re: #212 Dark_Falcon

It’s more a shot across the bow to Putin, to put him on notice. Personally, I really don’t think he’ll do much more than fume.

In all fairness, the big issue for the Russians - perhaps even more than gas and oil sales, is the port and shipworks at Sevastopol. Whoever ends up as the new government in Ukraine should, in my view, sign a 99-year lease for Sevastopol for, oh let’s say, $1 a year. That’ll help remove some tensions right there. It’s an understandable concern for the Russians, quite honestly.

As for the gas and oil sales, I find it difficult to believe that anyone but the most anti-Russian fanatics would try to move against the pipelines. Hell, that provides Ukraine with its sources - they’d be cutting their own throats. Not to say people wouldn’t do that - they have in the past - but it’s hard to imagine.

Thanks for pointing out about Turkey not letting a group through the Bosphorous; I wasn’t aware of that. Turkey and Russia have pretty good relations, all things considered, so yeah, Turkey would give a big thumbs-down to such an idea.