Russia invades Crimea, Ukraine

[Valletta]

Today Russia invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine, setting up strategic points for supplys and troops. They control the airfields to launch paratroopers from, and the ports to get supplies and troops. The Ukrainian prime minister has already stated, if Russia comes further there will be war. As there are now around 15,000 troops in Crimea expect something to happen in the next few days or so, I don't think WW3 is going to happen but who knows.

[Ron Swansons Stache]

It's just incredible to me that not a few weeks ago they were hosting the world for the Olympics and now they're invading a sovereign country.

[psyk]

TBH... Fuck the Ukrainian Prime Minister. What they didn't post on the news a few weeks ago was their army opening sniper fire on a crowd of people excersizing free speech.

[Balubish]

TBH... Fuck the Ukrainian Prime Minister. What they didn't post on the news a few weeks ago was their army opening sniper fire on a crowd of people excersizing free speech.

Yeah they found dead civilians shot to death by sniper ammunition.

[Valletta]

Putin has given them till 5:00am tomorrow to surrender, oh boy.

[You]

Some background information from BBC.

Some people may find it interesting

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26415508

[Maringue]

TBH... Fuck the Ukrainian Prime Minister. What they didn't post on the news a few weeks ago was their army opening sniper fire on a crowd of people excersizing free speech.

Yanacovich is a shit bag. The man literally drained the public coffers straight into his own bank account, something like 30-70 billion dollars. When the Swiss say, "Yo, here's the guys name and bank account numbers, have fun seizing his assets." You know the guy is a fucked up dude.

[Rhymenoceros]

It really is a shame to see Russia and Ukraine escalate this far.

I wonder if when Crimea secede from Ukraine and rejoins Russia, will the ex-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych make a run for leader of Crimea.

[Maringue]

Here's the irony. The people of Crimea will probably not vote to join Russia and Putin knows that. This is why he's basically parking his military there. My friend is a Russian/Ukrainian speaking diplomat and he told me that the pro-Russian candidate got 4% of the vote in the last election so it's a joke that this new pro-Russian prime minister has been "installed".

But with everyone complaining about military action or lack there of, *cough*McCain*cough*, the fact that Russia pulled troops back after their stock market dropped 12% in one day kind of slid under the radar. And now with this threat from Russia about seizing the assets of foreign companies if the US and EU impose sanctions is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If Russia did that, their economy would be fucked simply because no investor with a brain would EVER invest in Russia again.

And my diplomat friend made an interesting point. There's zero need to handle this militarily. Less that 100 oligarchs basically control most of the Russian economy, so freeze their assets (most of which are in euros and dollars) and institute a travel ban and wait. They will very quickly convince Putin to back off since Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

But this is the age old problem of Russia, a warm water port. They are basically afraid that if they don't have a Moscow stooge in power in Ukraine then they will loose their bases in Crimea which are very important to them. But never mind the fact that the Ukrainian government has already signed an agreement that guarantees the use of those bases through 2042.

[HausOfJoel]

I don't see this being a very big conflict militarily. If anything it will be an economic, cold war, but I don't see it escalating that far
Also let me just: