What 'costs' could Russia face

[mutian]

[Igel]

1. Um ...

Which is the point. Speak softly and carry a credit card for buying lunch.

The sanctions won't be universal, and the raw materials are fungible. Sources will be shifted.

In three or four years all will be forgotten and the status quo ante resumed. With additional perks for Russia.

Russia will not allow itself to lose. If it does, the treaty giving it a base in the Crimea will be deemed null and void. It needs the Black Sea base to project power in the Mediterranean and easily into the Indian Ocean to protect, presumably, it's southern flank. Much like Estonia needs to. (Yup, that's sarcasm.)


The entire gambit is deeply cynical and if NATO and Obama don't feel openly mocked, they're insensate.

[JDPriestly]

2. In his speech on this, Obama acknowledged that Russia has a right under a treaty or agreement

with the Ukraine to its military base in Crimea.

I don't think the US is planning to question that.

[korean]

3. cost America-Russia relation forever

The world is seeing that the U.S. has lost temper and over-reacted.