JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 12:00AM WED APR 02,14
Nato to keep expanding, suspends Russia ties
Today @ 19:52-APR 1,14-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Nato states have said the alliance will keep on expanding despite Russia’s protests, while freezing most co-operation with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.“We reaffirm that, in accordance with our policy, the alliance’s door remains open to new members in the future,” foreign ministers from the 28 Nato countries said in a joint statement marking the anniversary of former enlargements in Brussels on Tuesday (1 April).They added in a second communique that “we have decided to suspend all practical civilian and military co-operation between Nato and Russia” because Russia “gravely breached the trust upon which our co-operation must be based” by invading Ukraine.The partial suspension will allow for ad-hoc meetings with Russia’s Nato ambassador, however. The suspension will also be reviewed in June.Outgoing Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen added in an op-ed published in several media the same day that “any European state in a position to further the principles of the alliance and to contribute to the security of the north Atlantic area can apply to join. We stand by that principle.”He listed Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia as countries which aspire to join.He did not mention Ukraine. But the foreign ministers said: “Nato and Ukraine will intensify co-operation and promote defence reforms through capacity building and capability development programmes. Nato allies will also reinforce the Nato Liaison Office in Kiev with additional experts.”The meeting comes as Russian troops continue to occupy Crimea and to mass on Ukraine’s eastern borders. Media reports on Monday indicated some Russian troops had started to pull back. But Rasmussen told press on Tuesday he could not confirm this.The ministers’ meeting also comes ahead of a Nato summit in Cardiff, Wales, in September.Nato at a previous summit in Bucharest in 2008 declined to offer a so-called Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine due to French and German concerns over Russia relations.For some, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, who recently spoke to EUobserver in Brussels, the move was a “huge mistake” which opened the door to Russia’s invasion of Georgia the same year, and now Ukraine.For the Russian foreign ministry, which published a statement on Tuesday, the attempts to pull Ukraine closer to Nato caused "a freezing of Russian-Ukrainian political contacts, a headache between Nato and Russia and ... division in Ukrainian society". Despite the Nato suspension of Russia ties, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Poland at a separate meeting in Weimar, Germany, on Monday and Tuesday, said the EU should keep listening to Russia."We propose EU-Russia talks with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia about the consequences of the EU association agreements," they said, referring to EU political and free trade pacts due to be finalised by June.An EU diplomat noted the talks would take place at the level of senior officials and would cover technical questions on the compatability of EU free trade arrangements with Russia’s Customs Union.Marcin Wojciechowski, the Polish foreign ministers’ spokesman, told EUobserver it would be an “over-interpretaion” to say the talks could see Russia veto further progress on EU ties.
Extra US troops in Romania
With Russian military drills in the Baltic region also raising security concerns in Nato’s eastern members, Tuesday’s Nato meeting confirmed “Nato’s cohesion and commitment to deterrence and collective defence against any threat of aggression to the alliance.”Denmark and the US have already sent extra F16 fighter jets to the region, while Germany said it is ready to send Awacs surveillance planes.The US is also planning to send 600 more troops and extra planes to Romania, which borders Moldova and its Russian-occupied breakaway region of Transniestria.But for his part, Polish PM Donald Tusk told press in Warsaw on Tuesday the new deployment is taking too long."We are gaining something step by step, but the pace of Nato increasing its military presence for sure could be faster … This is a unsatisfactory result for us,” he noted, Reuters reports.
