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His comments came as dramatic photos today showed U.S. staff members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) packing up and leaving the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
They were fleeing as Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said a Russian invasion could be ‘imminent’.
He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: ‘We have to be realistic about Russia having 100,000 troops now roughly on the border that an imminent incursion by Russia is entirely possible.’
He was echoing warnings by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said last night that millions of refugees could flee Ukraine if an invasion takes place and warned Vladimir Putin could strike ‘at any time’.
Speaking in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Wallace added that there is a ‘whiff of Munich in the air’ - an apparent reference to the 1938 agreement that allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in the hope that it would prevent the outbreak of war.
“Vladimir Putin ‘doesn’t give a s**t’ about the risk of Western sanctions if his country were to invade Ukraine”
The Russian people will pay the price. These are not sanctions. They are next level economic restrictions, involving the use of western banking.
Putin doesn’t give a shit, because he doesn’t give a s**t about the Russian people.
Bad Vlad is very bold and pushy these days due to oil being at $90 per barrel and Natural gas rising as much. So he has the money for hypersonic missiles and billions in reserve to mass Russian troops for months on the Ukraine border. Other mischief too. Hence his name - Bad Boy Vlad.
Who wants to recreate the old Slavic oriented USSR, minus the Muslim states in the south. Like Chechnya, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Who needs the headache! That the sons of Allah bring.
He sees the Western European leaders as a rotating cast of silly-arse pushovers. Who revile Putin for many reasons, including his anti-gay policies. The personnel in our pathetic State Department are 40% on up gay and lesbian. Flying the rainbow flag in our embassies to third world nations and lots more. Same for the Brits. They are playing with fire here
ADVANTAGE — Vlad!
I could be proven 100% wrong, but I don’t think Putin has any intention of invading Ukraine, I believe his plan all along was to threaten an invasion to squeeze Ukraine and to cause division within NATO, which he has done.
Biden OTOH is acting like he’s standing up to Putin and when/if Putin backs off, the media and Democrats will hail Biden a strong POTUS by forcing Putin to back off and contrast that with Trump who they have claimed was a Russian Puppet.
The crisis in Ukraine is not about Ukraine, it’s about Germany
Mike Whitney
Unz.com
2022-02-12 18:24:00
“The primordial interest of the United States, over which for centuries we have fought wars- the First, the Second and Cold Wars- has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united there, they’re the only force that could threaten us. And to make sure that that doesn’t happen.” George Friedman, STRATFOR CEO at The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs
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The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.
The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO.
There’s also no need to transact energy deals in US Dollars or to stockpile US Treasuries to balance accounts. Transactions between business partners can be conducted in their own currencies which is bound to precipitate a sharp decline in the value of the dollar and a dramatic shift in economic power. This is why the Biden administration opposes Nord Stream. It’s not just a pipeline, it’s a window into the future; a future in which Europe and Asia are drawn closer together into a massive free trade zone that increases their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in.
Warmer relations between Germany and Russia signal an end to the “unipolar” world order the US has overseen for the last 75 years. A German-Russo alliance threatens to hasten the decline of the Superpower that is presently inching closer to the abyss. This is why Washington is determined to do everything it can to sabotage Nord Stream and keep Germany within its orbit. It’s a matter of survival.
That’s where Ukraine comes into the picture. Ukraine is Washington’s ‘weapon of choice’ for torpedoing Nord Stream and putting a wedge between Germany and Russia. The strategy is taken from page one of the US Foreign Policy Handbook under the rubric: Divide and Rule. Washington needs to create the perception that Russia poses a security threat to Europe. That’s the goal.
They need to show that Putin is a bloodthirsty aggressor with a hair-trigger temper who cannot be trusted. To that end, the media has been given the assignment of reiterating over and over again, “Russia is planning to invade Ukraine.” What’s left unsaid is that Russia has not invaded any country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and that the US has invaded or toppled regimes in more than 50 countries in the same period of time, and that the US maintains over 800 military bases in countries around the world. None of this is reported by the media, instead the focus is on “evil Putin” who has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border threatening to plunge all of Europe into another bloody war.