High Hopes for Russia Are Fading on Wall St.

Ah hah. That’s a Russian T-72 tank.

Rumored to be a 1989 model “BM” index as written by some unnamed Russian military expert in Western media. It is so secret that noone in Russian military ever heard about T72BM model, Ukraine certainly have none in their inventory too, so this picture is finally a 100% solid proof of Russian invasion.

Did you notice Caliph Obama was in a hurry to say he'd remove sanctions on Russia if Russia sticks to the peace plan that's been worked out?

IMHo, that's because he knows damn well the Europeans aren't going to stick with the sanctions a second past OSCE observers getting to Ukraine in force to verify that both sides have pulled back their heavy artillery. They'll then have drones flying in the Eastern Ukraine to watch for which side causes the incidents that are bound to occur.

I say, "bound to occur" because Yats, along with the Non-Nazi Nazi sponsors of the Azov and Adiar battalions have all made it clear they don't agree what Candyman has proposed in the way of greater autonomy for the Eastern regions.

They won't take Candyman going for a peace deal without an effort to undermine it, that's for sure. They're the ones who convinced Candyman they could take over Eastern Ukraine in short order. While Candyman now knows better, he's still got to deal with the unpleasant reality that those same independent military units now in the East will go wherever their masters say to without regard for who is theoretically running the government.

As for Syria and Europe, that's a case of, "still waters run deep". They're on the horns of a delimma and it's Triceratops horns, not just a pair of goat horns.

Europe is tied to Turkey due to NATO and a lack of love for Assad, to the Saudis due to Saudi money being available to either block or facilitate alternate sources of gas for Europe, and to Russia which backs Assad due to their current dependence on Russian gas as well as having put big money into their expectations for business in Russia, something people tend to shrug off but shouldn't. Europeans bet big on Russia being a huge market for them and they don't tend to abandon that sort of investment easily.

Europe has gone along with sanctions against Russia so far, IMHo, more to keep Russia from doing much in Syria than to help solve the Ukraine Civil War problem. They also have been around the block enough times to know that there's a limit to how important the Saudis want the Turks to get. Establishing the Caliphate is one thing to the Saudis and another to the Turks who see it as a revival of the Ottoman Empire.

The Saudis are Ok with fundamentalists overthrowing a secular leader like Assad but not so with Iraq where they feel they were making good progress toward having the sort of influence they always wanted to have but didn't. Naturally the EU feels the same way the Saudis do even though they have all sorts of reasons other than their having heard what Saudi money had to say on the subject.

The bottom line is that the EU let their alligator mouth write a whole lot of checks their rats' behind can't cash. They made a big deal out of how the EU would be an alternative power center equal to the US but they don't trust one another enough to live up to their big talk. They can add NATO members til the cows come home but they really only care about NATO if it's US blood and treasure they get to threaten others with without putting much effort out themselves.

If it's something they have to collectively go to the mat over it's a whole different story. The Poles and a few others are only now realizing just how little Europeans are actually willing to do when push comes to shove. The now current European view of NATO is, carving a country out of another powerless country, nice, overthrowing leaders in former colonies, great, looking the other way when it gets really dangerous, priceless.

NATO isn't a shell of it's former self, it's a sham of it's former self.

As always, JMHo. Regards

Ukraine bought T72s from Hungary.

Those were all BE (baby eater) models though, right?

Whoa, I guess dark forces don't want news of the Baby Eater model getting out.

Here's the corrected link. The rationale for buying them stated at the site is open to question but no doubt Ukraine needs to replace a lot of tanks and Hungary was willing to sell.