As Russia growls, Swedes, Finns eye defence options, NATO
By Alistair Scrutton and Sakari Suoninen 3 hours ago-APR 1,14-Yahoonews
STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) - When Russian warplanes staged a mock bombing run on Sweden last year, air defences were caught napping. It was the middle of the night and no Swedish planes were scrambled.Instead, Danish jets belonging to NATO's Baltic mission based in Lithuania, took to the air to shadow the Russians.The discussion that incident triggered over Sweden's ability to defend itself has grown with Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. As in neighbour and fellow EU member Finland, Swedes wonder whether to seek shelter in the U.S.-led NATO alliance, abandoning Stockholm's two centuries of formal neutrality.Sweden has talked of a "doctrinal shift" in defence policy. In Helsinki, where "Finlandisation" became a Cold War byword for self-imposed neutrality driven by fear of a powerful neighbour, the government has talked of an "open debate" on joining NATO.Talk of NATO underscores anxieties that feed calls for more defence cooperation and spending. But membership seems distant, with voters in both countries sceptical of the benefits, and wary of the costs of taking on new international commitments.Both nations have a history of dealing with Moscow in their own particular ways. Sweden's loss of Finland to Russia in the time of Napoleon prompted it to give up on war and armed pacts.Finland, which won independence during Russia's revolution of 1917 but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two, kept close to the West economically and politically during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.Like Sweden, it joined the European Union only in 1995.For all the scepticism about NATO, however, worries have been growing in Scandinavia since Russia's action in Crimea.Russian troops held exercises on the Finnish border this week. A former aide to Vladimir Putin made waves by saying that, after ex-Soviet Ukraine, the president might eye Finland next.Both Nordic nations may bolster defence spending and forge a closer military partnership between themselves as they face Russia across the Baltic and along Finland's long land border.So far neither has risked finding out what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev meant when he said last year that Finnish or Swedish NATO membership would force Moscow to "respond".
TIME FOR SECURITY BLANKET?
As the Russian bombing practice showed when NATO jets scrambled into action over Sweden, both nations could hope for some protection from EU allies and the United States even without joining the defence alliance.Both Swedish and Finnish armed forces cooperate with the other three Nordic states which are in NATO - Denmark, Norway and Iceland - and both have cooperated with NATO in Afghanistan.Swedish jets helped Libyan rebels in 2011 and in March joined a NATO exercise in Norway, near the Russian border.Still, some politicians are already making noises they may one day have to go further."I think it would be good to have an open debate about NATO already now and I hope that everyone would participate in it, even those who oppose the membership," Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told online newspaper Verkkouutiset last week.In a sign of the times, while Finland cut unemployment and child benefits in a March budget, defence got off lightly.Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Jan Bjorklund called last month for a "doctrinal shift" in defence policy after the Crimea crisis. Calling Russia "a bit more erratic and unpredictable", Finance Minister Anders Borg called for "a substantial scaling up" of defence spending.Borg's statement came after Sweden moved two fighter jets to Gotland, a strategically important Baltic island where spending cuts in recent years had all but eliminated defences.Sweden's defence spending fell to 1.2 percent of GDP in 2012, according to the Stockholm-based SIPRI think tank, compared with 2 percent at the turn of the century.Rather than join NATO, the Ukraine crisis may see Sweden and Finland more active in the Nordic Defence Cooperation - NORDEFCO - with the three Nordic states which are in the alliance.
GETTING MORE INVOLVED
Even as some analysts see the "Finlandisation" of Ukraine - former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger has suggested Kiev follow Cold War-era Helsinki in cooperating with the West while avoiding "institutional hostility" toward Moscow - 21st-century Finland has shed some inhibitions about Russia.It has joined in EU sanctions against Moscow and politicians have criticised the annexation of Crimea.Katainen told a German newspaper last month that the term Finlandisation - coined by West German critics of their own government's perceived passivity toward Soviet threats - was a misleading one. Finland was "not neutral" as it was an EU member, he said - while adding that this did not stop his government from maintaining excellent relations with Russia.Finland been cautious about imposing sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. But that may be more due to worries about the effect on its own economy rather than fear of upsetting its massive neighbour.Many Finns view Russia with suspicion and battles against Stalin's Red Army form a key part of their national identity. But there is also a sense among voters that Finland would be left to fight alone, whether in a defence alliance or not.Sweden, too, has long taken a standoffish position in international affairs, avoiding even the world wars of the last century. After the Russian bombing rehearsal, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt played down its importance, saying Russia had "neither the will nor the capacity to attack Swedish territory".But tensions over Ukraine have come as Sweden and Finland have grown more critical of Putin. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who first became prominent in the 1980s probing Soviet submarine incursions in Swedish waters, is one of the most vocal figures in the EU against what he calls Russian expansionism.
