Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

For a young man after years of education you are routinely idiotic or of cannot face a matter drift into stupidity.

More dangerous at this time, Borrell [the European Union’s foreign policy chief] said, was the massing of Russian troops, including military field hospitals, and “all kinds of warfare.”

“It is the highest military deployment of the Russian army on the Ukrainian borders ever. It’s clear that it’s a matter of concern when you deploy a lot of troops,” Borrell said. “Well, a spark can jump here or there.”

Initially, Borrell told reporters that “there’s more than 150,000 Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea,” and doubled down on the figure later before his services had to correct it in the transcript, saying the real figure was over 100,000.

Nevertheless, Borrell said that “the risk of further escalation — it’s evident.”

Borrell declined to say where he got the initial 150,000 Russian troop number from, but called it “my reference figure.” It was higher than the 110,000 estimate provided by Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran on Wednesday.

More than 14,000 people have died in seven years of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that erupted after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The EU has steadfastly opposed the annexation but has been unable to do anything about it.
(AP story)

Moscow is only 760 km/470 miles from Kyiv, but then again Södertälje is only 1270 km/790 miles from Kyiv

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-04-29, 17:14:59

A little more complicated...

That's a fair assessment, as in the map above. However like @Frenzie mentioned it gets more complicated yet with Cyprus and our Middle Sea, the 3C biggie, including the part you refer to as the Middle East. Turkey's interests don't align closely with the EU's, nor with Russia's.

Would you posit a center?

Could you clarify what's meant by "economic center of gravity"?

Could you clarify what's meant by "economic center of gravity"? I could agree with the longitude, but the latitude seems as though it would be further south, The 2025 position would be put it further north than most of the US and China, not to mention the major economic powers of Europe. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding it.

Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years. She was in office during the financial crisis, the 2015 migrant crisis and, significantly, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to the BBC in Berlin, Mrs Merkel is robust in her defence of her time in office. She says she believes the war in Ukraine would have started sooner and would likely have been worse, if Kyiv had begun the path to Nato membership in 2008.

"We would have seen military conflict even earlier. It was completely clear to me that President Putin would not have stood idly by and watched Ukraine join Nato. "And back then, Ukraine as a country would certainly not have been as prepared as it was in February 2022."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky disagrees. He describes Mrs Merkel’s Nato decision, backed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as a clear "miscalculation" that emboldened Russia.

Selbstkritik übt die Autorin allenfalls, wenn es um schlecht vorbereitete Interviews oder das Rauchen geht.

No one thinks it's a good idea to protect American interests? I wonder at what point such an unpatriotic sentiment becomes treasonous.