European Politics

I think you can make the case though that giving away parts of your territory is just a slower form of suicide. I do not think the Russians can be trusted to stop at the Crimea, there are other areas of Ukraine with large Russian populations.

I would think countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania cannot be pleased with this turn of events.
 
That is something I've been wondering, if it does come to war... will the war revolve entirely around Crimea, or will Russia invade Ukraine on all fronts. If they do, I would expect the other nations in the UN to send in some troops to try and 'hold the line' and force a stalemate until there can be some agreement talked out. I certainly hope it would not come to something akin to WW2 of invading any country that is stepping in and end up with armies landing in mainland Russia and a full scale war. It really shouldn't do, as none of the countries I could see getting involved (US, UK etc) are exactly nearby.

Reading wiki to try and learn some more about the backgrounds, it mentions that up until the recent revolution there was no official language for the Ukraine, there has since been declared one, which is part of the cause of the Russian unhappiness. It also mentions that in the past Stalin epelled all non-native (Bulgarian, Tatar etc) from the region and they have only in the past 20 years or so been able to re-settle, which I guess leads onto what Black Wizard said about them not supporting Russia in this.
 
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have two significant advantages over the Ukraine, though. They're members of two certain Brussels-based organisations.

But still, the problem remains. What should the Ukraine do?
 
bearfan said:
True, but is not the genesis of this whole dustup the desisre of the Ukraine to move closer to Brussels
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The difference is that the Baltic states already are part of the organisations, the Ukrainians wanted to become part.
 
I think the best thing for the Ukrainians is to agree to the separation of the Crimea - then get their NATO application fast-tracked. Somehow, I no longer think fast-tracking their entrance to the organization will be a problem. The more near-Russian states we can get to join, the better. I really only have one word now...containment.
 
That sounds reasonable. Kiev, if you read this forum: Here's your plan.
 
The Ukraine has mobilized. Their standing army is approximately 75,000 men strong, but their reserves are over a million. They have a lot of reserve weapons, but mostly older tanks. The Ukraine Air Force doesn't have the aircraft it needs to stand up to the Russian Air Force, which in the end means the Russians will win this battle.
 
I do not think they need to give up anything s quickly, at this point no one is shooting at anyone and the West (US and EU) should do everything possible to to try to talk the Russians out of there ... this is where I think the Red Line in Syria and recent policy towards Iran really hurts US credibility
 
Now all that can be done is send a prayer for peace. Too bad I don't believe in this sort of thing.
 
China has "expressed concern" about the Ukraine crisis. Is China really criticizing Russia? :eek:

The Winter Paralympics are about to start in Sochi. I hope it gets cancelled or most countries stop the athletes from travelling.

Perun said:
That sounds reasonable. Kiev, if you read this forum: Here's your plan.
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Well thanks to The Flash the Turkish government already reads the forum so hopefully they'll pass on the message.
 
bearfan said:
I do not think they need to give up anything s quickly, at this point no one is shooting at anyone and the West (US and EU) should do everything possible to to try to talk the Russians out of there ... this is where I think the Red Line in Syria and recent policy towards Iran really hurts US credibility
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More the former than the latter. The Russians approved of detente with Iran, remember - as they should. But the Red Line was the last time Russian and US interests collided and it would be hard to argue that Obama lost that one.
 
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The Iran solution is a multi-party solution that seemed to make everyone happy except the US Republicans. If the Iranians don't live up to it then we just go back to how things were, it's a no-loss scenario.

The Red Line turning out to be meaningless is what makes me think that Putin "knows his man" when it comes to Obama.
 
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