I thought it was the amateur drama of the big man posturing tsar like for his easily impressed "electorate". Now now, Mr bond, spill the beans - what we're you doing in Russia in '84? Strictly fwiw I was in maputo then. The weather was a great deal better than on soggy Isle. As was the coffee, and coffee, and culture, and women, and cigarillos, and meticals (like now), so weak one could buy anything. I have no idea why I left.Is Putin expecting one of his security council to be wearing an IED? The Russians can make impressive looking buildings: I recall passing through Moscow Airport in 1984, with it's astonishing ceiling covered in varying lengths and widths of very large and wide gold cylinders on end, way up there in the distance. Food in the triple glazed (two inches between each pane of glass) hotel, was at the same level of inedibility as Aeroflot airline food but smaller in portion. Everyone was thin, I didn't see any big boned people. Armed soldiers loitered everywhere. Yellow water had stained water basins in an otherwise plush and spotless hotel. Cold, like really really cold - minus 15 C was announced over the Tannoy while we were being shuttled from the airport by bus. Most didn't understand anything we said to them. All English words were read off a sheet in Russian, joined together when read out as a rush of English.
Brexit, for once some facts.
- Thread starter flecc
- Start date
Nothing like that, it was a very smart move to lay claim to the two oblasts of Donbass. He'd already successfully secured the Crimea to Russia by democratic means to ensure the Russian southern fleet's security. Now he needs to ensure it further by protecting the Crimea from Ukraine taking it back by force with western military assistance.
At present he can only protect the Crimea from that happening via a vulnerable very long road and rail bridge he built over the entrance to the Azov Sea. By taking over political control of the Donbass region he tempts the Ukraine to increase its fight on the Donbass front line and start killing Russian troops. That would give the excuse for a full blown Russian assault, going beyond the Donbass southern border. Claiming that land gain by right of war then would link Russia directly to the Crimea around the west of the Azov Sea in addition to the eastern bridge. Job done.
This would also weaken the Ukraine through the loss of its Azov Sea ports, those already weakened by the Russians only permitting 16,000 tonne ships through the Azov Sea entrance, far too small to be economic in this container age:
Moscow is the asshole of the world, and we were passing through. Not a single Russian smiled at any point during our hellish journey. That the engine didn't fall off that particular propeller driven Aeroflot plane, was of course a delightful relief. Thanks to suspiciously dry and old looking (but thankfully frugal) Aeroflot hospitality, I and many other passengers were violently and continuously sick throughout the journey - a stream of lightly steaming vomit snaked down the isle of what felt like a very chilly unheated cabin. Passengers set each other off vomiting in clumps, abruptly spewing clumps. Regardless of what you've eaten, why does it always look like diced carrots? To this day, the merest suggestion in my mind of lemon tea makes me nauseous. A total of three people with superhuman cast iron constitutions were well enough to go Russian around on the Moscow bus tour, none returned...
I have no doubt they remain caged to this day, as unwilling participants of the Russian supersoldier breeding programme, where the rations are even worse than Aeroflot's. I keep slightly blood splattered microfiche evidence inside a pouch formed out of, and under my left eyelid.
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