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Russia's piracy and kidnapping of 25 November 2018

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Oleh Melnychuk, Commander of the Yany Kapu tugboat, refuses to testify in a sham Moscow trial, telling the kangaroo court that he is a POW.
 
Bolton: No Trump-Putin Meeting While Russia Holds Ukrainian Ships, Sailors

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12/14/18
U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton says there will be no meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin while Moscow still holds the Ukrainian ships and sailors it seized near Crimea. "I don’t see circumstances in the foreseeable future where such a meeting could take place until the ships and the crews are released," Bolton told reporters on December 13. Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy ships on November 25 and arrested 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov.

Very sensible position. Illegal and unprovoked attacks on the high seas should not be rewarded.


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A meeting with Trump is not a 'reward' for Russia.

America needs to understand that Russia is not some little weak supplicant state, desperate to gain the honor of meeting the President of the US regime. We'll meet on equal terms of mutual respect, and equal terms only. So ultimatums and conditions mean nothing.

If you don't want to talk in a civil manner, don't expect help in solving global problems that the US can't solve alone.
 
We'll meet on equal terms of mutual respect, and equal terms only. So ultimatums and conditions mean nothing.

That's just it. Russia is a gas station with nukes. California has a higher GDP than Russia, as does Texas.

That was a great move by Vlad. Real forward thinking.
 
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Ukraine sailor in Russian captivity. 1 of 24.
 
That's just it. Russia is a gas station with nukes. California has a higher GDP than Russia, as does Texas.

That was a great move by Vlad. Real forward thinking.


Your obsession with GDP is symptomatic of the greed and obsession with big business which afflicts western societies.
 
Your obsession with GDP is symptomatic of the greed and obsession with big business which afflicts western societies.
Your obsession with GDP being irrelevant as a measure of a country's economic performance is symptomatic of the jilted kid in the school yard claiming he never wanted to play with the successful kids anyway.

It is also rather silly in trying to convey that Russia shares your take.
 
Your obsession with GDP being irrelevant as a measure of a country's economic performance is symptomatic of the jilted kid in the school yard claiming he never wanted to play with the successful kids anyway.

It is also rather silly in trying to convey that Russia shares your take.


I've not said GDP isn't a measure of economic performance.


What I've said is that it's not a measure of military power, or the broader multi-faceted power and influence of states in the international system.

Thus Russia is much more powerful and influential than Italy, although certain parties like to remind us that they have similar GDP. Even the crude GDP measure fails to take into account purchasing power, so in reality the GDP equation is not just meaningless but utterly mis-leading.
 
I've not said GDP isn't a measure of economic performance.

You're far too brainwashed, but you should ask yourself and Mr. Putin..... My country covers 11 time zones, why are we still so enfeebled economically?

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As I've said before ....... seems some know only of monetary greed :roll:.
 
As I've said before ....... seems some know only of monetary greed :roll:.

Not monetary greed, but knowing how to manage what you have.

Russia covers 11 time zones and is blessed with fossil fuels, minerals, timber, etc. etc. and yet you're still a second-world country economically.

It boils down to regime greed and corruption. If you're happy with that division of wealth, then okay I guess.

But the average Texan is 7x richer than the average Russian doing the same labor. Economics is a big reason why Ukraine wants to join the EU.

All Ukrainians have to do is look over their eastern border and then look over their western border. Doesn't take a genius to decide which economic model is better.
 
I've not said GDP isn't a measure of economic performance.


What I've said is that it's not a measure of military power, or the broader multi-faceted power and influence of states in the international system.

Thus Russia is much more powerful and influential than Italy, although certain parties like to remind us that they have similar GDP. Even the crude GDP measure fails to take into account purchasing power, so in reality the GDP equation is not just meaningless but utterly mis-leading.
Let the Kremlin carry on this way and its influence in the international system will have to base on military power and alone on that.

That is actually a weakness.
 
Let the Kremlin carry on this way and its influence in the international system will have to base on military power and alone on that.

