Roots and consequences of Ukraine's violence

[Prospero]

Putting aside silly posturing by ill informed idiots who will take any excuse to whip a president they hate - and probably believe is not American anyway - it seems that the US and West are in a real quandary here. Economic sanctions as outlined thus far will have a negligible effect. China abstained at the UN security council - thus making it clear they will not go against Russia. The travel limitations on a handful of people are ludicrous. And the military option is frankly off the table. What else can we do? I see no easy answers. And what indeed do we do if Putin decides to extend his "help" to the Russians threatened by "extremism" in the Ukraine (or elsewhere in Eastern Europe).

American might? It simply cannot be bought to play in any meaningful way.

[Stavros]

There is another angle to the Crimea situation -offshore oil and gas potential which was owned by Ukraine who signed exploration contracts with Exxon and Shell are is now in a legal limbo; while Crimea gets its electricity and gas through networks based in the Ukraine.

From Bloomberg:
Without Crimea, Ukraine looks set to lose an important piece of its economic and energy future: valuable undersea oil and gas fields that lie just offshore the Crimean peninsula. Exploiting those Black Sea fields could help reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas imports.
And Big Oil had been interested: Before the overthrow of former President Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine was on the verge of signing a deal with a group, including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, that was prepared to spend $735 million to drill two wells off Crimea’s southwest coast. “Exxon and Shell are now in a legal limbo,” Chris Weafer of Moscow investment group Macro Advisory told Bloomberg News. If Crimea votes in a March 16 referendum to secede from Ukraine, the government in Kiev “may soon no longer have jurisdiction over the region.”
Full report is here:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles...-and-gas-hopes

On Crimea's electricity and gas supplies -extracts from a report (full report in link)
Although the overwhelming majority of Crimea’s two million inhabitants may identify culturally and linguistically more with Mother Russia than Ukraine, the past six decades as a Ukrainian province have meant that, in terms of energy and infrastructure, Crimea is very much Ukrainian, rather than Russian....
Although 2013 saw the completion of the of the 69.7 megawatt peak (MWp) The graphic below shows the extant natural gas transmission pathway for the Crimean peninsula. As can be seen, Crimea’s gas supply comes directly through Ukrainian territory, in fact, 65 per cent of the gas stream entering the Autonomous Republic is controlled by a single Ukrainian subsidiary.
Nikolayevka Solar Park in the Simferopol region which would cover almost seven per cent of the peninsula’s electricity needs, this graphic shows that Crimea is heavily dependent on Ukrainian power generation to meet its electricity demands. More than 80 per cent of Crimea’s electricity is imported from two cities in the southern part of the country, Kherson and Melitopol.
http://www.oilandgasiq.com/gas-oil-p...Q0073330&disc=

[robertlouis]

Steve Bell in Tuesday's Guardian rather sums up the west's helplessness in attempting to stop Putin. He doesn't give a damn and he doesn't have to either.

[Ben]

Is this the Cuban Missile Crisis II? Yes? No?

Noam Chomsky: Cuban missile crisis: how the US played Russian roulette with nuclear war...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ssian-roulette

[Ben]

A New Cold War? | Jesse Ventura Off The Grid - Ora TV

[envivision]

Putting aside silly posturing by ill informed idiots who will take any excuse to whip a president they hate - and probably believe is not American anyway -

You talking about me, you English snob ? Proud we kicked your hooligan arse in 1812. I might be an idiot , but I still have all my teeth.

[robertlouis]

You talking about me, you English snob ? Proud we kicked your hooligan arse in 1812. I might be an idiot , but I still have all my teeth.

You whipped our arse in 1812? Check your history book if you have one. We burned the White House down and torched Washington. Oh, and the Canadians "whipped your hooligan arse" after your abortive attack on Yorktown, now Toronto, and sent you back south with your tails between your legs. The Battle of New Orleans is a good song but it was just one incident in a war of almost three years.

In truth the war of 1812 to 1814 was pretty inconclusive and only came about as a result of American opportunism while Britain was fighting the Peninsular War in Europe.

But do try to get it right. Idiot.

[Dino Velvet]

We burned the White House down and torched Washington.

Please come back.

[robertlouis]

Please come back.

ROFLMAO. Dino, you're priceless.

[Prospero]

Dino leavens everything with his humour. Bravo.

I am quite surprised meanwhile that the man with the confederate flag has figured out how to work the internet.