I will not say, “I would like to see him try.” I have no desire to see either Finns or Russians die over a mad dream. For that matter, I am not convinced that the story is[n’t] [Sorry, guys, should have made that clearer – ML] nonsense: if we’re talking about countries that Vladimir Putin would want to reconquer for the Russian empire, Poland would be at the top of that list (and was not even mentioned in the article). But if this were to happen, it would not go well for Russia:
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ex-advisers has claimed that the ex-KGB agent ultimately wants to reclaim Finland for Russia.
Andrej Illiaronov, Putin’s economic adviser between 2000 and 2005 and now senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, said that “parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland are states where Putin claims to have ownership.”
Via Instapundit. I think that it was Poul Anderson who once noted that coffee did wonders to civilize the Scandinavians – being of Scandinavian descent himself, I believe that he was allowed to make that comment – and while I do not know how that would work, exactly, certainly something did. Certainly the Finns are no longer known for running through Eastern and Central Europe, screaming and cutting off heads and generally setting the landscape on fire when they weren’t using it for cover for their riflemen. I understand that this was somewhat of a relief for Eastern and Central Europe; I suspect that forcibly reminding the Finns of the skill set that they acquired in the Thirty Years’ and Winter Wars would be, ah, contraindicated.
Moe Lane
I think you have to blame the Vikings, one of the most significant movements in European history, on the global warming of the Medieval Climate Optimum rather than coffee.
Ah, the era when the two major exports of Scandinavia were lutefisk and violence…
Don’t forget hot Viking babes wearing metalic bras riding flying horses. Die Valkure
The Vikings changed the face of Europe. Their raiding phase, during which they controlled the islands, the coasts and the major river systems in Europe, pretty much ended when they converted to Christianity and it became impolitic to sell coreligionists to the Muslims. The Swedish became the early Russian nobility. The Vikings who settled in Normandy took over England, southern Italy, Sicily and helped to destabilize the Eastern Roman Empire.
Didn’t some Carolingian king say “Find out what brand of lutefisk he is eating and send a case of it to each of my generals.”?
The Finns aren’t a Nordic people they are part of the last remnants of the pre-IndoEuropean peoples of Europe the fact that they, the Hungarians and the Turkic peoples are still around should be warning enough not to pick a fight with them. There is a reason they survived.
Back up.
The Ukraine elected a pro-Euro gov’t in 2004 (with the help from America/Europe). This gov’t turned out to be as corrupt and incompetent as the last gov’t. The Ukraine then elected a pro-Russo gov’t in 2010. Yes, this was a fair election. Instead of waiting for the next election in 2016, the western-half overthrew the democratically elected gov’t (once again with help from America/Europe).
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Instead of buying the mainstream media’s narrative of “Putin on the warpath”, how about seeing things from Putin’s point of view? Considering Kosovo, Georgia/S.Ossetia (where America/Ukraine were arming Georgia) and NATO’s stated “containment” policy, Putin is reacting to aggression in the Ukraine. He’s not going to take over Finland or Poland or the Baltics. Sheesh.
Sorry: I used ‘is’ when I meant ‘isn’t.’ Since corrected.
Now you’re just mocking my by using double negatives.
😉
No, I have a bad habit of using double negatives generally.
Moe, I think you mean you don’t have the habit of not using double negatives…
And Hitler was reacting to the plight of the Germans in the Sudetanland.
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And what’s wrong with overthrowing an elected government, if that government goes astray? I don’t recall that footnote in the Declaration.
Deciding not to ratify a trade agreement with Europe is “going astray”? And comparing Putin to Hitler? C’mon, Crawford, you’re smarter than that.
There was more to the uprising in Ukraine than simply a lousy trade agreement… The former-president of Ukraine was imprisoning political opponents and acting like a tyrant.
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I for one don’t have a problem with what the Ukrainian people did.
That pro-Russian gov’t was also completely ignoring the Ukrainian Constitution and essentially violating their oaths of office.
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The people of Ukraine were right to throw those corrupt officials out of office. The government is supposed to be a servant of the people, not the lord and master.
Arrgh!!! The pro-Euro gov’t from 2004-2010 was even more corrupt than Yanukovich’s!
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Julia Tymashenko’s husband Oleksander was on the board of United Energy of Ukraine in the early 90s, and used his money and influence to get his wife appointed as Secretary of Energy under the Kuchma regime. Nice gig, eh? Together the Tymashenkos fleeced the Ukrainians of billions. She even admitted publicly of moving huge sums outside of the Ukraine. Julia “The Gas Princess” was the reason that Ukrainians had to pay European prices for Russian gas. In 2009 she brokered a 10 year deal with Gazprom (corrupt and unconstitutional and which landed her in jail). Oleksander’s money and influence in Europe is the reason that the EU stated that Yanukovich had to free Julia as one of the conditions to the trade pact. There was no way he could do that – he would have been pilloried by his own side.
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And you do know that the mayor of Kharov recently threw his hat into the presidential election…only to be imprisoned? Yes, corruption is wide and deep in the Ukraine, and Julia Tymashenko is both corrupt and far more ruthless than Yanukovich. So why do you support her again?
I’m not suggesting the government prior to the one that just got ousted wasn’t corrupt…
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The people of Ukraine do not have a rich history of having a Constitutional Republic. It took us two attempts to get our government and even then we were in the middle of a civil war 87 years later (as Abraham Lincoln pointed out in the Gettysburg Address)…
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The last thing the Ukrainians need is Russia actively undermining the Ukrainians’ attempt to govern themselves.
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Furthermore, does anyone honestly believe Putin will stop with Ukraine? I don’t, I honestly think he’ll go after one of the Baltic Nations or Poland (whom are in NATO, which I honestly think Obama wouldn’t lift a finger if they were attacked).
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Remember Obama is personally responsible for Ukraine being disarmed, and the promise that we would protect them from Russia. We’ve all seen how much Obama’s word means.
Yeah, the Finns weren’t Vikings, those are the Swedes you’re thinking of. The Finns did bloody Stalin’s nose though, and would do the same to Putin. He’s a fool to think either Poland or Finland are on the table for him.
Poland is a NATO member, we’re obligated to use military force to defend them. The jury is out whether or not Obama will honor the NATO treaty though.