Even paranoids have real enemies!
[QUOTE=Stravinsky; 1547627]Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep...
OMG-I never thought of it that way! What'll we do? What'll we do?
Relax GT, the Crimea is not the beginning of Russian expansion, it is the end.
Putin will go no further than the Crimea, partly because he understands that Russia will have its hands full digesting its conquest, but mainly because he understands that if he does, everything will be up for grabs and he could lose the very thing he values most: the Crimea.
[...]Putin is not stupid, and he is not a hot-head. He understands the interdepencies of the modern day world. If he nationalizes foreign assets in Russia, that will be the end of foreign investment. Putin wants to present Russia to the world as a modern nation, that's what Sochi was all about. He does not want to take it back 40 years into the Cold War.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=Gentleman Travel].And then there are future potential conflicts if the Putin Doctrine prevails: Transdnister, Eastern Oblasts, territorial disputes in Asian waters and not just by Russia, this is a valuable doctrine for anyone (like China) to adopt when convenient. And Russia's claim to the Arctic, if they are not to be bound by international law or norms.[/QUOTE]Stravinksy, I bow to your superior knowledge about Russian language and culture, but I hope you are not advising Mr. Obama on geo-politics.
Putin has the Eastern Oblasts simmering nicely now and may come to a full boil at any time. Whether he intends to turn up the heat more in Transdnister or not is unclear; he will probably just keep that simmering.
If he wanted to just keep Crimea, he would be making nice now. But as a minimum he wants to cripple the UA government and create grief for the West. More likely he wants to take over the eastern oblasts, whether by force or (more likely) by stealth.
But it is far from over.
United Mongers defending ourselves
[QUOTE=Suka Shalava; 1493221]Monger fends off attempted murder / robbery perpetrated by vicious bloodthirsty bandit tramps and their gang of hooligans![/QUOTE]Wow, that was a hell of a dangerous situation. You are lucky that they just have a spray with them. There are some soft weapons (or or white weapons or whatever is called) which uses an kind of gas to blind the opponent for few moments, similar to Pepper but kind of more effective.
I am also a foreigner living in Russia, but thanks god I never caught myself in a similar situation. Of course I am cautious and use my common sense, but we can never know what will come out of a devushka, so basically I was lucky until now.
So what happened afterwards, did you report them to the cops? Anyways be careful, some people doesn't accept defeat for long time and someday seek vendetta.
San
Trying to ban the Russian language in Ukraine
[QUOTE=Gergiev; 1562434]Strav, it was a dreadful and indeed almost juvenile error. At least acting president Turchinov had the good sense to veto that language law a day or two later.[/QUOTE]No it was not an error. People in Western Ukraine have been demanding that Ukrainian be the only official language for years. They slogans are "One language, one nation, one country" and "hang the Russians". See here.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go4Wwjuzm-s[/url]