Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Ukraine Presidential Crackdown Violence. Russia Invades Ukraine

Mr.Coffee · 03-04-2014, 09:16 PM

Sometimes my dad will send me some Stratfor geopolitical articles that speak to current events like this one that's unfolding.

I would love to post it on here but pretty sure there are rules against that plus I am sure Sttratfor wouldn't be impressed with the move but it was really interesting.

Basically it outlined that over the last decade or two Russia has been consistently pushed back east and has seen a reduction in its' overall power as previous Soviet bloc countries become increasingly friendly to the west. That's not really news or noteworthy, but it predicted (correctly) basically that Russia was going to begin an era of Soviet expansion, as a defensive course (and now we have this Crimea incident). That Russia needed to regain certain perimeter buffer lands to bolster itself geographically to provide distance between itself and Europe. Some countries like Belarus already have Soviet-similar policy that Russia could leverage but other countries, like Ukraine, need to be brought back under the umbrella.

The other reasoning for doing this was economic, as Russia obviously is the major natural gas / energy provider for Europe which is its' carrot and leverage in dealing with that continent. If there's no buffer and less military 'showmanship' it becomes tougher to leverage your energy wealth or as Stratfor put it 'it's not good to be rich and weak'.

Anyway I am pretty sure I have butchered the article but thought I would post as good a synopsis as I could here... there was a lot more to it too, but it basicaly said we're witnessing step 1 of a 3 step Soviet expansion era in an effort to Russian defense or a resurgence of Russia onto the world stage as a power.

The article also reaffirms what that dude on CNN chirped about (discussed here already), the fact that the Russians believe they are simply recovering from what the Americans / west have done to them in terms of negotiating / propping up "satellite states" near their borders and that they are simply righting what's already been a blunt 'wrong'.

whoops.. looks like Seegeewhy already covered this one page back... doh

03-04-2014, 09:16 PM	#513
Mr.Coffee damn onions Join Date: Mar 2006 Exp:	Sometimes my dad will send me some Stratfor geopolitical articles that speak to current events like this one that's unfolding. I would love to post it on here but pretty sure there are rules against that plus I am sure Sttratfor wouldn't be impressed with the move but it was really interesting. Basically it outlined that over the last decade or two Russia has been consistently pushed back east and has seen a reduction in its' overall power as previous Soviet bloc countries become increasingly friendly to the west. That's not really news or noteworthy, but it predicted (correctly) basically that Russia was going to begin an era of Soviet expansion, as a defensive course (and now we have this Crimea incident). That Russia needed to regain certain perimeter buffer lands to bolster itself geographically to provide distance between itself and Europe. Some countries like Belarus already have Soviet-similar policy that Russia could leverage but other countries, like Ukraine, need to be brought back under the umbrella. The other reasoning for doing this was economic, as Russia obviously is the major natural gas / energy provider for Europe which is its' carrot and leverage in dealing with that continent. If there's no buffer and less military 'showmanship' it becomes tougher to leverage your energy wealth or as Stratfor put it 'it's not good to be rich and weak'. Anyway I am pretty sure I have butchered the article but thought I would post as good a synopsis as I could here... there was a lot more to it too, but it basicaly said we're witnessing step 1 of a 3 step Soviet expansion era in an effort to Russian defense or a resurgence of Russia onto the world stage as a power. The article also reaffirms what that dude on CNN chirped about (discussed here already), the fact that the Russians believe they are simply recovering from what the Americans / west have done to them in terms of negotiating / propping up "satellite states" near their borders and that they are simply righting what's already been a blunt 'wrong'. whoops.. looks like Seegeewhy already covered this one page back... doh Last edited by Mr.Coffee; 03-04-2014 at 09:30 PM.