[Sixstrings]

Russia announces war games; UK worried by 'extremely aggressive' probing of air space
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/01/us-russia-nato-baltic-idUSKCN0JF1W120141201

US Businessman Jailed in Russia Over Broken Window

Last year, he tried to bring former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow to Moscow to play for his American football team. Now American businessman Mike Zaltsman sits in a crowded jail cell, accused of breaking a window.

The Boston entrepreneur is involved in a dispute over an office he rented from a Russian billionaire that culminated with his arrest in April.

The case underscores the unpredictable business environment in Russia, where thousands have ended up in jail because of disputes or raids by rivals. Even seemingly petty crimes are used to imprison people for months or years.

Although the property dispute is murky, Zaltsman's treatment is excessive by any standard, advocates say.

"The fact that he was jailed for a broken window ? this is cruel and sadly typical of Russia," said Yana Yakovleva, founder of the advocacy group Business Solidarity.

Moscow police and investigators refused to comment on the case.

Zaltsman, who has dual Russian and U.S. citizenship, was accused of hooliganism ? a broad charge that has been used against the feminist punk band Pussy Riot and Greenpeace environmental activists. If convicted, he could be imprisoned for up to seven years.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-businessman-jailed-russia-broken-window-27285286

The above article says that billionaires in Russia use the law to take rivals out, and this "hooliganism" law is a catch all thing that can apply to a Pussy Riot demonstration or this American that "broke a window." Maybe seven years jail, for "breaking a window."

"Hooliganism" in Russia apparently means that Putin or his friends do not like you.

He wasn't charged with any fraud or tax evasion or financial crime, just this "hooliganism," I don't see how supposedly breaking a window warrants seven years but having said that they do look pretty shady:



I'll be honest here, those characters look like they must be guilty of something!

But you just need some kind of real charge and proof, wtf is up with 7 years for "breaking a window."

[Sixstrings]

Russia launches ‘wartime government’ HQ in major military upgrade





And if Russia does get into a war, the center would act as a major communication hub and a form of wartime government, delivering reports to the country’s military command and giving orders to all ministries, state-owned companies and other organizations, according to the needs of the armed forces.

“The creation of NDCC was one of the biggest military projects of the past few years. The closest analogy in the past in terms of functions and tasks was the Commander-in-Chief HQ in 1941-45, which centralized all controls of both the military machine and the economy of the nation in the interests of the war,” Lt. General Mikhail Mizintsev, the NDCC chief, told Lenta.ru in an interview.
http://rt.com/news/210307-russia-national-defence-center/

[radon1]

You've said that many times before, but I've never read or heard any analysis, anywhere, that says that.

Yes, that's why po.com is so much better than the others.

Of course you've never read it, because, as I said, no one needs it except himself.

If only it were true. Good lord, build the man a taj mahal, pass a UN resolution that nobody will ever mess with him, give him $40 billion, whatever it takes, in the interest of world peace.

Yeah. Or send someone whom he could trust, like Kissinger, to strike an acceptable deal. Like some sort of joint administration of Crimea in exchange for Nobel's peace prize. They wouldn't go after a Nobel peace prize winner would they, even if this was Pinochet or Gaddafi.

[Sixstrings]

You've said that many times before, but I've never read or heard any analysis, anywhere, that says that.

Yes, that's why po.com is so much better than the rest.

Well I'm not arguing with you, I've just never heard any hint of that anywhere.

Is that ever mentioned in any media, any idea that Putin could retire or would be willing to? From the looks of that Death Star monolith world war command center I don't think that's a man ready to retire.

I hope you're right Radon, for real, if we can all just make it until Russia has a new president in there then that would help a lot. A fresh slate.

A good strategy for the West is to wait Putin out, just wait him out, as much as possible. He can't be president forever, he's not immortal. Although old Fidel Castro is still kicking.

[Sixstrings]

So your suggestion is effectively anyone who shows up with a statutory declaration of their hatred for Vladimir should be granted work rights & residency by the USA... Lost for words...