VOTERS SCEPTICAL
Polls show a clear majority oppose NATO membership in Sweden and Finland. About a third of Swedes favour joining the alliance and only around a fifth of Finns."There is no public support for NATO membership and Sweden has greater freedom to act if we're not part of NATO," said Peter Hultqvist, who chairs the parliamentary defence committee."There is a belief that our tradition of staying outside military alliances is the best way to preserve peace," he said, before adding a note of caution: "We must strive for an improvement of our military strength."When the ex-Soviet Baltic states joined NATO in 2004 - part of an expansion that saw the alliance take in most of Moscow's Cold War satellites in the Warsaw Pact - they did so without provoking more than a rhetorical reaction from Russia. Some thought it would encourage the two Nordic states to follow suit.Though they did not take that chance, some security analysts argue that NATO membership could now benefit the Nordic states in ways that go beyond the threat of military aggression. They point to a cyber attack, or a risk of gas supplies being cut.However, few see an immediate prospect of NATO accession."Crimea has at least furthered the argument that there should not be any further reductions in military expenditure," said Ian Anthony of the Stockholm International Peace Research Programme (SIPRI). "But in terms of NATO, the balance sheet is in the direction of keeping things as they are."Even Finland's European affairs minister Alexander Stubb, one of the few high-profile politicians in Helsinki who favours NATO membership, said now, at a time of particularly fraught relations with Moscow, was not the right time."One should not enter when the weather is bad, but when the sun is shining," he said. "And that is not the case now."(Added reporting by Johan Sennero in Stockholm and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
West stumbles as autocratic force trumps economics
By David Rohde 2 hours ago-APR 1,14-Yahoonews
(Reuters) - A quarter-century after the fall of the Soviet Union, authoritarian rulers such as Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad are showing they can and will defy international norms, suppress dissent and use military force. American policymakers are struggling with how to respond."It's a big philosophical question about how to deal with a strong state with anti-Western and autocratic proclivities," said Michael McFaul, the most recent American ambassador to Moscow. "I would say on that score we are kind of confused as a country."Citing the sweeping unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American officials have embraced economic sanctions as their primary means of pressuring foreign governments. In an interconnected, 21st-century global economy, President Barack Obama argues, economic sanctions are more powerful than ever.If Russia continues on its current course, Obama warned last week, "the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy."He may be proven right. Over the course of 2014, the threat of economic sanctions may result in Putin backing down in Crimea and Ukraine. And historic sanctions against Iran - which slashed oil sales and cut the country off from the world banking system - could produce an accord that halts Iran's nuclear program.If not, a 16th-century Machiavellian truism will re-assert its dominance: The party most willing to decisively use force will prevail over a noncommittal opponent."What we've seen with Assad and Putin is a willingness to smile at international norms and pursue power politics regardless of the cost," said Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment and former official in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. "And if the West is not united and America's interests are not immediately threatened, the response immediately becomes attenuated."How to respond has already become an issue in the 2016 presidential race. In the weeks since Putin sent Russian troops into Crimea, Republican senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan all criticized Obama's response. But none of them called for an American intervention in Ukraine.
ECONOMIC CONNECTIONS
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution and a former National Intelligence Council official, said those who believed the collapse of the Soviet Union signified the triumph of Western democratic capitalism were deluding themselves. A large number of Russians remained deeply skeptical of Western norms."It was only a very small elite around Yeltsin who were buying this," she said. "Too many people (Westerners) saw what they wanted to see, rather than what was happening."Then the global financial crisis strengthened a perception in parts of the world that Western democracy was failing - both politically and economically, Hill added.Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center, said Obama's decision to not intervene in Syria after last September's chemical weapons attack created a perception of American weakness. Strongmen, such as Egypt's military ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had been emboldened."They think they can get away with more than ever," Hamid said. "And this is tied to a growing sense of weakness under the Obama administration, whether it's fair or unfair."Obama administration officials deny that. They argue that another costly intervention in the Middle East would further weaken the American economy. And they contend that economic and technological strength - not brute force alone - will be the dominant source of power for decades to come.Steven Pifer, a former American ambassador to Ukraine and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued that economic inter-connectedness will have an impact on Putin. Pifer said the Russian leader knows he needs trade with the outside world."While the West may rule out the military option," Pifer wrote in an email, "it has other tools, including political isolation and financial sanctions that could inflict serious pain on the Russian economy."Weiss, the Carnegie expert, argued that Russia and Syria represent vastly different situations. Russia is far more economically connected to the world than Syria, he said. And Putin is not accused of killing thousands of his people and displacing millions in a bid to hold onto power, like Assad.But Weiss said he was unsure that economic sanctions alone would stop the Russian leader. "He's thinking about things in a very shrewd, pure-power way."What leverage do we have against Putin?" he asked. "That's why people are somewhat stumped about what to do."In the case of Iran, years of false claims from officials regarding its nuclear program finally prompted Europe to agree sweeping economic sanctions that rebounded on Europe more than on the United States. Barring a Russian military incursion deeper into Ukraine, "the Europeans are not willing to go farther," he said. "They're happy to compartmentalize and go back to business as usual."
