I blame Krusher Krushchev

I don't know if I'd fuck with Obama if I were Vlad...Our President has some pretty serious C-i-C chops.

@6: We can only hope.

Yeah and he's really backing up his argument with this announcement from four days ago:

Pentagon Plans to Shrink Army to Pre-World War II Level

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/us/pol…

@8 you don't even try trolling any more, do you? That leaves our military still light years ahead of theirs.

@9

China and Russia catch up with USA in rearms race

http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/…

We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks a little.

The US military is not going to get involved in this with any kind of troop movement. If and that is a big IF NATO decides to involve itself militarily then yes our military would support, logistically behind whatever lines NATO draws.

Moscow will play it off as necessary support of their existing base in the Crimea (note the Crimea was part of Russia up to 1954). Enough protests and pressure will apply over the next week to stop any further Russian advance. Maybe the G8 meeting in Russia gets canceled, but in any case this is just Russia rearranging the furniture in the negotiating room.

@11

I was in the military. My wife is now.

You're a piece of shit for even joking about war. GFY

Ummm....

Look, I don't like Putin: I am not, after all, a homophobe or a moron.

But Obama would have a rather stronger point here if his government hadn't just funded and orchestrated the overthrow of a democratically-elected government that wasn't pro-American enough and installed one that was. He'd also have a rather stronger point if the new government he'd installed didn't have the support of far-right organisations that want to rid Ukraine of ethnic Russians (and I'm willing to bet that this new government and its far-right friends are not the type to embrace gay rights either).

Putin may be the worst sort of twat. But for Obama to tell Putin not to "interfere" with the country that he himself has just interfered with to the point of destruction really is taking the piss.

@16

Please continue to follow @15's directive to GFY.

@16

I'm a married heterosexual man. There are a lot of us on here.

I'm not sure whether you've noticed, but Dan's advice is not exclusively for gay people. And even his advice for gay people is often very relevant to the rest of us.

I think @18 has a very good point when he suggests you GFY.

9: How about reading your own link?

Unlike the U.S., China and Russia have increased their military spending by 7.8 and 16 percent respectively during the accounting period. However, as for GDP percentage-wise, their share in comparison with 2003 remained unchanged, whereas it increased in the U.S. (from 3.7 to 4, 4 per cent). Therefore, an arms race on the part of Russia and China does not make sense.

SROTU @ 10, I meant.

@16 You must be psychic if you can tell a person's sexuality and marital status over the intertubes. I'm also a heterosexual married man, and I agree that you should continue to follow @15's suggestion.

@10 As a Russian I wouldn't use pravda.ru for any reliable information.

@17 If they want to be closer to Europe, and they do, they will be pro-human rights.
Also, "democratically elected" does not mean what you think it means when it's applied to this part of the world.

@24 - It's typical of Bailo. I'm sure back in the day he railed against Pravda, before it became a convenient source for whatever stoopid argument he is making today. And his arguments are usually pretty back-asswards, though sometimes he can surprise us. Not today though.

@25 - That's what you've been told by a US- and EU-friendly media. The media that told you that the people trying to overthrow Assad were the goodies, and that Saddam absolutely positively had WMDs.

@27 Hmmmm... nope. That that's what I figured out by myself since I'm a Russian citizen living in Russia and saw several elections go by. Democratically elected means: Hey, here we have a pro-government party with all the finances and all the television time and a couple of clownish good-for-literally-nothing "opposition" parties (who make headlines by proposing that people should only have sex 4 times per year, for instance, and are only there for the money) plus some real opposition on the fringes that will never be given any TV time which is crucial in a country where everyone is glued to the TV. I also know many people volunteered as monitors during the election and reported insane, unbelievable violations all over the place that were never investigated. Should I go on? So please, by all means, go on believing what Russia Today or whichever other pro-Russian media you consume tells you.
And no, Ukraine is not better.

Dedicated to the Russian troops south of the Dnieper River:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXg6UB9Qk…

Couldn't resist.

The Russian Duma just authorized troops to be sent to Crimea.

@30: Whoops, not yet, they just unanimously decided to hear it and discuss it. The bill actually allows Russia to send troops anywhere in the Ukraine, not just Crimea. From various livebloggers and tweets covering the discussion, it will almost certainly be passed. The argument for it is that fascists have taken over the Ukraine and Russian citizens and speakers are at great risk. Comparisons to WW2 are being made. Putin might not only be trying to get Crimea back, he might also try to overthrow the current government.

Shaun Walker of The Guardian is covering the 'debate' on Twitter. Here is what should be a memorable quote:

"I feel we are wasting the time of the president, maybe we should stop talking and vote?"

The Duma circlejerk is now over despite criticism from "Americans and other Swedes" with a unanimous authorization. They've also asked Putin to withdraw the Russian ambassador the the US (the "lie empire").

Being elected doesn't entitle anyone to be a despot and/or a crook (this includes those who misrepresent themselves and do the opposite of what they campaigned on ..). Functional democracies have means to recall elected enemies of the democratic process without having to fight it out in the streets. When these means aren't available to citizens, instability and violence often ensues (watch out gerrymandering thugs).

a partitioned crimea is going to happen, and it till happen quickly. like abkhazia sitting 20 miles from sochi, the world won't/can't do shit.

i don't think putin has a mind to take the troops to kyiv however.

god sure gave the wrong people oil wealth.

If Putin's forces cause any trouble in the Crimea, just charge at 'em with a brigade of British light cavalry.