Heh, well, SG, the reality is that we've got 10 million central americans that just walked across the Rio Grande in the years since the last mass legalization.

So I honestly don't see the difference, I mean if we're not going to stop the latino immigration, then you may as well make it fair and let Europeans in and get a healthy mix going so we don't wind up all Spanish speaking over here.

But anyhow.. what you said there is actually what the US does. If a Russian is from a list of minorities that have problems in Russia, and they can tell their story to a judge and if it sounds reasonable, then yes they do get their green card.

What I'm saying is that if we're making a stand against Russia, then we should relax some things like immigration detention time and work rules.

Australia has Russian immigrants; does Australia do political asylum for Russians or just normal immigration rules?

[SeaGypsy]

Putin just won a poll for most powerful man in the world. He is head & shoulders above every other significant world leader, he may retire when he sees fit.

[radon1]

Putin just won a poll for most powerful man in the world. He is head & shoulders above every other significant world leader, he may retire when he sees fit.

This poll was a joke. It was designed to humiliate Obomba domestically more than anything else. Putin is perhaps not even the most powerful man in Russia, not to say about the world.

He is a capable man and quite suitable professionally for a president's job, in general. But the quality of governance depends on the apparatus, and it is just not in there. The admin is bleeding good people. Ruble's current turbulence is a clear indication of just how shaky the position is.

[dissident]

Putin just won a poll for most powerful man in the world. He is head & shoulders above every other significant world leader, he may retire when he sees fit.

This poll was a joke. It was designed to humiliate Obomba domestically more than anything else. Putin is perhaps not even the most powerful man in Russia, not to say about the world.

He is a capable man and quite suitable for a president's job, in general. But the quality of the governance depends on the apparatus, and it is just not in there. The admin is bleeding good people. Ruble's current turbulence is a clear indication of just how shaky the position is.

You are projecting your liberast fantasies. The exchange rate means squat. If cared about the facts you would recall what happened after the massive devaluation in 1998.

[AgentR11]

He is a capable man and quite suitable professionally for a president's job, in general. But the quality of governance depends on the apparatus, and it is just not in there. The admin is bleeding good people. Ruble's current turbulence is a clear indication of just how shaky the position is.

???? Stop latching on to our horse race media. They care about the exchange rate only because its moving and is reportable as a "new high/new low" blah blah.

The story should have been running for years of outrage over Russian Central Bank artificially pegging the value of the currency, and using massive, long term, sustained, market destroying intervention to keep it pegged at a fantasy value.

The ruble is now at, or close to its real value; today if you take $20 and walk into a general US market and buy some stuff; and then take about 1000 ruble and walk into a Russian market and buy some stuff, you'll end up with about the same amount of calorie value/volume in both spots. (obvious local tastes/popularity will dictate a different mix of stuff; and Russian dairy should be somewhat more expensive because their distribution network for dairy is stupid) That has not been the case in like, forever. Welcome to the real free market.

If anything is true about the exchange rate, the ruble at 26-36/$US was an indicator of how screwed up their domestic monetary policy was; almost like it was written to benefit Russian oligarchs leaching value out of Russia and living in London. Those same oligarchs are screaming bloody murder right now, while Putin Inc is quietly laughing their butts off.

My prediction remains as I stated when the Central Bank pulled their plug on their payola to foreign oligarchs a few weeks ago. Natural trading range of the ruble should be around 50; and in the process of stabilizing there it may dip as far down as 70/US$. 70 may prove to have been an overreach though, looking at yesterday and today's trading around 52'ish, that looks almost like a real market. I think the central bank did buy some, but given that the Russian Federation finances half its federal government budget by buying rubles with dollars paid for oil/gas, it may be a bit hard to separate regular purchases from manipulative purchases; buying ruble at 50-60 being the US equivalent of issuing treasuries at 0%...

