Are we on the verge of another 'cold war'?

With what is happening in the Ukraine and Crimea at the minute, does anyone fear this could lead to another stand-off between east and west? Or potentially a full-blown war.

Russia's military is now on high alert and they have armed (I would assume with non-nuclear weapons) jets ready to take off should the crisis escalate.

The Ukrainian government (and most of the population) are pro-EU. The country is also a member of NATO.

The Russians want the Crimea back it looks like and apart from just the land, several oil and gas pipelines to the west run through the Crimea region. If the Russians control this even more, the west is open to blackmail - we don't want this.

Now here is the scary bit...

Ukraine had, at the collapse of the soviet union in 1991, one of the biggest stockpiles of Nuclear weapons in the world. They wanted to join NATO and part of the basis on them joining was that Ukraine had to dismantle all its nuclear weapons and become a non-nuclear weapon state - it now is.

Before Ukraine got rid of its nuclear weapons, it asked the European nuclear weapon states and the US for 'protection' against any threats to its borders by a nuclear armed state (I would assume they meant Russia) A treaty was signed.

So, if the Russians steam in (at a time of already raised tensions between Putin and the west) we would be bound to help the Ukraine - this could potentially escalate it to something that gets completely out of hand.

I hope that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is still a valid deterrent...

It's certainly a worry. The majority of the Ukrainians wanted to break links with Russia and trade with the EU.

I've always thought that Putin is a bit of a dodgy bastard.

Putin is 'old school' - a product of the Soviet Union, does not like western ideals.

He has also invested a lot of money in developing Russia's 'defense capability'

Il be honest, it sounds very much like how WW1 started - a small neutral country is invaded and its allies have to help it out.

Nowadays though, those allies have MUCH bigger guns. Supersonic Jets, ICBMS, MIRV's .... scary shit!

Well...

Russia have gone in and taken an Airport in the Ukraine.

Only issue is this, its not a civvies airport anymore - its Military, about 20% of the Ukrainians Fleet of MIG29's is there...

You would think the rest of the world would have the sense to keep out of this.

Natasha Whittam wrote:You would think the rest of the world would have the sense to keep out of this.

They'll have to get involved. If it all kicks off it might disrupt the gas flow to Europe. Happy birthday by the way. 

Its not just about protecting our oil and gas supplies.

Once Ukraine Joined NATO, they had to become a non-nuclear weapon state. Before they agreed to this, they asked for the west's nuclear states to assist them should their borders ever be threatened.

This local disagreement could pretty quickly escalate in to a tense stand off between NATO and Russia.

This could escalate further in to a global conflict whereby NATO are fighting against Russia, who will be backed by China, North Korea's Kim Yong dog dung the 3rd or whatever hes called  could see this as a chance to get his country on to the world stage by aligning itself with Russia - if anyone has the bottle to launch a nuclear weapon its that twat.

On top of this the US could see a thaw in relations with Russia as an excuse to march in to Syria, meaning this could kick off another conflict in the Middle east.

A few pissed off Ukrainians could start World war 3.

Before anyone says anything like "that will never happen" - WW1 was started when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by some Austrian Nutcase, this led to exactly the same position we have with Ukraine now - a small stand off between 2 countries. This Escalated due to alliances these 2 countries had with other countries...

As scary as the situation is, I feel that Putin is still trying the bully-boy tactics that work so well with his own people and allies. Even he cannot miss the point that any escalation above a non-nuclear fight, (although a battle with conventional armament isn't out of the question), would immediately wipe out his own country. Like Cuba, I think they will know when to stop, but he's hard-nosed, whereas the rest of us are no longer in that frame of mind. There's still a lot of wriggling to go yet, most of it probably behind the scenes, although Putin won't want to lose face, which is the one thing that makes it all dangerously unpredictable.

The West has no real stomach for another fight and Putin knows it, he will push this envelope as far as he can before NATO - effectively the US is backed into a corner. It may be the Chinese though that will object mostly to any Russian aggression.

It is thought in some quarters that the Chinese will side with the Russians. Personally, I think the Chinese will try and stay reasonably quiet, because there current economy is no longer dictated to by their version of the Politburo, but on trade with the West.

I've been watching events unfold over the last couple of weeks, thinking it'd all blow over.

Now, I'm less sure.......

This is all getting very unpleasant, very quickly.

Its not looking good, Russia have sent in 6000 troops. 

Its all down to one man and his ambitions. Sounds familiar.

It is worrying, like you gloss I remember the Cuba    crisis, know I was only a kid at the time but I knew how seroius it was.

gloswhite wrote:Its all down to one man and his ambitions. Sounds familiar.

Yeah, we should have taken up arms and fought to stop Gartside taking over as chairman when we had the chance.

We were "the good men who did nothing" and now look at us.....

I was actually at the Grammar school in the middle of town when that was going on, and remember even the kids were talking about it. We really did come close to it then.

Maybe we could offer Gartside as the main negotiator ? (get ready to kiss your arse goodbye)

He's no Kissinger, is he....?

I was in Castle Hill school and we were all waiting for the outcome, frightening time.
 Gloss.

Doubt that we would get involved in this.

Simply too far away from any 'friendly' base and no key raw materials at threat for America.

Also not fighting an ideology such as expanding terror threats.

We've done bugger all in Syria and that is far more accessable to us if we wanted to get involved.