Posted on 12/22/2021 2:30:57 AM PST by tlozo
Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for increasing tensions in Eastern Europe and suggested a “military-technical” response if his request for security guarantees is not met — while a media mouthpiece for the Kremlin warned that Russia will hold a gun to “America’s head” if Ukraine is allowed to join NATO.
In a speech Tuesday to Russian defense ministry officials, Putin said Moscow needs “long-term, legally binding guarantees” from the West that the US and NATO will not deploy missile systems in Ukraine, rather than “verbal assurances.”
Russia has massed as many as 175,000 troops as well as heavy military equipment on its western border with Ukraine, a move that many fear is a prelude to an invasion as early as next month.
Putin said NATO has continued to expand its footprint in Europe since the end of the Cold War despite assurances from the West that Moscow’s fears of encroachment are groundless...
Dmitry Kiselev, a Putin confidant and the head of state-controlled media outlet Rossiya Segodnya, took a more militant approach in an interview with the BBC.
He said if the West fails to deliver the security guarantees, Russia will “deploy missiles.”
“But this is your choice. We don’t want this,” Kiselev said in the interview published on Monday.
“If Ukraine ever joins NATO or if NATO develops military infrastructure there, we will hold a gun to America’s head. We have the military capability,” he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
24 hours a day, 365 days a year there is Russian gun held to the head of each of my eight grandchildren. It’s called the Russia nuclear deterrent. It is the basis of the MAD theory. MAD is as relevant today as it was in 1965 or 1980. I can’t understand the insistence that the morons and Judases running things in DC get involved in this clearly Russian sphere of influence tinder box. You let these dipsh!ts blunder around here long enough, trying to divert attention from the desolation at home, and we’ll end up in a shooting war with the Ruskies.
Now don’t forget, the Ukrainians paid a lot of money to get the Biden family on their side. You have to admit, the Big Guy is carrying out his part of the deal.
If I were Putin...just to mess with Biden...I’d announce that ‘my agents’ had infiltrated the port around LA, and triggered the entire shipping mess to occur (totally fake story). But there would be a huge uproar, with hundreds of FBI agents swarming around and asking stupid questions.
Russia is not a superpower. They cannot halt an existential retaliation from our SSBNs and know they can lose in the event a US first strike. Hypersonic missiles, like the 60’s Styx missiles, do not change the strategic balance.
NATO is literally doing nothing other than talking and complaining. I'm not sure how much less you want us to do. Maybe surrender immediately? Hand over a few extra countries? Disarm all of our nukes? No one was even seriously talking about NATO membership.
But Russia starts the cry bully routine and fools on FR actually believe it.
Have you realized yet that recently, the fear of Russia wanting to nuke us has been entirely manufactured by the left?
The ramping up of Rusky propaganda-
along with the regular amount-
signals the beginning of what’s to come.
NATO , the EU, and US aggression, will only force Russia
to “defend itself”....
Well it won’t be with their latest ship, that for sure.
What changes the strategic balance is the deployment of Tomahawk missiles currently in Poland. Putin is not wrong, saying moving them to Ukraine is no good. He is not the bad guy here
Let’s be serious. Putin is no friend of the west, and the West would be prudent to prepare to defend itself. While the Russian threat may not be the Red Army of the Cold War era, Putin still maintains his goal to reconstitute the old USSR as best he can. That means reabsorption of eastern Europe into Russia’s orbit.
We are not longer a super power either. We have no manufacturing base to sustain a protracted war. Worse than that, our leadership is insane from top to bottom.
Yeh, he’ll send his burned up new warship. 😆
I am not sure if Ukraine is the hill we should die on, for many reasons. But I DO believe Russia/Putin is becoming belligerent with their belief their new weapons make them superior in some useful way against us.
The Russians are a tough culture and people.
They/Putin only understand strength and despise weakness.
They WILL exploit any advantage they think they have, and the more they do, the more they believe they have advantage.
Deterrence only works if in the mind of your adversary you are strong.
-We should remove ourselves from the New Start Treaty and upload all our ICBMs and SLBMs to their normal warhead loadings.
-We should fully fund, and expand our nuclear deterrent renewal plans and warhead count significantly to at least match Russia. It DOES matter, to the Russians.
-We should adhere to all present treaties for now, like NATO, and not expand further east. If our NATO allies don’t step up to protect themselves within the NATO structure, then we need to re-examine our commitment. We can’t fight their wars, which are today existential, without at least their full support.
-We should approach Russia from a position of strength, and NOT weakness or any position of inferiority (thank you Obama) , and focus on increasing that position such that Russia isn’t so adventurous.
Putin WAS a friend of the West until 2007. Would you tell me at least two reasons why he needs to continue to be so?
The reconstitution of the USSR is a red herring. Russia is all too happy it doesn’t need to support deadbeat republics anymore.
The reluctance to have foreign military infrastructure on its border has nothing to do with the USSR. These are reasonable security concerns.
LOL. Why not start a nuclear war while you are at it?
Do you see the Russian deployments in the Western hemisphere? I don’t. The NATO deployments straight on the Russian border are real.
The dumbass threatening the dumbass.
Canada and Mexico have no reason to fear any kind of violent action from the United States. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, on the other hand, have all been invaded and brutally occupied by Russia within the past 85 years.
And metaphorically Biden will wet his pants.
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