Western officials have been paying closer attention to Eastern Europe in recent weeks.
A triplet of potential crises have cropped up in Russia’s relations with its neighbors to the West. Some Biden administration officials, CNN reports, fear that Russia may be stoking the tensions as a prelude to another incursion into Ukraine, while others think that it’s part of a larger leverage game.
Looks like someone needs to be reminded about 1998 and what can happen to an economy with only one export should the rest of the world decide they’ve crossed the line again.
Actually four.
(with a nice, tidy throughline to Russia)
Remember when the Republican Party vilified the antics and actions of Russia and its leaders? Ah, the good old days…
Deranged Donnie can appoint himself as Envoy Ambassador to work with his buddy Vlad on these issues.
Thanks, T****!
I think you meant “glorified”.
With the legacy of chaos from Putin’s guy still a major drag for Biden, now he pushes a button here, a button there, just to see what more he can do to forward his pet project of destabilizing the West.
While the means are dramatic and showy, it would be useful to hear a clearer discussion of Russia’s policy aims that are being served by this. An easy guess is to manipulate natural gas prices, drive countries into closer dependence on Russia, and possibly, to grab some territory if the opportunity arises. I don’t believe, for even a second, that the Belarus government is acting on its own, or randomly to see what falls out, or without Russia’s close and direct coordination.
Like Trump (and far more skillfully) Putin is used to creating confusion and an aura of threat as cover to pursue his policy aims.
Wait, I thought the Russians were our friends.
I remember when they vilified, now they glorify (and emulate).
“The Kremlin, likened the situation to an “invasion from the north” via an analogy to Led Zeppelin”
Some of us are old enough to remember when Kremlin with KGB enforcement banned the likes of Led Zeppelin.
Knowing the global political chess prowess of former Dear Leader and his cogent grasp of current events, it’s clearly his own political savvy that had him send his “envoy ambassador” to Kosovo.
Maybe “envoy ambassador” is a bad translation from something in Russian?
It’s almost as if the Kremlin feels emboldened by White House moles doing its bidding for four years.
Or a rightwing American demagogue publicly kissing Putin’s ass.
Maybe an insurrectionist US political party appeasing violent aggression.
Something like that.
Though they might also be inspired by the Dutch boy with his fingers in the dike. The de-fossilization of the world economy (particularly Europe’s) would decimate the influence Putin can wield over Ukraine, Belarus and Europe in the future.
There may be a few calls in the records for 1/6 that may be a surprise if you think about it.
One of the more irksome things I see in reporting on Russia is claiming it to be an “Eastern European” nation. It is not. It is not part of any Europe. NO European thinks that it is nor do they want it to be.
Russia is the one in the bind. It has an extractive economy and Europe holds a sword over its head by buying that extracted good. Gas. If an alternative to it is found Russia’s economy will collapse. Germany knows this but is in a bind itself. It’s a damn cold place and people need heat.
Russia suffered little in annexing the Crimea and waging a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine. So why shouldn’t they step it up a notch? It’s how they think. My father spent his life sneaking around the USSR posing as a restaurant consultant while actually working for the DIA / CIA. In the last years of his life he spoke often of it. I’m surprised Putin is holding back.
Only a Sharpie away.
As far as Donnie knows, an ‘Envoy Ambassador’ is just the person that brings extra towels at a Marriot.
The Russian ‘Ministery of Rock and Roll’ chose that song. Putin only listens to Abba.