Ukraine (closed; covers till August 2014)

[Dayuhan]

Sooner or later Russia must be emasculated - like with Germany after 1945 - otherwise this expansionism will not stop.

The expansionism will stop when/if the perceived cost and risk to the leadership clique exceeds the perceived potential gain to the leadership clique. (I don't think the people calling the shots are too concerned with the cost/benefit equation for "Russia" generically, only for themselves.) I see no particular reason why that would require the emasculation of Russia. As Fuchs has pointed out, the strategy so far seems to focus on the gathering of low hanging fruit, though in the case of Crimea the fruit was already on the ground and needed only to be picked up. I see little reason to interpret that as a conquering juggernaut that can only be stopped by emasculation, unless of course you really want to. Trying to raise the fruit a bit might be easier and less risky than trying to emasculate the scavenger.

The fuel for this dream of reinstating the Russian/Soviet Empire is the oil/gas driven economy. To control the Russians this must be targeted.

Very bold, but how do you propose to do that?

[JMA]

The expansionism will stop when/if the perceived cost and risk to the leadership clique exceeds the perceived potential gain to the leadership clique.

Given your knowledge of the Russian/Ukrainian situation what circumstance will that be?

(I don't think the people calling the shots are too concerned with the cost/benefit equation for "Russia" generically, only for themselves.)

Can you elaborate on that?

I see no particular reason why that would require the emasculation of Russia.

Perhaps if this territorial aggression was likely to end with Ukraine. But is it? Will there be no more?

As Fuchs has pointed out, the strategy so far seems to focus on the gathering of low hanging fruit, though in the case of Crimea the fruit was already on the ground and needed only to be picked up.

Fuschs says a lot of things, much of which is plain wrong. In this case though he is correct in that the US and the EU are currently impotent and unable to act in concert to reverse this Russian aggression.

I see little reason to interpret that as a conquering juggernaut that can only be stopped by emasculation, unless of course you really want to. Trying to raise the fruit a bit might be easier and less risky than trying to emasculate the scavenger.

Well if like with Germany after 1945 you want to be sure that they will no longer be able to stage any acts of military aggression Russia gets emasculated in one of a couple of ways. Then peace in Europe will become a reality.

Very bold, but how do you propose to do that?

Why ask me, I won't be doing it.

[kaur]

Dayuhan:

the strategy so far seems to focus on the gathering of low hanging fruit, though in the case of Crimea the fruit was already on the ground and needed only to be picked up.

How you define the height from the ground?

When Vladimir Putin justified his annexation of Crimea on the ground that he owed protection to Russian speakers everywhere, this newspaper took a dim view of his line of argument, pointing out that since linguistic borders do not match those of states, it would lead to chaos.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-w...#ixzz31bQcKfQN