[Sixstrings]

Russia to be in recession, in 2015:

Russia Forecasts a Recession in 2015, Signaling a Toll From Sanctions and Oil Prices
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/business/russia-forecasts-a-recession-in-2015-signaling-a-toll-from-sanctions-and-oil-prices.html?_r=0

Russia’s Currency Has Worst Fall Since 1998 as Oil Rout Continues
https://time.com/3611494/russia-ruble-currency-oil/

Kerry: Sanctions haven't altered Moscow stance on Ukraine but hit its economy
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/02/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKCN0JG11R20141202

NATO slams Russia over Ukraine

In a display of anger from the alliance, which is providing advisers and nonlethal aid to the government in Kiev, foreign ministers from the 28 countries that make up NATO chastised Moscow for its troop build-up in and around eastern Ukraine.

“We strongly condemn Russia’s continued and deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine in breach of international law,” the group said in a statement. It said Moscow has provided tanks, air defense systems and heavy weapons to pro-Russian separatists.

The statement also vowed that members of NATO “do not and will not recognize” Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March.

The defiant words came a day after Russia announced it would conduct more than 4,000 military exercises in 2015, up from about 1,000 this year. Some will involve “tens of thousands of soldiers,” Russia said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/nato-slams-russia-over-ukraine/2014/12/02/4ae1c7d2-7731-11e4-8893-97bf0c02cc5f_story.html

That's a strong line in the sand:

The statement also vowed that members of NATO “do not and will not recognize” Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March.

I realize what NATO says doesn't mean much and they've been saying the same thing for over a year now, but, with the crimea part reiterated in this statement that does mean there isn't going to be any annexation recognition compromise. Not soon anyway. At best, maybe another year from now, for that kind of compromise.

So the sanctions will continue. We'll see what happens, if Russia rattles more sabres, or if Russia destabilizes, or both. Hopefully the Russian gov realizes the reality that the EU and USA and western world community will never back down to bullying tactics. It will not work. It's really never worked for Russia anywhere else, for that matter, but while the smaller nations take it -- Europeans and Americans will not.

If Russia rattles more sabres, or worse cyberattacks, or more cold war bomber probing or whatever else they think up, none of that will ever make the West back down it will only strengthen resolve and make the situation worse for Russia.

So I don't know what they'll do or where it leads, if it's escalation of bullying I'm just sayin' it ain't gonna work it just won't. We'll see what they do and how far they want to push it. They ought to remember though that other people are as stubborn as they are, we really won't back down, you just keep it up and that just makes it worse. They could have had a compromise, by now, but rather they are causing the West to harden its position.

Putin's worried about "regime change." Well, Western leaders really will settle on that as the only option, if Russia will not work with them. So I don't know what Putin can do here, what's he gonna do nuke us? Even if he threatens that, it's only going to make people ANGRY it will not make anyone back down. Don't they realize this?

And this is a prudent idea:

Germany wants NATO-Russia channel to avoid accidental escalation

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany urged NATO on Tuesday to set up an early warning system with Russia to prevent any military accident from spiralling out of control.

...

"I think we are obliged to ... take care that a conflict does not get out of control and lead to a military escalation. We need certain channels to check if some reports are true or not," he told reporters at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

NATO and Russian ambassadors have met only twice since the Crimea crisis erupted. One diplomat said a few countries, including France, Germany and Italy, were backing a proposal to use the existing NATO-Russia Council as a mechanism to avoid escalation.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2014/12/03/Germany-wants-NATORussia-channel-to-avoid-accidental-escalation/

I wonder if there's still that red phone between then oval office and the kremlin?

So anyhow -- neither side is going to back down, but certainly neither side wants a conflict to spiral out of control and maybe risk nuclear launch.

My opinion and position is that it would be okay to negotiate recognition of Russian Crimea, at this point, but in exchange there would be Ukraine having US / nato troops in there and the stuff Russia does in the east has to stop, and there can't be any more separatist state / annexing stuff anywhere else, like Moldova or anywhere. And certainly not NATO Baltics.