"THEY WANT IT MORE"
Hill compared the current world today with the 19th century,when trade was vast but nations still clashed." The world was incredibly connected," she said. "And it didn't produce any greater political outcomes. You remember a lot of gunboat diplomacy."She said that economic interdependence flows both ways."There is mutual dependency here," she added. "There is mutual leverage. We can use it and they can use it."Experts said that for Putin, Crimea's port at Sevastopol was vital. In Egypt, Sisi believes he is fighting an existential threat with the Muslim Brotherhood. In Washington, American officials disagree over whether core American interests are at stake, and the autocrats know it."There is a calculation there," Hamid said. "They know that they want it more than we do."(Edited by Sara Ledwith)
OTHER RUSSIA-UKRAINE NEWS I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/04/russia-ukraine-situation-week-05-day-2.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-ukraine-situation-week-05.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/merchant-ship-shot-at-in-strait-of.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/us-gives-russia-free-military-equipment.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-says-un-crimea-is-legit-its-my.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/european-and-obama-meet-in-brussels-on.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/china-india-brazil-side-with-russia-and.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/obama-trys-to-rally-world-to-oust-putin.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/i-can-do-what-ever-i-want-russia.html
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 12:00AM WED APR 02,14
Nato to keep expanding, suspends Russia ties
Today @ 19:52-APR 1,14-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Nato states have said the alliance will keep on expanding despite Russia’s protests, while freezing most co-operation with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.“We reaffirm that, in accordance with our policy, the alliance’s door remains open to new members in the future,” foreign ministers from the 28 Nato countries said in a joint statement marking the anniversary of former enlargements in Brussels on Tuesday (1 April).They added in a second communique that “we have decided to suspend all practical civilian and military co-operation between Nato and Russia” because Russia “gravely breached the trust upon which our co-operation must be based” by invading Ukraine.The partial suspension will allow for ad-hoc meetings with Russia’s Nato ambassador, however. The suspension will also be reviewed in June.Outgoing Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen added in an op-ed published in several media the same day that “any European state in a position to further the principles of the alliance and to contribute to the security of the north Atlantic area can apply to join. We stand by that principle.”He listed Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia as countries which aspire to join.He did not mention Ukraine. But the foreign ministers said: “Nato and Ukraine will intensify co-operation and promote defence reforms through capacity building and capability development programmes. Nato allies will also reinforce the Nato Liaison Office in Kiev with additional experts.”The meeting comes as Russian troops continue to occupy Crimea and to mass on Ukraine’s eastern borders. Media reports on Monday indicated some Russian troops had started to pull back. But Rasmussen told press on Tuesday he could not confirm this.The ministers’ meeting also comes ahead of a Nato summit in Cardiff, Wales, in September.Nato at a previous summit in Bucharest in 2008 declined to offer a so-called Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine due to French and German concerns over Russia relations.For some, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, who recently spoke to EUobserver in Brussels, the move was a “huge mistake” which opened the door to Russia’s invasion of Georgia the same year, and now Ukraine.For the Russian foreign ministry, which published a statement on Tuesday, the attempts to pull Ukraine closer to Nato caused "a freezing of Russian-Ukrainian political contacts, a headache between Nato and Russia and ... division in Ukrainian society". Despite the Nato suspension of Russia ties, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Poland at a separate meeting in Weimar, Germany, on Monday and Tuesday, said the EU should keep listening to Russia."We propose EU-Russia talks with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia about the consequences of the EU association agreements," they said, referring to EU political and free trade pacts due to be finalised by June.An EU diplomat noted the talks would take place at the level of senior officials and would cover technical questions on the compatability of EU free trade arrangements with Russia’s Customs Union.Marcin Wojciechowski, the Polish foreign ministers’ spokesman, told EUobserver it would be an “over-interpretaion” to say the talks could see Russia veto further progress on EU ties.
