Moscow has said they will spend billions on everything in Crimea such as bridge linking to Russia and a higher standard of living. Which this year they have spent 7 billion. Crimea will be a huge cost but its not all losses there are some benefits to this. There will be an end to the Gas for Base Agreement. This means Russia's gas prices will be lower and that Ukraine will be paying $100 more for each 1000 cubic meters of gas which will raise the gas prices for the people in Ukraine. Another benefit to Crimea is their natural resources. Russia has estimated Crimea's reserves and got that there is 165.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 44 million tonnes of oil. The profit of these resources would be over 1 billion and could be far higher with the unexplored offshore fields which could have trillions of cubic meters in gas. A long with resources Russia also has military equipment that was left in Crimea by Ukraine and only will return some of it which might cause future problems with the cost of Crimea. I think this will be a huge investment for Russia and will cost so much money and take a lot of time. It may be worth it for Russia with all of the resources Russia could use or sell in Crimea.
Against the warnings from Moscow, the central government in Kiev has threatened to blockade pro-Russia militants moving into the town Slovyansk near the border. This move is creating tension between Moscow and Washington as well as Europe. “Attempts at military conflict in Ukraine will lead to a military conflict in Europe,” Ukraine’s interim prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, told the interim cabinet in remarks broadcast live, according to Reuters. “The world has not yet forgotten World War II, but Russia already wants to start World War III.” The blockade has sent the world into the war mindset. There are still tensions from the Cold War that should be worried about. With this blockade being put up against the supposed oncoming Russian forces all of the countries are considering the affects that could occur if Russian activists and the Ukraine were to be in battle. The Ukrainian defense minister says that: “In the event of any crossing of the border by Russian troops, we will qualify this as an invasion and we will eliminate the invaders.”
How bad is the Russian threat?
In the past weeks Russian activist troops have been moving closer and closer to the Ukrainian border. At present time the troops are 1 kilometer away from the border. However the ATO (anti-terrorist operation) continues to patrol the border. The defense minister also says: “The ATO goes on,” he said. “The terrorists should be on their guard around the clock. Civilians have nothing to fear.”
Russia has repeatedly denied having a hand in the unrest convulsing eastern Ukraine or any intention to invade. But an announcement on Thursday by Moscow that it would immediately start military maneuvers along the border with Ukraine, and a threat by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, of unspecified consequences for Ukraine as a result of what he called a “serious crime,” signaled a new phase in a geopolitical struggle set off by the overthrow of Ukraine’s government in February.
The debates and politics continue to roll on among the world powers, but only time will tell what will happen in Crimea and Ukraine.
Experts say Propaganda in Russia is worse now than at the height of the Cold War. One thing that Russia excels at in the Cold War and now, is Propaganda. Propaganda: (noun) "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view." Back in the day, in the Soviet Union, the methods of propaganda were based on the Leninism-Marxism strategies of propaganda.
One of the goals of Russia’s propaganda is to suppress the will of people to resist, says Aurimas Navys, an officer from the Lithuanian army’s Strategic Communication Department.In his speech during a discussion on civic defence at the Seimas of Lithuania on Friday, he said that Russian television reaches 14 percent, or 405,000, residents of Lithuania.
According to Navys, there are several lines of Russia’s propaganda. The first aims at identifying the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Belarus. The goal of the second one is to defame fighters for Lithuania’s independence, guerrilla fighters, spread disinformation about the Soviet aggression against Lithuania on January 13, 1991. One more line is aimed at spreading information degrading Lithuania, stating that it would not manage to defend itself.
Speaking about possible responses to propaganda, Navys stressed the role of ordinary citizens. He believes posts positive for the state in social media, in the media as well as videos positively representing Lithuania could be among possible responses.
“We are at war but it’s not the one we are used to seeing in movies,” the army representative said.
Following the discussion, held by the opposition Liberal Movement’s political group in the Seimas, later in the day new members of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union will be sworn in in Gediminas’ Tower in Vilnius.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has lead to an increase in the number of people taking interest in the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union which has seen an increase in applications by a third.
50 candidates turned to the union over the past month, the union’s Vilnius Riflemen’s Company said, and the majority of them will be sworn in on Friday. New members include businessmen, lawyers, economists, physicists, electric engineers, civil servants, politicians, journalists.
In the wake of new threats, Vilnius Riflemen’s Company plans to establish new divisions that will be in charge of information and cyber defence and education issues.
Established in 1919, the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union is a state-funded voluntary paramilitary civic self-defence organization assisting the state in ensuring national security.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is living in another world. But what world exactly is this? As the Crimean crisis drags on, it is becoming clear that Putin’s thinking is somehow stuck in 1930s Europe. Replace Putin with Stalin and you get a good sense of what Russia’s leader is doing and, more importantly, how he can be stopped.
Much has been written about how the Soviet Union shaped Putin’s thinking. To him, Russia’s immediate past is not just a tool to foster patriotism. It is a model he is hoping to emulate.Putin has long tried to recreate Soviet greatness by invading neighbors (think Georgia 2008) and building a Eurasian economic union. Along the way, he has also adopted a way of thinking that is strikingly similar to his Soviet predecessors.In fact, he invaded Crimea for much the same reasons that Stalin invaded eastern Poland in 1939. Comparing the two invasions not only helps us make sense of a complicated situation, but it also offers clues on how Putin’s expansionism can eventually be defeated.
A way to snap Putin back into reality is one that Our President Would not want to do. It would require President Obama to open the Keystone pipeline, allow fracking and other oil company's to drill oil deposits in Alaska. so that America can become energy self-dependent. This would cut off Russia from the revenue that it receives from America, which would change Putin and Russia mind about the Crimean Crisis.
