Re: Putin warning...
 

Russia has to do it's bit, too.....

Re: Putin warning...
 

Absolutely right. But we should stop twisting her arm imho.

Re: Putin warning...
 

So what do we do about Russian troops in Ukraine?

Re: Putin warning...
 

as far as i am aware Russia denies any troops are in Ukraine .

Re: Putin warning...
 

Yes they do. Just like there were no coalition tanks in Baghdad... :D

If we can't trust what Putin says then there's very little chance of things getting any easier for Russia.

Re: Putin warning...
 

he's costing a lot of rich people a lot of money his days are numbered

Re: Putin warning...
 

Any left in Russia might suffer fatal "accidents" soon enough.

Re: Putin warning...
 

revenge of the radioactive brollygarch ;)

Re: Putin warning...
 

Yes, we should stop forcing Mother Russia to cut of gas supplies to Europe, stop twisting her arm to make her send troops and supplies into Ukraine, stop bullying her into annexing Crimea, and stop making her undertake three week long cyber-attacks on Estonia.....

Re: Putin warning...
 

I am denying i have a pimple on my bottom, that does not mean its true. ;)

Re: Putin warning...
 

I can think of one or two more countries who ought not to violate international agreements and standards; who ought not to invade sovereign territories; who ought not to sell arms to who knows who, or torture, or....oh forget it, the World is a complicated place.

Let him who is without <strike>sin</strike> a pimple cast the first stone.

Re: Putin warning...
 

Very, with all sorts of powerful and conflicting interests at work which is why there's never going to be the sort of peaceful and harmonious world order I'm sure we'd all like to see.

Re: Putin warning...
 

The world isn't fair.

Putin tried to play power games and at the moment it appears it's backfiring. Maybe he didn't have as strong a hand as he thought he did.

Re: Putin warning...
 

Well, that's one interpretation. Another might be that the President is not playing but acting in what he regards as the best interests of his country. I think he will have had a pretty good grasp of the likely repercussions but only a gambler would test the strength of his hand.

Re: Putin warning...
 

Maybe but that interpretation is rather weak. I fail to see how redrawing the European borders by invading another, democratic, sovereign country and making it your own is in the best interests of the Russian people. It seems more about appealing to a sense of lost national pride. If he was concerned about their best interests he would have spent the last 10 years diversifying the Russian economy rather than riding an oil boom.

He tested his hand himself by taking Crimea. He probably thought he could ride out Western sanctions due to oil but miscalculated how much he upset Saudi Arabia in his prior support for Assad and now vulnerable he left Russia open to a fall in oil prices.

Unfortunately for the rest of us when you invade, occupy and redraw the borders of a European country then you leave other European and Western Nations with no choice but to respond.