.
Facing them are crowds of largely unarmed or minimally armed civilians. In Lugansk some of these civilians have looted the SBU armory and have assault rifles (AKM-74s). The crowds are relatively large, but not huge, most of the local activists have taken up positions inside key government buildings which they occupy and while there are some barricades around these buildings, they do not appear to be properly defended, at least not in a military sense.
This all reminds me of Moscow in 1993 and it scares me. Badly.
For those of you who do not remember, let me remind you of what happened then.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Yes, he sounds to me that he knows what he is talking about. But what do I know? It seemed badly handled on all sides to me, but maybe Putin knows what he is doing.
I don’t believe Ukrainian or Russian troops would fire at each other if there wouldn’t be any grave provocation from a third party.
For some reason ethnic Ukrainians are over represented within Russian armed forces and many ethnic Russians are serving with the Ukraine’s military, including many senior officers.
But even you do not argue with his conclusions. Which no one has contradicted.
Ukraine is not a vital American or even European interest. Its the economic leper of Europe. Only a fool would want to militarily occupy a bankrupt country. And Russia can certainly do great damage to Ukraine through the economic leverage it already has over that country.
The bottom line is Russia will not live with an anti-Russian Ukrainian regime on its borders. Any one who thinks they will have to put up with it needs a reality check.
Thank you for your succinct, concise, accurate, and rational summary of those two conflicts..
I think your point is valid. Russia does not want to absorb Ukraine but to control it politically and economically. We will not do anything but draw a red line and make useless commentary
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