The situation in Europe cannot be unilaterally controlled by an American president. It is on the doorstep of our European NATO allies, without their support- Putin can freely beat his bare chest and propagandize his people... if he crosses into mainland Ukraine, the old ethnic squabbles that ended the USSR will flare up again... and along with Chechnya, and Georgia, hell have another nationalist/terrorist/separatist internal war going on to weaken his Russian Federation from the inside. A further push into Ukraine will likely drive the non-Russian and pro-western Russian-Ukrainians into the arms of Europe and the west... Putin is a psychopath and a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.... problem is at this moment in time he has the support of a lot of like-minded Russians at home...-- or at least the ones with all the money. And disturbingly, he has some strange kind of admiration from a bunch of the right-wing Patriots in the US... I guess they now see Putin as Obamas enemy- and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.... more bumper sticker philosophy and worldview, it is an election year.... anyways.... Russia is a kleptocracy-- basically a country ran by folks who stole what they could in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR. -- aka the Russian syndicate... They now act on the world stage as if they were legitimate businessmen-- and corporations- especially multinationals- (who dont care who they do business with as long as they make money) treat them like business partners. Unfettered capitalism... For anything to be done to slow Putin down will require many very profit-oriented people to care enough to cooperate and possibly accept less profits... Sanctions are a way to force these folks to get with the program-- but many can and will cheat because greed is good... Human rights are often not viewed as a capitalist friendly concept or concern-- Likewise the local politics of someone who makes these folks money is not and has not ever been a concern... as long as they can deliver the goods and resources. Exxon, for one, has some major, near a half trillion dollars worth of, business agreements with Russias state owned oil conglomerate. - Not state owned as in a socialist sense-- but state owned by the individual associates in the Moscow government who are brutal enough, and connected enough to be able to keep it. Exxon considers itself to be post-national, in company documents they state that governments and leaders come and go but Exxon remains... Getting their cooperation is not guaranteed because they do not care how many borders Putin crosses as long as it does not hurt their profits. And that is truly the only real fear that Putin has regarding his non-NATO neighbors like the Ukraine and Belarus... These countries may get aid, but they will not get NATO troops... They may be able to extract a military toll and cost Putin some of his political support-- because everybody is related to somebody. Those concerns are Putins only current considerations regarding his borders. The big lift for Obama will be to get the EU and the Multinationals to go along with sanctions... Economic adversity and unrest in Russia are the things that will get Putins attention, and if severe enough, the things that will get him overturned. For the Chickenhawks out there who want a war--- Militarily-- if Putin crosses a NATO border, he will have effectively declared war on the US and most of the rest of the first world. He knows this. He knows that would not be overlooked... China wont help him, his allies will be few and weak. Hed likely die at the hands of his associates, before his attack order reached the front lines... they have nothing to gain and everything to lose from starting a World War they cannot win. Psychopathic and sociopathic aside theres no one whose skin Putin cares about more than his own.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:09:00 +0000
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