Quote:
Originally Posted by Zulu29
Canada would be a third world country if not for our abundance of oil and gas and raw materials. If you pancake their economy (which I'm not certain would be so easy), they react by turning off the energy taps to the rest of Europe and plunge the region into recession again, possibly dragging the world with it.
Crimea is gone, there is nothing anyone can do about it and frankly it seems that it wanted it join Russia anyway. It was Russian for centuries before being handed over ceremoniously in the 50's after all.
The main thing now is to strengthen NATO presence in the region and wait. Personally I think Putin is done with his land grabs. He wanted the Black Sea naval base secured. He's got that now, he can now brag up national pride to his citizens. He may be crazy, but I don't think he's crazy enough to start a war with NATO. He'll ride out the sanctions(they'll end eventually), he'll miss out on the G-8 for a year or so bad then everything will return if the status quo.
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Them turning off the energy tabs pretty much exponentially increases the economic impact. They may do it for a bit, out of spite and stubbornness, but the fact remains that that is legitimately the only way they make real money. They can't just stop selling their only commodity.
And no, Canada would not be a third world country. Oil products are about 17% of our exports, in Russia it's 70%. There's also a lot more to being third world than just money. Like quality of life, political freedoms, freedom of speech.
Crimea is gone for sure, there's no doubt, probably eastern Ukraine too, it can't just be accepted or he takes more.
As for it being Russia before, again it doesn't matter. The world is full of places that historically belonged to someone else. Other countries get over it. Russia goes moronic.