Political Dark Side of 2016 & Obama’s Intent to Bring War

NATO wants to take back the Crimea from Russia. The US wants to send in arms to Ukraine. All of this has provoked a response from Putin that has escalated the stakes. Taking back Crimea Putin has warn would lead to a nuclear conflict. Otherwise, Putin is looking to now escalate the conflict using  Russian nationals in the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well. As the economy turns down from 2015.75, the geopolitical tensions will rise for this is how governments on both sides will distract the people.

Putin: Nothing Was Wrong With the Soviet Union’s Pact With Nazi Germany

Did he make this statement because Russia has entered, or will soon enter, another secret pact with Germany?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said November 4 that he sees nothing wrong with the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact that the Soviet Union made with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany just days before World War ii broke out.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a promise of non-belligerence by either party toward the other. Just a week after it was signed, Germany invaded Poland, officially igniting World War II.

“Serious research must show that those were the foreign policy methods then,” Putin said to a group of young historians in Moscow. “The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany. People say: ‘Ach, that’s bad.’ But what’s bad about that if the Soviet Union didn’t want to fight; what’s bad about it?”

U.S., allies scramble jets almost daily to repel Russian incursions

Russian military provocations have increased so much over the seven months since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine that Washington and its allies are scrambling defense assets on a nearly daily basis in response to air, sea and land incursions by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Not only is Moscow continuing to foment unrest in Eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials and regional security experts say Russian fighter jets are testing U.S. reaction times over Alaska and Japan’s ability to scramble planes over its northern islands — all while haunting Sweden’s navy and antagonizing Estonia’s tiny national security force.

The White House months ago leveled economic sanctions on several Russian businesses and political players, and recent weeks have seen President Obama intensify his rhetoric toward Moscow. But many in Washington’s national security community say the response is simply not firm enough and that, as a result, Mr. Putin actually feels emboldened to push the envelope — Cold War-style.

“What’s going on is a radical escalation of aggressive Russian muscle flexing and posturing designed to demonstrate that Russia is no longer a defeated power of the Cold War era,” says Ariel Cohen, who heads the Center for Energy, National Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington.

“The more we retreat, the more we are encouraging Russia to behave in a more aggressive way,” Mr. Cohen said. “We need to be engaging more deeply with our Central Asian allies, but instead we are in the process of abandoning turf to Russia, and it’s wrong — it’s against our interests geopolitically to let Russia feel that they all of a sudden have won all the turf without firing a shot.”

Die Nato soll Stärke zeigen (NATO should show strength)

For translation purposes, as the original article is in German, the entire article translated will remain here. Take note that it’s also ‘broken’ English.

Für die Leute, die auf Deutsch lesen können oder Lust haben, die Quelle liegt ganz unten.

 

NATO prepares to quarrel with Russia before the next stage of escalation. In Riga German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) announced yesterday a stronger military presence in Eastern Europe, and the Bundeswehr. NATO must prepare for the defense, “much more than we had in the past,” Merkel added. The Alliance wants in case of conflict can react more quickly than before. This strategy will decide on its summit in September in Cardiff, Merkel representation NATO.

The Baltic States could rely on Article 5 of the NATO Treaty – the defense commitment – not only theoretically applies. In plain English: For Ukraine, the Alliance would not go to war, for the small NATO partners but already Latvia.

Why Russia Needs Eastern Europe — And why Eastern Europe needs to be rid of Russia

(Click to enlarge) Russia’s border with Europe is the bloodiest place in the world.

 

Russia’s border with Europe is the bloodiest place in the world. Caught between the major powers of the West and the might of Russia, the region has seen some of the worst conflicts in history.

During World War II, roughly 17 million soldiers lost their lives in battles on the Eastern front. By way of comparison, in the West, fewer than four million soldiers died—including D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and all the other battles we hear about more often. And these figures don’t include the huge number of civilians who lost their lives in the Battle of Stalingrad or the Siege of Leningrad, and other horrific clashes.

The numbers for World War i are also appalling; rough estimates indicate that 5 million soldiers lost their lives fighting on the Eastern front.

Conflicts between Europe and Russia are bloody and frequent. This history gives the context necessary to appreciate what is happening in Ukraine, and how Europe will react.

Russian military exercises trigger Baltic concern

MOSCOW Baltic officials said Friday regional security had been weakened as Russia led military exercises on their doorstep involving almost 12,000 troops.

A week of land and sea manoeuvres began Friday as part of biennial exercises with Belarus, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on its website.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which regained independence in 1991 after half a century of Soviet rule, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004 amid Russian opposition.