But that's just my opinion. Those in charge are taking a harder line than I would, they say they'll never recognize Russian Crimea.

[Sixstrings]

Oh, this is interesting. Poland's former PM Donald Tusk is president of the EU council now:

Poland's Tusk Takes EU Helm, Urges Russia to Withdraw From Ukraine

"We have also enemies, not only skeptics. Politics has returned to Europe. History is back. In such times we need leadership and political unity," Tusk said, referring obliquely to severe tension with Russia over Ukraine.

"Europe has to secure its borders and support those in the neighborhood who share our values," he said in English at a brief handover ceremony during which he admitted being "a little nervous."

He also said the coming year would be crucial for relations between Europe and the U.S., with the world's two biggest trading blocs negotiating a free trade agreement that faces opposition on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tusk said later he had discussed the trade agreement and the Ukraine crisis in a phone call with U.S. President Barack Obama.

"We agreed to step up our efforts towards reaching agreement," he said in a statement, referring to the trade pact.

On Ukraine, Tusk said: "We … agreed on how important it is for Russia to withdraw from eastern Ukraine, to stop supplying troops and equipment, to allow effective control of the border and to allow the OSCE to carry out its mission."

...

EU officials expect Tusk to be more assertive in foreign policy, notably towards Russia, than was Van Rompuy, whose main focus was financial crisis management. His chief foreign affairs adviser will be U.S.-born Estonian diplomat Riina Kionka, who worked in the 1980s at U.S.-owned Radio Free Europe, which broadcast news and opinion into then communist Eastern Europe.

However, the powers of the president of the European Council are circumscribed by the Lisbon Treaty, which defines the job as chairing and preparing EU summits and representing the bloc at head of state level with third countries.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/poland-s-tusk-takes-eu-helm-urges-russia-to-withdraw-from-ukraine/512226.html

Well, that's good news. Although I gather president of EU council has no real power, but some influence anyhow.

Tusk is a good leader, he's strong on the Russia issue. Poland, in general, will be a future leader in the EU and has already been a leader throughout this Ukraine crisis.

I also note from the article that president Tusk's top adviser will be an American-born Estonian. Maybe Europe will get it together now and grow a backbone.

P.S. As for the free trade deal with Europe, I'd be okay with that, Europe is more of an equal. It was darn NAFTA that was so destructive, why on earth did we ever do that one.. and a asia free trade deal would just be a massive jobs black hole, good lord. But free trade with Europe? That would wash out, Europe is an equal.

And Ukraine is not an equal, but it needs help or things are never going to get better and our foreign policy goals can't work if the economy doesn't improve there, so.... Ukraine needs a free trade deal with the US.

I'm okay with the free trade deals when it's with nations that strongly share our same values, and are going to be LOYAL to us long term, and the free trade is to further US foreign policy interests.

If the free trade is just to give all our jobs to Vietnam or China, when they really don't share our values, then I say no. Especially China, obviously. China already took all our jobs. So: free trade with Europe, fine, free trade with Ukraine, but we cannot do a free trade with the whole pacific and we'd better stop that crap with India too. We won't have any jobs left free trading with Chinese and Inidans, that's 2 billion poor people, all it would do is benefit rich capitalists.

[dorlomin]

Putin just won a poll for most powerful man in the world. He is head & shoulders above every other significant world leader, he may retire when he sees fit.

"lay aside thy Goethe and pick up Carlyle"

[radon1]

You are projecting your liberast fantasies. The exchange rate means squat. If cared about the facts you would recall what happened after the massive devaluation in 1998.

Mass impoverishment, this was what happened. May you live in "mass devaluation" times. The situation is totally different from 1998, because back then Soviet production facilities were still in place and were quickly loaded, but now they are gone. And oil reserves were well pre-peak back then.

