Well, this is an escalation. Maybe a testing of the waters to see what the Russian people will agree to?
Russia is currently run by lunatics, some of them with a massive case of little man syndrome.
Related link: Russia This Week: Zhirinovsky Threatens to ‘Wipe Out’ Poland, Baltics
Zhirinovsky Threatens the Annihilation of Poland and Baltic States if West Responds to Russian Aggression Against Ukraine
20:24 (GMT)
The ultranationalist Russian provocateur Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the ill-named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and member of parliament is tearing up the wires this week. Millions have seen his TV broadcast and 112,000 have already viewed the clip on YouTube.
As Russian troops mass at the Ukrainian border, he has urged Putin to take strong action and if the West retaliates, has threatened Russia's destruction of Poland and the Baltic states.
On the state-run Rossia 24 Pryamaya Lina [Direct Line] Show 8 August, Zhirinovsky said only one person would decide about the invasion of Ukraine regardless of any plans of NATO or the US, and that will be President Vladimir Putin.
Indeed he likely "already made the decision," he said ominously. Just as Nicholas II was the one to make the final decision about entering World War I, and Stalin made the decision to enter World War II, says Zhirinovsky, so Putin will be the only one to decide whether to invade Ukraine. The Interpreter has translated an excerpt:
What will remain of the Baltics? Nothing will remain of them. NATO airplanes are stationed there. There's an anti-missile defense system. In Poland -- the Baltics -- they are on the whole doomed. They'll be wiped out.
There will be nothing left. Let them re-think this, these leaders of these little dwarf states. How they are leaving themselves vulnerable.
Nothing threatens America, it's far away. But Eastern Europe countries will place themselves under the threat of total annihilation. Only they themselves will be to blame. Because we cannot allow missiles and planes to be aimed at Russia from their territories. We have to destroy them half an hour before they launch. And then we have to do carpet bombing so that not a single launch pad remains or even one plane. So -- no Baltics, no Poland. Let NATO immediately ask for negotiations with our Foreign Ministry. Then we'll stop. Otherwise well have to teach them the lessons of May 1945.
Zhirinovsky alone is not in a position to make good on such threats. But the voice of extremists such as himself and others have been heeded by parliament, as they first authorized Putin to use force if need be on Ukraine in March, then approved (with one dissenting vote) the forcible annexation of the Crimea on March 18, then coyly withdrew the consent for the use of force in June -- which of course is not really required for Putin to take action anyway.
Russia is currently run by lunatics, some of them with a massive case of little man syndrome.
Related link: Russia This Week: Zhirinovsky Threatens to ‘Wipe Out’ Poland, Baltics
I am more concerned with what is happening in Iraq at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the USA going to do with $400 million dollars worth of Polish apples? - its not very smart to make an enemy of your big customers, not very smart at all.
ReplyDeleteOh dear - a record apple crop in North America this year, the Polish Ambassador to the USA certainly has got his work cut out for him.
ReplyDeleteI predict a change of Government in Poland after the next elections
What the heck is wrong with you? Here is a direct threat by a Russian parliamentarian against Poland and the Baltics and the big deal to you is apples? It's like you're gloating that Poland is having an economic problem with apples. I mean - seriously???
ReplyDeleteThis is almost trolling, these comments of yours.
Hi Fraida,
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Iraq is that what's happening there is what always happens there if there is no strong leader. It could easily be contained if the West had the stomach for it. That includes leaving leaders in place that we don't like such as Assad. While as this thing in Eastern Europe is far more dangerous - when Europeans go to war (remember WWII?), many, many more people die.
It's not trolling really Lucia - it just seemed a pointless waste of time to point out that Vladimir Zhirinovsky, is the Hone Harawira of Russian Politics or that what he actually said was that if NATO launches a military strike against Russia, a decision that will be made in Washington, not the capitals of Poland or the Baltic Republics then they will find themselves on ground zero of WW3 because their leaders have allowed their own nations to be used as a staging area for an attack on Russia.
ReplyDeleteWe live in time when a major shift in the international order is underway, a dangerous time which could lead to armageddon -North Africa and the Middle East are already ablaze - this is the bigger picture,
Meanwhile, after months of bellicosity towards Russia from the European elites including applying sanctions to punish her for what she has not done - just as the harvest ripens in Europe Russia announces it is shopping elsewhere this year,,,,,,