Extra US troops in Romania
With Russian military drills in the Baltic region also raising security concerns in Nato’s eastern members, Tuesday’s Nato meeting confirmed “Nato’s cohesion and commitment to deterrence and collective defence against any threat of aggression to the alliance.”Denmark and the US have already sent extra F16 fighter jets to the region, while Germany said it is ready to send Awacs surveillance planes.The US is also planning to send 600 more troops and extra planes to Romania, which borders Moldova and its Russian-occupied breakaway region of Transniestria.But for his part, Polish PM Donald Tusk told press in Warsaw on Tuesday the new deployment is taking too long."We are gaining something step by step, but the pace of Nato increasing its military presence for sure could be faster … This is a unsatisfactory result for us,” he noted, Reuters reports.
As Russia growls, Swedes, Finns eye defence options, NATO
By Alistair Scrutton and Sakari Suoninen 3 hours ago-APR 1,14-Yahoonews
STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) - When Russian warplanes staged a mock bombing run on Sweden last year, air defences were caught napping. It was the middle of the night and no Swedish planes were scrambled.Instead, Danish jets belonging to NATO's Baltic mission based in Lithuania, took to the air to shadow the Russians.The discussion that incident triggered over Sweden's ability to defend itself has grown with Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. As in neighbour and fellow EU member Finland, Swedes wonder whether to seek shelter in the U.S.-led NATO alliance, abandoning Stockholm's two centuries of formal neutrality.Sweden has talked of a "doctrinal shift" in defence policy. In Helsinki, where "Finlandisation" became a Cold War byword for self-imposed neutrality driven by fear of a powerful neighbour, the government has talked of an "open debate" on joining NATO.Talk of NATO underscores anxieties that feed calls for more defence cooperation and spending. But membership seems distant, with voters in both countries sceptical of the benefits, and wary of the costs of taking on new international commitments.Both nations have a history of dealing with Moscow in their own particular ways. Sweden's loss of Finland to Russia in the time of Napoleon prompted it to give up on war and armed pacts.Finland, which won independence during Russia's revolution of 1917 but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two, kept close to the West economically and politically during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.Like Sweden, it joined the European Union only in 1995.For all the scepticism about NATO, however, worries have been growing in Scandinavia since Russia's action in Crimea.Russian troops held exercises on the Finnish border this week. A former aide to Vladimir Putin made waves by saying that, after ex-Soviet Ukraine, the president might eye Finland next.Both Nordic nations may bolster defence spending and forge a closer military partnership between themselves as they face Russia across the Baltic and along Finland's long land border.So far neither has risked finding out what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev meant when he said last year that Finnish or Swedish NATO membership would force Moscow to "respond".
TIME FOR SECURITY BLANKET?
As the Russian bombing practice showed when NATO jets scrambled into action over Sweden, both nations could hope for some protection from EU allies and the United States even without joining the defence alliance.Both Swedish and Finnish armed forces cooperate with the other three Nordic states which are in NATO - Denmark, Norway and Iceland - and both have cooperated with NATO in Afghanistan.Swedish jets helped Libyan rebels in 2011 and in March joined a NATO exercise in Norway, near the Russian border.Still, some politicians are already making noises they may one day have to go further."I think it would be good to have an open debate about NATO already now and I hope that everyone would participate in it, even those who oppose the membership," Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told online newspaper Verkkouutiset last week.In a sign of the times, while Finland cut unemployment and child benefits in a March budget, defence got off lightly.Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Jan Bjorklund called last month for a "doctrinal shift" in defence policy after the Crimea crisis. Calling Russia "a bit more erratic and unpredictable", Finance Minister Anders Borg called for "a substantial scaling up" of defence spending.Borg's statement came after Sweden moved two fighter jets to Gotland, a strategically important Baltic island where spending cuts in recent years had all but eliminated defences.Sweden's defence spending fell to 1.2 percent of GDP in 2012, according to the Stockholm-based SIPRI think tank, compared with 2 percent at the turn of the century.Rather than join NATO, the Ukraine crisis may see Sweden and Finland more active in the Nordic Defence Cooperation - NORDEFCO - with the three Nordic states which are in the alliance.
