Ukraine crisis: 'Putin is obsessed with the idea of testing Nato' - and the Baltics will be next

[uhnope]

Source: UK Indepedent

At first sight it seemed an improbable appointment: a man who had served twice as president of neighbouring Georgia, parachuted in as governor of a single region of Ukraine. But for the government in Kiev, beset in the east by pro-Russian rebels, and facing entrenched corruption and an array of powerful oligarchs elsewhere, it was an obvious choice.

Two months later, Mikheil Saakashvili, exiled from the country he once ran, is settling into his new role as governor of Odessa – not just the Black Sea port city with its population of one million, but the wider and strategically crucial region around it. He has embarked on a string of dramatic reforms on whose success, he believes, the future of the region, with its large Russian speaking and perhaps Moscow leaning minority, depends. And he will be reminding anyone who will listen that among the greatest threats, not just to Ukraine but to a wide swathe of eastern Europe, is the Russian president, Vladmir Putin.

“Putin does not respect national borders and he will push everywhere,” he said, speaking with bitter experience of a man whose own country went to war with Russia in 2008, but was unable to prevent the seizure of two pro-Russian enclaves, now effectively lost from Georgia’s national territory.

“I predicted that Ukraine would be next in 2008, and that the Baltics would be next,” he said. He believes his prescience at that time means that people should pay attention to what he thinks now. “There is no way that they will not go to the Baltics next. There is no way that they will not revisit Georgia or Azerbaijan. Putin is obsessed with the idea of testing Nato – this was clear in my long conversations with him.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-putin-is-obsessed-with-the-idea-of-testing-nato--and-the-baltics-will-be-next-says-odessa-governor-mikheil-saakashvili-10403298.html

[cosmicone]

1. Some on DU are more obsessed with Putin than Putin is obsessed with anything n/t

[salib]

4. Definitely.

Thanks for that.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. You mean the foreigner the plutocrat appointed as a Ukrainian governor? That's funny.

Poor Saakasvili. He fucked with the bear and got his arm chewed off. Now he wants people to listen to him?

[uhnope]

8. now when you complain about people being unfair to Putin

I just remember this http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026995434#post4

[JDPriestly]

3. K&R. Northern Europe is foolish to be treating Greece like a naughty stepchild at this time.

Just foolhardy.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

6. If Greece was a naughty stepchild, Putty would be schtupping her in her bedroom.

He's a real MACHO MAN!!!

[KamaAina]

5. So how long until Scotty Walker attacks Russia?

Day Two?

[JonLP24]

7. NATO expansion in the 90s

plus whatever else they are involved which one of the main goals in Afghanistan was to keep Russia out. NATO has been doing a lot of testing on its own -- if they are so close to Russia's borders to react would be "testing". Could you imagine if Russia picked the side the US wasn't backing if Mexico was having a civil war?

Ukraine needs a political solution, they're suffering a long-term constitutional crisis and it is obvious the marginalized people in the industrial east aren't happy.