Putins New Russia.

This was disturbing - we were just watching SBS ONE report on the Crimea referendum.

Just on SBS ONE (at 21:40hrs) - a Russian news commentator just said - In Russian (translated to English) discussing the US's threats, here is the response;


QUOTE - 'Russia is the only country in the world capable of turning the US into radioactive ash'.

www.news.com.au/world/a-rapid-russian-buildup-of-tanks-and-troops-with-tough-talk-from-president-vladmir-putin-raises-fears-war-with-ukraine-could-be-imminent/story-fndir2ev-1226867240935

Looks pretty ominous!!! This will be an interesting week coming up. Time to fill up the jerry cans because when this all kicks off prices will go through the roof.

Also, if the US & UN get involved here, will this then allow other countries to make their own moves while everyone is distracted in Europe?? ie - Nth Korea invades the South, China takes hold of a number of disputed islands from Japan, Philippines, or even invades Taiwan??

Or is this just a lot of sabre rattling???

Looks the 'Putin-Power-Ranger' show is growing and he is there to stay. He is moving some serious equipment into some key positions in the Crimea:-

Russia moves heavy armour into Crimea

Tim Ripley, London

01 April 2014


A Russian army armoured battalion has arrived in Crimea equipped with the first main battle tanks (MBT) to be deployed by Russia on the contested peninsula since the start of the stand-off between Moscow and Kiev last month.

The unit, which included more than 30 T-72 tanks, was shown to the international media being unloaded at a railway cargo yard near the large Russian air and logistical base at Gvardeyskoe on 31 March.

Two troop trains delivered the tanks to the base in central Crimea after they were transported to the peninsula from the Russian mainland via the roll-on roll-off rail ferry terminal at Kerch. The Russian military has been using this route as its main transhipment point for vehicles and cargo since the start of its Crimean operation on 27 February.

Up to this deployment, the Russian military had relied on wheeled armoured vehicles during its operation in the Crimea. The movement of the tank unit is thought to be part of a continuing build-up of forces to prevent any Ukrainian attempt to retake the peninsula. It is expected to move the unit up towards the new border with Ukraine, in the north of Crimea, to give Russian commanders more offensive and defensive options. The units deployed in this region up to now had been predominately equipped with wheeled BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers, backed up by 122mm and 152mm towed artillery.

This reinforcement will also allow the Russian airborne forces and naval infantry units, which spearheaded the initial Russian operation, to be pulled back from duty in Crimea and reconstituted for future operations.

Social network imagery has also emerged showing the deployment of a Russian S-300 battery protecting Gvardeyskoe airbase in Crimea on 30 March. The imagery, which includes a number of distinctive geographic features specific to the base, shows eight S-300PMU launcher erector vehicles, positioned in the northern edge of the airfield, supported by a number of command vehicles, as well as 30N6E1 Tomb Stone and 5N63S Flap Lid B radars.

The radars are positioned to scan in a northerly direction to detect a possible Ukrainian air attack on the air base. IHS Jane's satellite imagery analysis detected elements of a S-300PM brigade on railway cars after being unloaded at the Kerch ferry terminal on 13 March but it is unclear if this is the unit that was eventually deployed to protect Gvardeyskoe airbase.

Also pictured at the base are two Pantsir-S1 point gun/missile combined air defence systems, suggesting a layered air defence capability has been put in place to protect it.

The deployment of the additional Russian capabilities in Crimea comes as international tension over the fate of Eastern Ukraine continues to run high.

'Cr_p'!!! That way doesn't work!!

For those interested try this: -

That place is going to be torn up! Remember a while back the pope went to Ukraine to pray for peace and he released two doves. Immediately they were attacked by a crow and a seagull! I wonder which nations those birds represent. Haha

Obviously they are not very worried by Obey-me's sanctions;

Russian oil firm says Asian buyers willing to use euros.

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Florence Tan

MOSCOW/SINGAPORE Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:28am EDT

MOSCOW/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Russian state-controlled oil producer Gazprom Neft said it had received positive responses from Asian clients about the possibility of using euros as a settlement currency instead of the dollar.

Company head Alexander Dyukov said this week Gazprom Neft had broached the idea of dropping the dollar, traditionally the currency of choice for the global energy sector, in response to a possible new round of Western sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea.

He said the company had discussed with buyers the possibility of switching contracts to euros and that 95 percent had said they were ready to do it. Gazprom Neft ships around 30,000 barrels per day of oil eastward.

"Gazprom Neft has held discussions with its eastern partners about the possibility of completing settlements in the European currency. They, in turn, expressed their potential readiness for this," the oil arm of top Russian top natural gas producer Gazprom said in emailed comments on Thursday.

Three buyers in Japan and China said they had been approached by Gazprom to settle oil payments in currencies other than the dollar. Two of the buyers said they were still considering the proposal, while the third said his company had bought crude using euros before and did not see it as a problem.

"Switching to euros is not a big deal. The problem is who will bear the exchange cost," a trader with a Japanese buyer of Russian Asia-bound ESPO crude oil blend said.

The United States and the European Union have already imposed some sanctions, mainly on individuals, over the Crimea crisis and have threatened more sanctions if Russia sends troops into eastern Ukraine.

Moscow has reserved the right to send in troops if it deems them necessary to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine from what it says are nationalist and neo-fascist groups.

REAL MEASURES?

President Vladimir Putin has urged Russian companies to forge closer ties with Asian energy powerhouses as relations with Europe and the United States have become frosty.

Earlier on Thursday, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Russia had potential partners to turn to for oil and gas trade other than in the West.

Analysts said the proposal to use euros instead of dollars was rhetoric rather than an immediate possibility.

"It's obvious that the shift from the existing system of settlements is fraught with costs and does not promise benefits" for Russia, Valery Nesterov, an analyst with Sberbank CIB in Moscow, said.

"It is more likely about future contracts, not current deals, as the settlement currency had been already agreed."

Some traders have been sceptical about the prospect that Russian companies could drop the use of dollars for settlements, because countries with close political ties to the United States, such as Japan, could find such a switch too politically sensitive to agree.

One ESPO buyer in Japan said his company did not have direct dealings with Gazprom Neft but that he was aware of some requests being made.

If Russia was serious about such a shift, the big sellers such as Gazprom and state oil company Rosneft would be looking at similar moves, but so far there have been no signs of that, he said.

"I think they are just testing the market," he said.

Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday the company would use settlement currencies that have already been agreed in contracts, according to local media reports.

(Additional reporting by Katya Golubkova in Moscow, James Topham and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Singapore; editing by Timothy Heritage and Jane Baird).