GETTING MORE INVOLVED
Even as some analysts see the "Finlandisation" of Ukraine - former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger has suggested Kiev follow Cold War-era Helsinki in cooperating with the West while avoiding "institutional hostility" toward Moscow - 21st-century Finland has shed some inhibitions about Russia.It has joined in EU sanctions against Moscow and politicians have criticised the annexation of Crimea.Katainen told a German newspaper last month that the term Finlandisation - coined by West German critics of their own government's perceived passivity toward Soviet threats - was a misleading one. Finland was "not neutral" as it was an EU member, he said - while adding that this did not stop his government from maintaining excellent relations with Russia.Finland been cautious about imposing sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. But that may be more due to worries about the effect on its own economy rather than fear of upsetting its massive neighbour.Many Finns view Russia with suspicion and battles against Stalin's Red Army form a key part of their national identity. But there is also a sense among voters that Finland would be left to fight alone, whether in a defence alliance or not.Sweden, too, has long taken a standoffish position in international affairs, avoiding even the world wars of the last century. After the Russian bombing rehearsal, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt played down its importance, saying Russia had "neither the will nor the capacity to attack Swedish territory".But tensions over Ukraine have come as Sweden and Finland have grown more critical of Putin. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who first became prominent in the 1980s probing Soviet submarine incursions in Swedish waters, is one of the most vocal figures in the EU against what he calls Russian expansionism.
VOTERS SCEPTICAL
Polls show a clear majority oppose NATO membership in Sweden and Finland. About a third of Swedes favour joining the alliance and only around a fifth of Finns."There is no public support for NATO membership and Sweden has greater freedom to act if we're not part of NATO," said Peter Hultqvist, who chairs the parliamentary defence committee."There is a belief that our tradition of staying outside military alliances is the best way to preserve peace," he said, before adding a note of caution: "We must strive for an improvement of our military strength."When the ex-Soviet Baltic states joined NATO in 2004 - part of an expansion that saw the alliance take in most of Moscow's Cold War satellites in the Warsaw Pact - they did so without provoking more than a rhetorical reaction from Russia. Some thought it would encourage the two Nordic states to follow suit.Though they did not take that chance, some security analysts argue that NATO membership could now benefit the Nordic states in ways that go beyond the threat of military aggression. They point to a cyber attack, or a risk of gas supplies being cut.However, few see an immediate prospect of NATO accession."Crimea has at least furthered the argument that there should not be any further reductions in military expenditure," said Ian Anthony of the Stockholm International Peace Research Programme (SIPRI). "But in terms of NATO, the balance sheet is in the direction of keeping things as they are."Even Finland's European affairs minister Alexander Stubb, one of the few high-profile politicians in Helsinki who favours NATO membership, said now, at a time of particularly fraught relations with Moscow, was not the right time."One should not enter when the weather is bad, but when the sun is shining," he said. "And that is not the case now."(Added reporting by Johan Sennero in Stockholm and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
West stumbles as autocratic force trumps economics
By David Rohde 2 hours ago-APR 1,14-Yahoonews
(Reuters) - A quarter-century after the fall of the Soviet Union, authoritarian rulers such as Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad are showing they can and will defy international norms, suppress dissent and use military force. American policymakers are struggling with how to respond."It's a big philosophical question about how to deal with a strong state with anti-Western and autocratic proclivities," said Michael McFaul, the most recent American ambassador to Moscow. "I would say on that score we are kind of confused as a country."Citing the sweeping unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American officials have embraced economic sanctions as their primary means of pressuring foreign governments. In an interconnected, 21st-century global economy, President Barack Obama argues, economic sanctions are more powerful than ever.If Russia continues on its current course, Obama warned last week, "the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy."He may be proven right. Over the course of 2014, the threat of economic sanctions may result in Putin backing down in Crimea and Ukraine. And historic sanctions against Iran - which slashed oil sales and cut the country off from the world banking system - could produce an accord that halts Iran's nuclear program.If not, a 16th-century Machiavellian truism will re-assert its dominance: The party most willing to decisively use force will prevail over a noncommittal opponent."What we've seen with Assad and Putin is a willingness to smile at international norms and pursue power politics regardless of the cost," said Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment and former official in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. "And if the West is not united and America's interests are not immediately threatened, the response immediately becomes attenuated."How to respond has already become an issue in the 2016 presidential race. In the weeks since Putin sent Russian troops into Crimea, Republican senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan all criticized Obama's response. But none of them called for an American intervention in Ukraine.