Devaluation is good when it is made in the right time and in a good measure. They have had over a decade to manage the exchange rate properly. Now is the worst possible time, and they are doing lots of blunders. Or may be not even blunders, just serving groups of interests again. This does not look like managed devaluation, this looks like ruble massacre. They are not managing it, they are forced to stand aside watching it aghast (or joyfully as the case may be).

One may wonder, for example, why didn't they raise the rates the last time, one of very few occasions where this was really appropriate. Suddenly, they became concerned about the "interests of the local businesses", what a joke. Those few businesses that they didn't kill with their exchange policy and corruption extortions have already received a boon from the falling rates and are anyway used to rely on their own working capital sources. Can only speculate that our sanctioned "flagship of industry" are in desperate need to substitute their own short-term forex outflows with ruble ones. So they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel in search of good guys who will sell them dollars, borrowing in rubles like crazy and exchanging them for dollars at any price. And CBR helps them, putting the rates on hold.

Hopefully, things will settle somehow, but it's not how it looks to be now.

I detest "liberasts", don't know why you are ascribing me their views.

[radon1]

???? Stop latching on to our horse race media. They care about the exchange rate only because its moving and is reportable as a "new high/new low" blah blah.

I don't really follow the media. But the ruble dynamics, along with their desperate pleas to the Saudis for the oil production cut, along with Putin mumbling "the weather will be cold, the oil prices will go up", indicates that they are not in control and that their actions could have been poorly thought over, if at all. The entire campaign may have been Putin's emotional decision - basically, him freaking out.

If that proves to be the case, then it should rather be cut short, the sooner the better, otherwise they'll totally wreck the country. I mean, everything in which Putin is an expert was done brilliantly, like the operation in Crimea. But in other areas the things come across in such way as though he is ill-informed or misinformed, which is an indication of malfunctioning of the state administration. Looks like he is surrounded by courtiers rather than bureaucrats.

Gosh, Putin is long oil because the "weather should be cold". What a grand strategic thinking, how reassuring. Definitely a rhetoric of the most powerful man in the world, can you imagine Obama the power laggard telling something like this.

The story should have been running for years of outrage over Russian Central Bank artificially pegging the value of the currency, and using massive, long term, sustained, market destroying intervention to keep it pegged at a fantasy value.

Totally agree, I have been telling the same for years.

My prediction remains as I stated when the Central Bank pulled their plug on their payola to foreign oligarchs a few weeks ago.

The problem is not the exchange rates, the problem is their absence. The volatility is so massive that you cannot even be sure what the exchange rate is at any given time, almost like an illustration of the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. It might be good for stocks, but it's no good for a currency. It's actually going exponential, good if we passed half way through the total move. And we have not gone through a full-scale dollar appreciation yet. And we have had any real problems in Europe yet. And China's problems are not apparent yet. And we have not seen the stocks really crashing. And it does not even look like some evil Rodge Rosos is playing against the ruble, yet.

Hopefully, it'll settle at some reasonable range. Dollar softening might help.

[AgentR11]

Well, I've already posted my prediction for where it settles. (50 average with speculative trading minimum spikes as far as 70) The volatility obviously was not their plan, but float has been Plan for a long time. The sanctions, and their nature provided both an immediate necessity and some cover for the discomfort that was guaranteed. Without the moving forward of the termination of currency control; the sanctions would have created a situation where the Russian Central Bank was simply transferring its entire foreign exchange balance to London based Russian oligarchs.

OTOH, I'm looking at today's trading chart for the ruble, and it looks darn near normal for a free market currency; wiggling in a reasonable band around 53-54/$ . Now, like you said, its impossible to know what the true rate should be until some time has passed; but that was always the case, for years, until the last few weeks. No one knew what the currency was worth, they only knew that they could sell rubles to the Russian Central Bank for dollars, in essentially unlimited quantities and the price would not drift much. And *THAT* is what was the most destructive to the Russian economy. That is absolutely anathema to a market based economy and currency. None of the current transient issues even comes close to that in destructive power.

Its like recovering from a devastating disease; its often quite painful and difficult; and your only comfort is in knowing that the disease itself was far worse (or fatal). And central bank control policies + the sanctions would have been fatal. Yeah, you whine (Putin re oil, cold, etc), but you go on.

As to the big guys playing with the ruble in a large scale market moving way... I'm not really expecting that. Russian Central Bank has way to many $US and infinite rubles, and has reason to like a weaker ruble and reasons to like a stronger ruble, and has promised to intervene unpredictably. To me, that smells like a bank willing to sell rubles into a crash to amplify it, and then buy at the bottom. To play against that would be quite reckless....

As to "exponential", no. Its not. It was a step function. Russian Central bank pulled the currency control program abruptly, ahead of schedule, with no warning. You have to kinda look at the ruble as two separate currencies, one before early November, and one after. We're on the near verticle of the step, and may have just come to level yesterday. To soon to know for sure. In a year, of course, it'll be obvious, and will look exactly as one might expect on a 5yr chart.

You know what will also be true in 5 yrs; a widget that costs about 100 euro to make in the EU, will cost about 100 euro to make in Russia. That is something, that as far as I know, has NEVER been true in the course of human history.

All that said, if they blink and resume currency control, they're dead. Russia as an integral nation would not survive it. I think Putin understands this, which is why the whining and no acting.

[radon1]

OTOH, I'm looking at today's trading chart for the ruble, and it looks darn near normal for a free market currency; wiggling in a reasonable band around 53-54/$ .

CBR intervened yesterday to the tune of USD700m. It also intervened on Monday with a comparable amount. All of it after the Duma sent the letter to the divine authorities saying that the CBR must take care of citizens and so on.

The ruble market seems to be relatively shallow, but they appear to be fighting a general dollar trend. How poorly timed.

No one knew what the currency was worth, they only knew that they could sell rubles to the Russian Central Bank for dollars, in essentially unlimited quantities and the price would not drift much. And *THAT* is what was the most destructive to the Russian economy. That is absolutely anathema to a market based economy and currency. None of the current transient issues even comes close to that in destructive power.

Its like recovering from a devastating disease; its often quite painful and difficult; and your only comfort is in knowing that the disease itself was far worse (or fatal). And central bank control policies + the sanctions would have been fatal. Yeah, you whine (Putin re oil, cold, etc), but you go on.

That's fair. The treatment itself may happen to be lethal, but there is no choice. In any event, an administration that brought in these conditions in the first place "must go" in a civilized country.

As to the big guys playing with the ruble in a large scale market moving way... I'm not really expecting that. Russian Central Bank has way to many $US and infinite rubles

They only have about USD90b available for these purposes, about the same amount that they have spent since the beginning of the year. The rest is tied up in various programs. By comparison, the Russian corporate debt maturing short term is about USD120b.

You know what will also be true in 5 yrs; a widget that costs about 100 euro to make in the EU, will cost about 100 euro to make in Russia.

So, a bear ruble market for the next 5-5000 years.

That is something, that as far as I know, has NEVER been true in the course of human history.

That's a complex issue. May happen that it's not at all possible because of logistics, climate, and most of all - idiotic population settlement patterns in Russia. And oil and other natural resources, of course.

All that said, if they blink and resume currency control, they're dead. Russia as an integral nation would not survive it. I think Putin understands this, which is why the whining and no acting.

Of course. But it's not their choice, they can do nothing about it, it was imposed on them. The only capital controls that they are able to introduce would have to be regulatory.

I meant - the Crimean campaign was poorly thought over (except the operational part), and was all about getting emotional and freaking out. Not the devaluation campaign.

[AgentR11]

CBR intervened yesterday to the tune of USD700m. It also intervened on Monday with a comparable amount. All of it after the Duma sent the letter to the divine authorities saying that the CBR must take care of citizens and so on.

