Russian Getting Ready For War???

[River Song]

That was a question not a statement.

BBC reports this morning (Tuesday 16th December) that Russian has increased its key interest rate from 10.5% to 17%. (6-1/2% in one move).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30490082

Also increasing ratcheting up of patriotism. Putin is increasingly blaming the West because of (a) sanctions and (b) the low cost of oil.

Couple this with the increasing 'testing' of our air-defences over the last few months and I am beginning to get increasingly edgy.

When the Russians get hungry they become desperate.

Time to check and double check your preps.

allons-y

[bigpaul]

on the breakfast news they said there was a fall in the rubel, maybe that's something to do with it.

[Devonian]

(16 December 2014, 10:07)bigpaul Wrote: on the breakfast news they said there was a fall in the rubel, maybe that's something to do with it.

More of a collapse than a fall, the Rubel has lost more than 50% of its value this year alone

http://news.sky.com/story/1392730/russia...-rate-rise

The recent Presidential Speech by Putin also went on about not backing down to external pressures and stating that he believes the West is trying to break up the Russian Federation, which will not be allowed to happen, it makes an interesting read:

http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/23341

[NorthernRaider]

TWO commentators on Sky News not 30 seconds ago BOTH used the "P" word about the Russian economy, both said investors, speculators, currency traders etc are PANIC moving their money OUT of Russia.

[bigpaul]

I don't go much on what UK TV stations say these days, I tend to get most of my news from Aljazeera and RT news channels, they give more of a non tainted view of the news whereas the UK channels are mostly government and media mouthpieces. as far as this item goes I think this has more to do with the drop in OIL prices than anything else.

[Devonian]

(16 December 2014, 15:14)bigpaul Wrote: I don't go much on what UK TV stations say these days, I tend to get most of my news from Aljazeera and RT news channels, they give more of a non tainted view of the news whereas the UK channels are mostly government and media mouthpieces. as far as this item goes I think this has more to do with the drop in OIL prices than anything else.

You are right about the Oil Price being a (major) factor in this, but there is more to it than just oil.

Putin isn't interested on blaming the ever growing financial crisis in Russia on the price of oil, he is more interested in blaming it on Western Powers who he claims are solely determined to break up and destroy Russia, and which he is prepared to do whatever is needed to prevent that from happening.

For example the following statement (from the above referenced Presidential Speech) is with regards to the EU/Ukraine membership/trade agreements:

"....Our response was to say: fine, if you do not want to have a dialogue with us, we will have to protect our legitimate interests unilaterally and will not pay for what we view as erroneous policy...."

[bigpaul]

oh that's just political rhetoric for home consumption, I wouldn't read too much into it.

[Devonian]

Maybe for home consumption, maybe for international consumption, but either way Putin still has huge mistrust of the US in particular, but also of the EU who are seen to side with the US.

[bigpaul]

well that is par for the course and is nothing new, i'll monitor the situation and see how,if at all, it develops but I'm more concerned with ISIS and the Islamic threat TBH.

[Devonian]

Yep totally agree, chances of anything kicking off are remote