Putin Gave A Surreal End-Of-Year News Conference

Business Insider ^ | 12/18/2014 | Pamela Engel

[SeekAndFind]

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a three-hour news conference on Thursday, speaking about his country's economy and the collapse of the ruble.

The interview — which had a bunch of bizarre and clever moments — also addressed Russia's conflicts with the West.

Several English-speaking journalists, including Max Seddon of BuzzFeed and Paul Sonne of The Wall Street Journal, tweeted translations of Putin's statements, and NBC News carried a live stream with translation.

Here are some highlights:

• Putin insisted that growth was "inevitable" and that Russia could dig out of its economic crisis in two years at most.
• He refused to call the ruble's collapse a crisis, and he blamed it partly on sanctions from the West.
• He said that regarding Ukraine, Russia was right and the West was wrong.
• He compared the Russian invasion of Crimea to taking Texas from Mexico.
• He implied that the US was aiming to disarm Russia and asked: "Do we want our bear to just become a stuffed animal?"

[Bon mots]

But before you laugh too hard, remember, he's a cornered bear and one that has already started three wars and killed more Europeans than Al Qaida - and he wasn't even mad then.

[opentalk]

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/18976-house-leaders-snuck-russian-sanctions-through-congress

House Leaders snuck Russian sanctions through Congress while most Members flew home for the weekend

[FreeReign]

From inside of the KSA, the word is that the KSA is pumping non-stop. They are forcing oil down.

"The word" is not a source.

As I said, the Saudis are producing less oil in 2014 than they did in 2013.

Link

[Patriot777]

AAAWWWGGGGHHH!!!
BLEAHHH!!!