Yeah, I saw that too. If it wasn't aimed at busting the chops of a particularly obnoxious speculative trader; that was REALLY bad move. OTOH, it wasn't written up as a restoration of a trading range, but more as unique buys. I honestly don't know whether such a buy just goes and sits on their central bank balance sheet, or whether its deposited to the treasury accounts that the RF writes its internal checks against, so it may simply be a wash internally, especially if the Central Bank believes that the 53-55 range is what the currency's value should be.

Its not that I'm cheering or not cheering for Russia, but generally speaking the product prices I've been able to see without intentional filtering suggest to me the ruble should sell for 50'ish; maybe a bit weaker, but not a lot. Its interesting to me as a technical, not emotional, piece of data. I'm just really curious what the ruble's real, unmanipulated value is.

The ruble market seems to be relatively shallow, but they appear to be fighting a general dollar trend. How poorly timed.

definitely agree.

In any event, an administration that brought in these conditions in the first place "must go" in a civilized country.

A little too late to fire Gorbi, Yeltsin, et al. And the guy that signed away Crimea's already dead. To me, this is cleaning up an impossible mess, not "first place" cause.

So, a bear ruble market for the next 5-5000 years.

Stable at say, 55-60 is not a bear market. Its just the natural price of the ruble. If anything, the folks that set the ruble value in the 20's and 30's should go to prison for market manipulation... even if they were doing it with the imprimatur of the government. It was still devastating to the Russian economy and to the benefit of folks wanting fancy houses in London and Swiss chocolate bars in Moscow. How many Russian engineers never had a snowballs chance of success against a currency worth 1/50 and selling for 1/25. To me, that's really a greater crime than the initial distribution of assets from the USSR.

[Withnail]

Tusk is a good leader, he's strong on the Russia issue. Poland, in general, will be a future leader in the EU and has already been a leader throughout this Ukraine crisis.

I also note from the article that president Tusk's top adviser will be an American-born Estonian. Maybe Europe will get it together now and grow a backbone.

Nobody takes Poles or still less Estonians seriously in real Europe.

We;re not going to take orders from cabbage eaters who have barely crawled out of the swamp.

[AgentR11]

"We have to get rid of all constraints on business, and relieve it of obsessive control," he said.

Who said that?

Putin, just this week.

Russia is moving to a market economy... finally. Some people are going to suffer, and some suffer a lot, because of their continued reliance on the central bank paying for their imports and overseas mortgages. But it is happening, and happening now. As much as the West would like to keep Russia crippled as a primary resource exporter with inefficient and disadvantaged industrial capabilities; that era is over. If Putin can avoid being killed by all the people he's ticking off right now; we'll(the West) have created the only monstrosity that could challenge us in the coming century. A free market Russia+China. Russia solves China's only long term weakness; solves it completely, totally, and finally, with a cherry on top.

And we did it to grab the $170bn GDP corrupt wasteland known as Ukraine.

The degree of incompetence on our part is just staggering. And we're being sold on the notion that we should feel good about our actions because some Russian twit somewhere is having a bad day as a result of our moves.

[dissident]

Another example showing that the western media has lost its grip on reality:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/russias-e ... 00983.html

Now Russian GDP has shrunk so much it is no longer the world's eighth largest economic power, according to The Telegraph. Instead, Putin's Russia is now carries roughly the same economic weight as ... Spain

These morons have no clue about economics. The nominal GDP value is a meaningless number. The "logic" in this article confirms it. Suppose the GDP went down by 50% in line with the forex rate, then where is the massive unemployment and collapse in production? The forex rate can have negative effects such as inflation and disruption of imported inputs into the production chain of many enterprises. But nobody with a clue would infer that physical economy is a simple function of the forex rate. This is why economists compare economies based on purchasing power parity and actual economic activity which results in goods and services delivered to market.

Canada's forex rate to the US dollar has gone down recently, I guess Canada's economy must be shrinking. LOL.