Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (772888)	3/5/2014 6:41:53 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572107

Yeah, Putin's propaganda. Putin's stated reason for taking action was the protect the ethnic Russians in the Ukraine. There is no evidence that they actually need protection. Sure, there is the Svoboda and they are a nasty piece of work. But they aren't in control. You ever talk to someone from the Ukraine? Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, most Ukrainian ex-pats were full of stories about how Stalin murdered millions of Ukrainians by starvation. In his attempts to force collectivization, he had soldiers round up the existing food supplies and farm implements and left them to die. Over 3 million died. Some call it genocide. Post collapse Ukrainians will tell you how Russian media is full of stories about the Ukraine making speaking Russian illegal. Of how the neo-nazis are going to purge the ethnic Russians. Basically, doing whatever they can to drive a wedge between the ethnic Russian and ethnic Ukrainian peoples. The US doesn't have a huge interest in the Ukraine. Yeah, it'd be nice to see the Ukraine join the EU. There are also those who would like to see the Ukraine join NATO. That would be a mistake, however. Putin got panicked when the deal with the EU looked like it would go through. So he stepped in and attempted to bribe the Ukraine into staying. People didn't like that, it was pretty easy to see how the Eastern European countries in the EU were doing much better than those still in the Russian sphere of influence. So the idea of being dependent on Russia wasn't appealing. When the snipers were brought out, that was the final straw. So, Yanikovich fled and Putin was put in a bind. The chances of the Ukraine moving into a EU sphere of influence was essentially unity. Since the EU would be unlikely to find a Russian naval base in the Ukraine unacceptable, the odds of losing it were also high. And if that happened, Russia would lose their access to an ice-free port. That is something that they have historically considered to be critical. So he moved. More than likely he will push for a referendum so the Crimea could become independent. And an independent Crimea will eventually petition to join Russia. But that will have to be done before the pressures on Putin to end things gets too strong. According to polls, most Russians don't approve of what is happening. And the oligarchs are afraid their assets in the West will be frozen. So Putin has a lot of unhappy campers. And they will be even less happy if sanctions are put into place. Will he try to take eastern Ukraine? Maybe. That would a dangerous move, though. In Germany they are not thinking about how Hitler started causing trouble, but look back to 1914 when the various European powers were playing their little games and stumbled into WWI. A move into eastern Ukraine sets up a scenario like that. In addition, holding the Crimea is full of problems from groups like the Tatars. Holding eastern Ukraine is going to be even harder. But Putin is not very predictable in the best of times. Watching his dreams of re-assembling a semblance of the Russian Empire fade away is not going to be easy for him. I imagine he is feeling pretty desperate right now...