Big Russian flotilla heads for Syrian port

[politicsisrotten]

As the West awaits Moscow’s threatened reprisal for the treaty installing American missile interceptors at Redzikowo, on Poland’s Baltic coast – signed in Warsaw Wednesday - the Kremlin is striking back in the Middle East – hence Russian president Dimitry Medvedev’s honeyed words of reassurance to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in a call he made to Jerusalem Wednesday, Aug. 20.Aug. 17, DEBKAfile first revealed Russia’s planned nuclear military deployments in the Middle East and Baltic to punish America for its missile deal with Poland and Georgia's attack in South Ossetia. They would included the installation of Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and Kaliningrad.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5526

[seabhcan]

Russia really does play chess. Hopefully this will end in stalemate.

[Defeated Romanticist]

Russia really does play chess. Hopefully this will end in stalemate.

America plays poker and wins.

[Gimpanzee]

Russia really does play chess. Hopefully this will end in stalemate.

America plays poker and wins.

Worked in the 80's when the US had a big pile of chips - but things have changed, big time.

[seabhcan]

I'm glad Ireland plays hurling. No-one else knows the rules...

(did I take the sports metaphor too far?)

[Defeated Romanticist]

Russia really does play chess. Hopefully this will end in stalemate.

America plays poker and wins.

Worked in the 80's when the US had a big pile of chips - but things have changed, big time.

I agree. The Russian chips have evaporated and the US chips have grown massivly.

[seabhcan]

[quote=Defeated Romanticist]

Russia really does play chess. Hopefully this will end in stalemate.

America plays poker and wins.

Worked in the 80's when the US had a big pile of chips - but things have changed, big time.

I agree. The Russian chips have evaporated and the US chips have grown massivly.[/quote:3qnksq6p]

You do live in a fantasy world don't you. The US post-Bush is a shadow of its former self.

[fubar]

NATO ships enter Black Sea for exercises

BRUSSELS, Belgium: NATO warships entered the Black Sea on Thursday for what the alliance said were long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria.

The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium.

Three warships — from Spain, Germany and Poland — sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. They are due to be joined by a U.S. frigate, the USS Taylor, later this week.

They are "conducting a pre-planned routine visit to the Black Sea region to interact and exercise with our NATO partners Romania and Bulgaria, which is an important feature of our routine planning," said Vice-Adm. Pim Bedet, deputy commander at allied maritime headquarters in Northwood, England.

However, the move risks increasing tensions with Russia which has deployed ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Georgian coast.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/ ... ck-Sea.php

"However, the move risks increasing tensions with Russia which has deployed ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Georgian coast."

Ya think?

[seabhcan]

"However, the move risks increasing tensions with Russia which has deployed ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Georgian coast."

Ya think?

If the Nato ships stick the west shore they will be about 800km from the Russian ships. The Black Sea isn't small.

[cancer]

Watching Major League Baseball the other night and the introduction was as follows
"welcome to our overseas military personnel serving in 177 countries and on our oceans"

I was stunned by the figure - it was said at the same time as it apeared on screen.

Russia may be evil incarnate by why is the US putting forces in almost every country on its border. From the above stat if true why is the US putting forces in so many coutries full stop! Germany went to war in 1914 fearing encirclement - with Nato to the West; Turkey, Georgia to the south, the Stans to the South East such as Uzbek, Tajik etc. following US invasion of Afghanistan and then Japan and Alaska to your East; if you were Russian would you be worried. Of course Russias greatest worry - China is not even mentioned.

One of the agreements reached after the Eastern Bloc was dismantled was that NATO and US forces would not move in / have a military presence in those countries. This gentlemans agreement is not and has not been kept.

A cornered animal can be very dangerous at a time when Russia had more reasons than ever to engage fully with the Global Community as it showed when joining G8 there is no reason for the US / NATO to create the current mini crises

e.g. in Poland they could at least have engaged the Russians about their plans even if they were going to ignore them and in Georgia their warnings to the PM should have been far more emphatic. All it did was embolden Russia, create a global mini crisis and raise the justified claims for independence for two autonomous reasons who have been independent in all but name since 1991 and the US refusal to recognise them.