That is actually a weakness.


That's a fair comment Chagos.

I want Russia to diversify its economy, but not through integration into the West's system. We've seen how they use that integration against us - threats to cut off Swift, sanctions, expulsion from the G8 etc. Rules apply until the US says they don't.

No, it's diversification through developing the Eurasian Union, through developing the Chinese Silk Road ...... all actually helped by sanctions which are re-vitalising domestic industries such as machine tool making and electronic component manufacture which we should never have given up inn favour of western imports.

In some ways, the West has pushed Russia to diversify and revive, to see its structural weaknesses and begin to address them. A long way to go, but we now know that attempted integration into the western economic system was a huge mistake.
 
That's a fair comment Chagos.

I want Russia to diversify its economy, but not through integration into the West's system. We've seen how they use that integration against us - threats to cut off Swift, sanctions, expulsion from the G8 etc. Rules apply until the US says they don't.

No, it's diversification through developing the Eurasian Union, through developing the Chinese Silk Road ...... all actually helped by sanctions which are re-vitalising domestic industries such as machine tool making and electronic component manufacture which we should never have given up inn favour of western imports.

In some ways, the West has pushed Russia to diversify and revive, to see its structural weaknesses and begin to address them. A long way to go, but we now know that attempted integration into the western economic system was a huge mistake.

1) If Russia didn't act like a pariah, there would be no problems with the West. Ye receive what ye sow.

2) Without Ukraine, the EEU is an economically feeble and third-rate imitation of the EU. Armenia? Kazakhstan? Belarus? etc. Their collective GDP probably doesn't even equal Germany.
 
Ukrainian sailor POW. The 24 kidnapped sailors are currently being held in Lefortovo prison in Moscow. A Russian court has ordered that the 24 sailors be detained until the end of January.

This of course means that they will be separated from their families during the holidays. And for what? For sailing to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

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Ukrainian sailor POW. The 24 kidnapped sailors are currently being held in Lefortovo prison in Moscow. A Russian court has ordered that the 24 sailors be detained until the end of January.

This of course means that they will be separated from their families during the holidays. And for what? For sailing to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

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For deliberately breaching Russian territorial waters (as confirmed by your very own Bellingcat). They're lucky to be alive , and should be thanking the restraint of the Russian coast Guard.
 
1) If Russia didn't act like a pariah, there would be no problems with the West. Ye receive what ye sow.

2) Without Ukraine, the EEU is an economically feeble and third-rate imitation of the EU. Armenia? Kazakhstan? Belarus? etc. Their collective GDP probably doesn't even equal Germany.


Too late - the boat has sailed.


Russia has a Eurasian future as a great power with its own narod, its own space, its own empire.


Meanwhile the Euro-Atlantic empire is now in decline, exposed to the world for what it is.


So, far from being a pariah, Russia can and should ditch the rules of the fading Atlanticist empire. Non aligned states will join the Eurasian empire which is based on sovereignty and respect not domination and subjugation to an evil universalist creed.
 
*........................ the Eurasian empire which is based on sovereignty and respect not domination and subjugation to an evil universalist creed.
priceless how you constantly describe your Kremlin masters and don't even realize it.

Based on sovereignty and respect, my bloody foot. Although domination, subjugation and evil creed DO indeed fit the bill.
 
For deliberately breaching Russian territorial waters (as confirmed by your very own Bellingcat). They're lucky to be alive , and should be thanking the restraint of the Russian coast Guard.

Neither Crimean territorial waters nor the Sea of Azov are Russian. And the Crimea Bridge is illegal, one end anchored on Ukrainian land.
 
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Return the kidnapped Ukrainian sailors
 
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About two-thirds of the world's states refused to support this resolution of the neo nazi inspired Kiev regime.

Once again.....

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Yes:66 / No:19 / The UN Resolution against Russian passes
 
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Seaman Lisovyy remains incarcerated in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo Prison.
 
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