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Originally Posted by Targan
I agree completely. Like I said earlier, Putin was a Colonel in the KGB. He'll have detailed contingency plans for hundreds of situations like that in the Ukraine covering dozens of nations that Russia has an "interest" in.
The situation in Crimea is going in pretty much exactly the direction I thought it would. When the Crimean parliament has its vote at the same time that the Ukraine holds its new presidential election, the Russians will get the political "legitimacy" they seek for their Crimean land grab.
I'm sure there'll be lots of criticism of political leaders in Europe and North America in the coming weeks and months for not taking stronger action against Russia but I think most of it will be for partisan reasons rather than constructive. By taking military action against Russia, any NATO country would be at extreme risk of things spiralling completely out of control. Does anyone here think the principal of protecting the Ukraine's sovereignty is worth kicking off WWIII? Actually I think principals like that ARE sometimes worth great sacrifices but the risk/reward ratio seems pretty extreme in this case.
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Targan, once again in this thread I agree completely with everything that you've said. Of course Putin and the Russian Government know what they are doing and are implementing plans that have been in place for some time. That is the very nature of contingency planning and frankly they wouldn't be a very good Government if they didn't make such plans. I'm sure other Governments around the World have plans for all manner of scenarios.
And has already been said in this thread, no Government, whether in the US or Europe is going to do anything particularly tangible because no one wants to spark World War 3. I'm sure those leaders will be criticised for "sitting on their hands" but as you say, such criticism is likely to be done purely to score political points. I wonder if the critics would prefer it if their leaders actually did start a World War? Suggestions that European countries should somehow be solely responsible for sending their troops to defend Ukraine aren't particularly helpful either.