Chindie Posted March 13, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted March 13, 2018 In other news, one of Berezovsky's friends has been found dead in London. He was 69 so probably nothing. What timing though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 It's time for the UK to announce some serious retaliation. 1. 500% tax levy on Russia dolls. 2. Lada cars to be limited to 255mph. 3. The role of the KGB chief to be played by Alan Carr in the next Bond movie. 4. England to ruin the World Cup by playing terribly and not seeming to care during the Group Stage. 5. No-one allowed to attend more than 3 performances of Swan Lake in any 12 month period. 6. On 5th November a small rocket to accidentally land in the garden of the Russian Embassy. That should give the sausage eating, garlic breathed, Ikea loving, rednecks something to think about. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 11 hours ago, tonyh29 said: the EU don't protect us .... We are members of NATO , in theory it would be NATO we turn to for support ... but they would probably cough , shuffle some papers and then look out the window and shout "oh look , squirrel" I’m not expecting much practical support from other countries, Merkel blocked a unified EU response to the Litvinenko murder when we were still paid up groupies of Brussels & Trump appears to be hopelessly compromised. Even so I do think we will react to this. Targeted sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and asset freezes are a no-brainier but I have a feeling it’ll go further - probably something cyber related. Putin is trying to humiliate the UK & even a PM as weak as May will be forced to react or she’ll be ex-PM May in short order. HMG cannot let a chemical weapons attack on UK soil slide, it’s just too big to ignore.* *Standing by for her to collapse like a wet paper bag and prove me completely wrong... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 What if this particular individual was back in the game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 9 minutes ago, Awol said: I’m not expecting much practical support from other countries, Merkel blocked a unified EU response to the Litvinenko murder when we were still paid up groupies of Brussels & Trump appears to be hopelessly compromised. Even so I do think we will react to this. Targeted sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and asset freezes are a no-brainier but I have a feeling it’ll go further - probably something cyber related. Putin is trying to humiliate the UK & even a PM as weak as May will be forced to react or she’ll be ex-PM May in short order. HMG cannot let a chemical weapons attack on UK soil slide, it’s just too big to ignore.* *Standing by for her to collapse like a wet paper bag and prove me completely wrong... Careful with your language. These are the terms the warmongers would love us to use. Seems to me much more like a botched assassination with a chemical agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Awol Posted March 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted March 13, 2018 45 minutes ago, villakram said: Careful with your language. These are the terms the warmongers would love us to use. Seems to me much more like a botched assassination with a chemical agent. Seems to be a trail of military-grade, Russian produced nerve agent half way around the centre of Salisbury. I’m fine with calling it a chemical weapons attack & am very suspicious of people trying to brush it off as no big deal. It’s huge. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Driving back from VP and the news reported Russia as saying how dare we threaten a nuclear power can see this is going to play well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 13, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted March 13, 2018 Litvinenko was largely allowed to slide as I recall. Everyone and his dog knew it was state approved murder and nothing beyond a fairly useless pursuit of the suspects was done. This will be the same. Russia has Europe by the bollocks even if anyone fancies trying it with them - they provide an obscene amount of our energy. We'll bluster and it'll be brushed away soon enough. There's nothing that can be done. Russia knows they hold an extremely strong hand when it comes to Europe, and particularly the UK given how much money of theirs is flushed through London (and a few bits get stuck in Conservative coffers). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 20 minutes ago, Chindie said: Litvinenko was largely allowed to slide as I recall. Everyone and his dog knew it was state approved murder and nothing beyond a fairly useless pursuit of the suspects was done. This will be the same. Russia has Europe by the bollocks even if anyone fancies trying it with them - they provide an obscene amount of our energy. We'll bluster and it'll be brushed away soon enough. There's nothing that can be done. Russia knows they hold an extremely strong hand when it comes to Europe, and particularly the UK given how much money of theirs is flushed through London (and a few bits get stuck in Conservative coffers). Germany is massively dependent on Russian gas, we’re not. It’s true they’ve been using London as a giant washing machine, question now is whether national security interests will override narrow financial interests. In normal circumstances that’s depressingly easy to answer. These are not normal circumstances, so we’ll see what happens. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 46 minutes ago, Awol said: Seems to be a trail of military-grade, Russian produced nerve agent half way around the centre of Salisbury. I’m fine with calling it a chemical weapons attack & am very suspicious of people trying to brush it off as no big deal. It’s huge. Maybe you weren't attention to the careful with your language part... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 14, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted March 14, 2018 I believe we're still a fairly large customer for Russian gas. There were a few news stories in the recent cold snap of us using even more of it to try to supplement the usual supplies. Nothing of any weight will happen. The Russians have also spent most of the day reminding us they won't just accept anthing we dared do. The Russian Embassy Twitter earlier was clear on that, reminding the UK that actions have reactions. May will do a speech tomorrow that will be heavy on strong willed rhetoric and contain exceptionally little that does much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 37 minutes ago, Chindie said: Russia knows they hold an extremely strong hand when it comes to Europe, and particularly the UK given how much money of theirs is flushed through London (and a few bits get stuck in Conservative coffers). Surely therein lies the potential? Using some form of Magnitsky powers to swipe the cash of the Russian bods that is in or flowing though London may be a weapon. Of course, the corollary may be that there is less dodgy Russian money available to keep London and the city afloat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Deadline passed ... maybe they got Jedinak to deliver their response and it will get here at 1 am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 14, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted March 14, 2018 Just now, snowychap said: Surely therein lies the potential? Using some form of Magnitsky powers to swipe the cash of the Russian bods that is in or flowing though London may be a weapon. Of course, the corollary may be that there is less dodgy Russian money available to keep London and the city afloat. I think the corollary is the point. They rather like that money (dodginess neither here nor there). They aren't going to threaten it IMO. Especially when some of that money goes to very good causes, like the Conservative Party, maybe even the much needed back pockets of lovely upstanding people they really should listen to. I will be absolutely astonished if May does anything that actually harms Russia. I'll be quietly surprised if she actually does anything at all. As Home Secretary didn't she bury the Litvinenko case to save relations? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 6 hours ago, villakram said: Maybe you weren't attention to the careful with your language part... First use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War... again, I’m fine with ‘huge’. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 I might be mistaken but I thought we get our gas from Ukraine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Ironically a Russian tanker full of emergency gas docked in Merthyr a few days ago as we were running low its rumoured to be around a third of our supply comes from Russia ... but Presumably we could buy it elsewhere but at a price ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 3 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: I might be mistaken but I thought we get our gas from Ukraine? We get nearly half from our own sources (mainly the North Sea). Most of the rest comes from pipelines from Europe. However around a third of the gas used in mainland Europe comes from Russia. So "do we get our gas from Russia?", is basically yes, no and sort of. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 It could have been done on a moped with a machine gun. Putin's deliberately left a calling card. To show his enemies he will get them anywhere and to show his friends Russia can treat the UK with disdain. He'll be most upset with the clumsiness of the attack, looks like they got it everywhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 2 hours ago, tonyh29 said: its rumoured to be around a third of our supply comes from Russia Rumoured? Where? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts