News 8.8.16

[kevinkin]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/697712/russia-move-tanks-european-border

 

[Vanir Ausf B]

The headline writer seems to think the Crimean peninsula is not in Europe 

[John Kettler]

What I find by far more interesting is the next video on what appears to be a very ambitious and undoubtedly enormously expensive Russian Navy shipbuilding program. If we're wondering about how Russia can fund mere piffles of tanks, where is the Red Navy going to get the funding a Russian Nimitz CVN equivalent, a flotilla of at least somewhat stealthy destroyers cum cruisers and other goodies? The person who did the vid helpfully included a year by year official Russian GDP chart showing the Russian GDP had crossed into the negative side of the scale.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

[George MC]

It's the Daily Express... Nuff said.

[hattori]

@John Kettler  The Russian GDP growth rate is negative over the past 2 years, but Russian GDP itself is not negative.  I'm not sure that is even possible.  Two very different things.  The U.S. economy itself fluctuates between negative and positive growth at times.

In fact, Russia still has something like the 6th largest economy, an insane amount of resources, a large labour pool, and most predictions have them coming out of the recession next year.  I think they will be okay.  They actually might want to be a little less capitalist and shrink their income gap more -- lol -- something weird to say about the former head country of the communist movement.

[John Kettler]

hattori,

Fair point. I used the wrong term or, more likely, misunderstood what was said in the video frame which had that graphic. Russia does indeed have many positive factors on its side, of which the leader and cronies aren't a part!

Regards,

John Kettler

[kraze]

On 09.08.2016 at 5:25 PM, hattori said:

@John Kettler  The Russian GDP growth rate is negative over the past 2 years, but Russian GDP itself is not negative.  I'm not sure that is even possible.  Two very different things.  The U.S. economy itself fluctuates between negative and positive growth at times.

In fact, Russia still has something like the 6th largest economy, an insane amount of resources, a large labour pool, and most predictions have them coming out of the recession next year.  I think they will be okay.  They actually might want to be a little less capitalist and shrink their income gap more -- lol -- something weird to say about the former head country of the communist movement.

And yet they ran out of money for that single damn bridge. It's far from half-way finished, on an indefinite hold and they already spent $4 bln on it. Is probably the reason why "land bridge" is across every propaganda outlet again.

GDP and natural resources mean little when all the money belong to chosen few. Just ask chinese bubble.

Edited August 12, 2016 by kraze

[hattori]

In the news I have read about it, it seems to be more of a bureaucratic issue, than an actual issue with money.  I deal with government contracts all the time, and there are constant stupid delays with funding, and it has nothing to do with America or Canada not having the money.  The issue is important to Russia strategically.  They could print off $4 billion in money if they wanted to to finish it, and it likely wouldn't cause that much inflation -- I mean the U.S. has printed off trillions of dollars in the past few years with 'quantitative easing'.  Russia also has almost 400 Billion in USD in foreign currency reserves alone, it's not like they are remotely close to being bankrupt.

Once oil goes back up, Russia is going to be laughing. 

[Ivanov]

So far only a BTR column and 2S19 Msta transport have been reported, no tanks. Interestingly Russians also deployed Bastion-P coastal defence missile system on the Kerch Peninsula. Also the S-400 system has been deployed to Crimea. Overall the Russian forces in Crimea and on the Russian Ukrainian border number about 50k thousand troops. What can they do with them? If anything we can expect a limited military operation that would aim at "punishing" the Ukrainians for the alleged Crimea incursion. It could take a form of artillery and missile strikes. While everyone is looking at Crimea, the Mariupol sector may be in danger. That would explain why the Russians deployed the Bastion-P in Kerch - to prevent the Ukrainian naval forces from operating on the Sea of Azov. It could be also the usual behavior from the Russian playbook - blackmail and aggressive posturing.