ECONOMIC CONNECTIONS
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution and a former National Intelligence Council official, said those who believed the collapse of the Soviet Union signified the triumph of Western democratic capitalism were deluding themselves. A large number of Russians remained deeply skeptical of Western norms."It was only a very small elite around Yeltsin who were buying this," she said. "Too many people (Westerners) saw what they wanted to see, rather than what was happening."Then the global financial crisis strengthened a perception in parts of the world that Western democracy was failing - both politically and economically, Hill added.Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center, said Obama's decision to not intervene in Syria after last September's chemical weapons attack created a perception of American weakness. Strongmen, such as Egypt's military ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had been emboldened."They think they can get away with more than ever," Hamid said. "And this is tied to a growing sense of weakness under the Obama administration, whether it's fair or unfair."Obama administration officials deny that. They argue that another costly intervention in the Middle East would further weaken the American economy. And they contend that economic and technological strength - not brute force alone - will be the dominant source of power for decades to come.Steven Pifer, a former American ambassador to Ukraine and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued that economic inter-connectedness will have an impact on Putin. Pifer said the Russian leader knows he needs trade with the outside world."While the West may rule out the military option," Pifer wrote in an email, "it has other tools, including political isolation and financial sanctions that could inflict serious pain on the Russian economy."Weiss, the Carnegie expert, argued that Russia and Syria represent vastly different situations. Russia is far more economically connected to the world than Syria, he said. And Putin is not accused of killing thousands of his people and displacing millions in a bid to hold onto power, like Assad.But Weiss said he was unsure that economic sanctions alone would stop the Russian leader. "He's thinking about things in a very shrewd, pure-power way."What leverage do we have against Putin?" he asked. "That's why people are somewhat stumped about what to do."In the case of Iran, years of false claims from officials regarding its nuclear program finally prompted Europe to agree sweeping economic sanctions that rebounded on Europe more than on the United States. Barring a Russian military incursion deeper into Ukraine, "the Europeans are not willing to go farther," he said. "They're happy to compartmentalize and go back to business as usual."
"THEY WANT IT MORE"
Hill compared the current world today with the 19th century,when trade was vast but nations still clashed." The world was incredibly connected," she said. "And it didn't produce any greater political outcomes. You remember a lot of gunboat diplomacy."She said that economic interdependence flows both ways."There is mutual dependency here," she added. "There is mutual leverage. We can use it and they can use it."Experts said that for Putin, Crimea's port at Sevastopol was vital. In Egypt, Sisi believes he is fighting an existential threat with the Muslim Brotherhood. In Washington, American officials disagree over whether core American interests are at stake, and the autocrats know it."There is a calculation there," Hamid said. "They know that they want it more than we do."(Edited by Sara Ledwith)
OTHER RUSSIA-UKRAINE NEWS I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/04/russia-ukraine-situation-week-05-day-2.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-ukraine-situation-week-05.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/merchant-ship-shot-at-in-strait-of.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/us-gives-russia-free-military-equipment.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-says-un-crimea-is-legit-its-my.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/european-and-obama-meet-in-brussels-on.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/china-india-brazil-side-with-russia-and.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/obama-trys-to-rally-world-to-oust-putin.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/i-can-do-what-ever-i-want-russia.html
