https://www.newsweek.com/nato-has-already-crossed-vladimir-putins-red-line-1703136
Reno noted that the "stakes include the principle that conquest is unacceptable, a foundation of the world order since 1945. If conquest is rewarded, what is the fate of weaker countries in Africa vis-à-vis stronger neighbors? Would China impose itself upon Taiwan? We don't want that, so we step on the gas and keep driving down the centerline."
metmike: The world has dialed into their mindset the current situation and threats. What seemed alarming 3 months ago.............is every day life now.
As the threat slowly creeps higher, day by day, it's not noticed because the level, relatively speaking, compared to yesterday is not that much higher.
With very high certainty, one of these days, impossible to say which one........there will be huge UNEXPECTED news. We can't say what the news will be but it's almost inevitable.
Something has to give.
The West/NATO are absolutely ignoring Putin's threats as this article clearly demonstrates. Putin is LOSING the war because of it. His threats, ramping up recently to near the highest level of VERBALIZING possible but not ACTING have been ignored.
He will NOT just keep making more of the same threats that just keep getting ignored.
Things are gradually ESCALLATING not DEescalating.
I removed the choices because its just guessing. Nobody knows what will happen next.
metmike: This is puzzling. We've been told all year that we are putting trading sanctions on Russia and want the rest of the world to do that too in order to severely punish them by not buying their stuff.
If you buy into that line of thinking then Putin's announcement, is like Putin saying "In order to punish countries that are doing this to me, I'm going to increase the sanctions on Russia to punish them"
If sanctions on Russia are hurting Russia, as we are told, then Russia just hurt themselves.
Could be that Putin is getting so extremely desperate that he will do anything, including punishing his own country even more.
Who will be hurt the most by these latest actions by Putin?
The counties on his no trade list OR RUSSIA?
https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/can-the-russian-economy-withstand-the-sanctions/
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rus
Russia
2020
Economic
Complexity: 0.5, Rank 43 of 127
2020
Product
Exports | Imports: $330B | $220B, 13 of 226 | 21 of 226
2020
Per Capita Product
Exports | Imports: $2.29k | $1.53k, 81 of 219 | 124 of 219
2018
Service
Exports | Imports
: $57.7B | $92.9B, 15 of 125 | 9 of 125
Exports The top exports of Russia are Crude Petroleum ($74.4B), Refined Petroleum ($48B), Petroleum Gas ($19.7B), Gold ($18.7B), and Coal Briquettes ($14.5B), exporting mostly to China ($49.3B), United Kingdom ($25.3B), Netherlands ($22.5B), Belarus ($15.8B), and Germany ($14.2B).
In 2020, Russia was the world's biggest exporter of Wheat ($10.1B), Semi-Finished Iron ($4.5B), Non-fillet Frozen Fish ($2.58B), Raw Nickel ($2.26B), and Pig Iron ($1.34B)
Imports The top imports of Russia are Cars ($7.75B), Vehicle Parts ($7.28B), Broadcasting Equipment ($7.15B), Packaged Medicaments ($7.06B), and Computers ($4.1B), importing mostly from China ($50.7B), Germany ($26.1B), Belarus ($12.8B), South Korea ($7.93B), and Italy ($7.71B).
In 2020, Russia was the world's biggest importer of Aluminium Oxide ($1.38B), Precipitated Copper ($525M), Refractory Cements ($164M), Wallpaper ($138M), and Hydraulic Turbines ($74.8M)
Location Russia borders Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea by land and United Statesand Japan by sea.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/putin-send-doomsday-warning-west-131854285.html
metmike: This is likely to be more continued rhetoric by Putin.........but the war is ESCALATING and not DEescalating.
The damages are going UP not down.
Putin has everything invested in coming out on top. Some of the potential bad scenarios are extremely ugly for the world.
At the other extreme, we could be shocked by his death with his replacement wanting to negotiate peace.
You can bet the West is discussing how that last occurrence could occur without it causing more big problems than it solves. Biden already told us they are.
Most of us probably agree too.
Putin also knows this.
He is public enemy #1.........but on a global scale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_No._1
Public Enemy No. 1, or variants, may refer to: