Kiev

[William the White]

It is so good that you two stubborn bastards have found each other. I feel relieved of the burden of having to reply to either of you.

OTHER THAN WHEN...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Bizzare (not doubting you) there's no reference to it I can see, and I'm struggling to find the executive power that would allow for it.

I suspect the legality on either side probably isn't going to be tested anywhere soon.

Guess we just wait and see if it all settles down.

I reckon it already has settled down for the most part. There will no doubt be a lot of whinging from Kiev, but not anything that will alter history, unless of course the tanks do roll and Donetsk, Kharkiv and Odesssa are in Putin's sights - that I fear will lead to war.

A quick search by the way brought up this, which while events have overtaken things quite considerably is an earlier reference to the referendum as it was in the process of metamorphosing.
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine ... 37804.html

[Lord Kangana]

War with whom? I can't see any Nuclear armed country taking on another Nuclear armed country. So, that leaves the Russians a free hand to steamroller Ukraine in about 72 hours. That's hardly war. The Crimea is theirs. I think I predicted this a while ago.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

War with whom? I can't see any Nuclear armed country taking on another Nuclear armed country. So, that leaves the Russians a free hand to steamroller Ukraine in about 72 hours. That's hardly war. The Crimea is theirs. I think I predicted this a while ago.

Yep, Crimea is theirs, I have no doubt of that. Possibly Donetsk oblast will become theirs too...
But if Putin heads Odessa-wards he will have a war on his hands from the Ukrainians at the very least, possibly or possibly not backed up by NATO. And although both sides would be nuclear armed I think it's possible a conventional war would be carried out, probably through surrogates on our side.

[bobo the clown]

I used to care about the Ukraine ..... till this thread.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I used to care about the Ukraine ..... till this thread.

Its the third Bore War.

[Worthy4England]

It is so good that you two stubborn bastards have found each other. I feel relieved of the burden of having to reply to either of you.

OTHER THAN WHEN...

You just trundle back off to the art thread, where you can discuss inconclusively, what can be discerned about a pile of bricks and three paper bags, other than it's a pile of bricks and three paper bags.

[William the White]

It is so good that you two stubborn bastards have found each other. I feel relieved of the burden of having to reply to either of you.

OTHER THAN WHEN...

You just trundle back off to the art thread, where you can discuss inconclusively, what can be discerned about a pile of bricks and three paper bags, other than it's a pile of bricks and three paper bags.

I bloody found you there last time I looked! Did you take a wrong turning?

[Worthy4England]

It is so good that you two stubborn bastards have found each other. I feel relieved of the burden of having to reply to either of you.

OTHER THAN WHEN...

You just trundle back off to the art thread, where you can discuss inconclusively, what can be discerned about a pile of bricks and three paper bags, other than it's a pile of bricks and three paper bags.

I bloody found you there last time I looked! Did you take a wrong turning?

I look in occasionally to see if it's got round to discussing any art.

[Hoboh]

Moscow criticised the Foreign Office for its choice of rhetoric on the Ukraine crisis. "We are being reassured that the British government wants to maintain normal diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation. If that is the wish of our British partners, then this relationship has got to be normal and diplomatic including at the level of rhetoric. Good relations ought to be valued. The British side should mind its language. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the British Embassy in Moscow," said the Russian foreign ministry. "It seems that the harsh rhetoric, quite beyond the pale, is meant to cover up the gross inaptitude of the Brussels bureaucracy and its zero-sum motive to engineer a cold war-type geopolitical grab on Russia's borders."

Give up Davey boy, your on a loser Putin and co are laughing and choking on their vodka's.

[Hoboh]

Moscow criticised the Foreign Office for its choice of rhetoric on the Ukraine crisis. "We are being reassured that the British government wants to maintain normal diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation. If that is the wish of our British partners, then this relationship has got to be normal and diplomatic including at the level of rhetoric. Good relations ought to be valued. The British side should mind its language. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the British Embassy in Moscow," said the Russian foreign ministry. "It seems that the harsh rhetoric, quite beyond the pale, is meant to cover up the gross inaptitude of the Brussels bureaucracy and its zero-sum motive to engineer a cold war-type geopolitical grab on Russia's borders."

Give up Davey boy, your on a loser Putin and co are laughing and choking on their vodka's.

The EU and the interim Ukrainian government have now signed part of a political and trade pact, the issue that led to the crisis last November that ultimately triggered a revolution in Kiev and Russian intervention in Crimea.
The EU summit agreed to race ahead with similar pacts with Moldova and Georgia, concluding them by June.

Go on then, someone just tell me it isn’t the fault of an expansionist EU

[Worthy4England]

So (like Ukraine), do Moldova and Georgia have the right to choose, or can they only choose to be Russian because Putin says so?

[Hoboh]

So (like Ukraine), do Moldova and Georgia have the right to choose, or can they only choose to be Russian because Putin says so?

Choose? or pressured and blackmailed by the false promise of the 'good times' or the three grand a year to each household that EU membership is worth?
Only place I ain't looked for that three grand yet is under the floorboards and I doubt it's there either!

[Worthy4England]

So (like Ukraine), do Moldova and Georgia have the right to choose, or can they only choose to be Russian because Putin says so?

Choose? or pressured and blackmailed by the false promise of the 'good times' or the three grand a year to each household that EU membership is worth?
Only place I ain't looked for that three grand yet is under the floorboards and I doubt it's there either!

I didn't ask whether the deal would be good or bad for them, just whether they had the right to choose?



I'm fairly sure if Russia wanted them back, part of the agreement would be around putting three grand under each set of floorboards. Almost goes without saying.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I'm two days behind on the news front. Did Russia annexe incorporate Crimea on Friday?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I'm two days behind on the news front. Did Russia annexe incorporate Crimea on Friday?

Indeedy. I heard Putin did a twatter as well.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I'm two days behind on the news front. Did Russia annexe incorporate Crimea on Friday?

Indeedy. I heard Putin did a twatter as well.

Oh dear (re twattering).

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

"The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords"

F.E. Smith - "Idealism in International Politics", Rectoral Address at Glasgow University (7 November, 1923).

I doubt his regard for international law would have changed much were he still around today.

[Montreal Wanderer]

"The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords"

F.E. Smith - "Idealism in International Politics", Rectoral Address at Glasgow University (7 November, 1923).

I doubt his regard for international law would have changed much were he still around today.

Surely he was Lord Birkenhead by then.

Chesterton found him a little shaky on the international aspects of the disestablishment of the Welsh church.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

"The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords"

F.E. Smith - "Idealism in International Politics", Rectoral Address at Glasgow University (7 November, 1923).

I doubt his regard for international law would have changed much were he still around today.

Surely he was Lord Birkenhead by then.

Chesterton found him a little shaky on the international aspects of the disestablishment of the Welsh church.

I think perhaps even Earl by then.

And yes, I love that poem. Even FE overreached himself from time to time.