From Russia (without the Love Bone)

[JazzRemington]

I'm sure you've all heard of the news recently of Russia allegedly downing an unmanned Georgian spy drone that was flying above Abkhazia a few days ago. This coming after Russia announced increased ties to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are both breakaway pro-Russian regions in Georgia.

My question is do you think Russia is punishing Georgia for expressing support for the West and its wishes to join NATO (I believe it was) and if so, what would the bigger implications of this?

It seems to be the case that Russia is punishing Georgia for its support of the West. Russia still considers much of Eastern Europe theirs to some degree and and still considers (and has deeply invested interest in) the Caspian Sea and Black Sea regions, to be theirs as a sort of historical precedent (the USSR had a large degree of control over them I believe).

Ultimately I think we'll probably see another cold war, but only in those particular regions of the world and mostly between Russia and its neighbors over control of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea regions.

[thejambo1]

i think you are probably right about a mini cold war in that sphere, i can also see russia gaining back large parts of her empire there. no concrete facts just a hunch.:)

[Guerrilla22]

with the fall of the Soviet Union, small countries are naturally going to flock to the dominate world power. The US is always more than happy to shower subservient states with arms, cash and other resources, in exchange for their cooperation in US imperialist adventures, such as hosting missiles (supposively for defense) aimed at other countries. There sn't much Russia can do, other than mess with their computer systems (as in Estonia) poison proWest candidates (as in the Ukraine) and apparently now backing rebellious regions in their former territories and shooting down unmanned spy planes.

[JazzRemington]

Russia could easily dominate the region if it wanted. I mean, who's going to stop the largest military in the region? I don't think the US could act fast enough to stop Russia from doing anything drastic. Now, they could launch missile strikes but I think such actions would only provoke an equal or greater response from Russia, who could easily overwhelm any US or US-ally's missile defense systems (think of trying to stop a bullet with another bullet).

[Cult of Reason]

I disagree, I think that, in the long term, the Russian bourgeoisie will see to it that there is ever closer integration with the EU (this has already begun, to a small extent). I think that there is a good chance, though not certain, that Russia will join the EU, especially since its oil production has probably peaked.