Well, would ya believe a Secretary of Defense?

@s, 20, 24, 26

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has warned that China and Russia are challenging the United
States as they are investing in their military capabilities.

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/02/02…

I know quantitatively US has spent much more, but in this case Russia would be fighting a land based civil war in its own front yard. We cannot use nuclear options. Would Turkey let our Navy into the Black Sea? Would Europe let us "invade" either opening air space or ground to US troops?

I mean, yes, we walked into Iran and, after dropping bombs on all their fighter jets and tanks, went to war against "technicals" (pickup trucks with machine guns), but is that the case here? Or in any war we've fought since Vietnam?

@25 & 28 sez "Also, 'democratically elected' does not mean what you think it means when it's applied to this [Russian] part of the world."

Oddly enough, it doesn't mean what YOU think it means in THIS part of the world.

When are all of us plebes going to figure out these people running things are all the same? Putin/Obama are in league with the wealthy and don't give a fig about us people down here.

Pissing matches instigated by these psychopaths kill in the millions (Iraq, Libya, Syria).

Let's stop playing into their game and organize one of our own! Joining the 15now.org campaign is at least a beginning of reorienting ourselves to the collective good.

@36:
Strong work! :-)

Maybe more than you want to know about The Revolt in Crimea: http://www.popularresistance.org/the-rev…

@38 I'm sure it's not all roses over there either, but I prefer your kind of "democracy" over mine. And judging by just how many people have been fleeing this country for several decades ... I'm clearly not alone in thinking that. At least Obama hasn't changed the constitution to extend the presidential term to 6 years and does not have an "heir" ready to whom to pass over the "throne" for one term before he can come back for two more. Right? Your elections are almost always a close race; ours are like 80% to 10%. In some regions they regularly claim the turnout was 99%.

It's Nikita, not Nikata, fwiw.

@17

The US had little to do with the political upheaval in the Ukraine from November onward. The US really big influence with the Ukraine is via the IMF. The EU have much more influence on the Ukraine than the US. However, the 800lb gorilla in the room is Russia. Russia ruled the Ukraine for some 800 years, They have cultural, ethnic and most importantly economic ties to the the Ukraine.

Much of the upheaval is tied to how Russia treats the Ukraine. They do more the birch branch and jelled beef fat approach. They are constantly being very petty with the Ukrainian, on trade, on gas supplies, etc. The Ukraine would be on the way to EU membership like Estonia, Lithuania, etc if their economy wasn't so dependent on Russia...

@41 puddles I hope you're not putting yourself in danger.

I know of what you describe though a pro-Putin Russian friend living in France. She loves him, because "he may have his faults, but he's not a do-nothing clown like his opponents".

She has a fridge magnet she bought in Russia, which shows Putin pointing at you and intimates something in Russian, I think it's "I want you to work !", since there's a "robot"-verb there.

What I can't get is why the US won't reflect on the effect its friend drunkard Ieltsin had on Russia. It might be easier to understand in what state Russia is now.

@sissoucat Yeah, I love how so many people manage to emigrate to Europe and continue supporting our government.

@28

Ah, well, if you live in a country that's near Ukraine, you must be right. Oh, and I don't get my news from Russia Today. But a lot of my work involves analysing the drivers for leadership change in both democratic and non-democratic countries, so I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.

More importantly, you've missed my point completely. So let me clarify it.

You will get no argument from me on whether Putin is nice or not. He's a bastard, and I hope he rots in hell. His treatment of gay people and other minorities (which comes with a worrying degree of popular support) is despicable. His policy of helping oligarchs steal billions from the people of Russia is appalling. I hate everything about him.

What I was saying is that Obama is being incredibly disingenuous in telling Putin not to "interfere" in Ukraine. The US and EU arranged the current coup. The US and EU arranged the last "popular revolution" (not actually a popular revolution) when Yulia Tymoshenko came to power. The US and EU have been interfering in Ukraine for bloody ages; for either to condemn Russia for interfering in Ukraine now really does lack credibility.

And finally, you might not like the Russian government (and nor do I), and you might think - rightly - that Russia has ulterior military motives for wanting to create new territories in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine which are allied to Russia and which Russia can still use for military bases. But that does not take away from the fact that ethnic Russians in Ukraine are rightly scared of the new US- and EU-installed government with its ultra-right-wing supported who want to ethnically cleanse Ukraine of its Russian population.

I don't think an invasion was the right thing to do, yet. But I think it's important that we understand that the US and EU created this problem at least as much as the Russians did.

Supreme Fuckhead of the Universe conveniently forgets that just eleven years ago the United States invaded a sovereign nation on an equally flimsy rationale. Not a lot of moral high ground to stand on here, sir.

@43: the US and EU might not have openly had much to do with the overthrow, but both were doing a hell of a lot behind the scenes.

@49, Whether the EU and the US are doing much behind the scenes or not, they don't have the resources, the strategic need and the political strength to respond militarily or even strong economic sanctions against Russia. What they can only do is give financial, intelligence and military aid to the Ukrainian Government, and hope the Ukrainian can make a deal or pushed the Russian Govt out of their territory.

Russia is much weaker than its previous Soviet self, but it can still pick and choose its limited war with its former vassals.

@47 They are not "rightly scared". The hysterics that the Russian government has raised about this is entirely groundless. No one wants to do any ethnic cleanses, that's simply delirious propaganda coming from our side.
And Russia is not just "near Ukraine", fyi. If you lived in Russia you would know what I mean.