Series Friday: Russian Aggression

Welcome readers. As my 30th post past yesterday and the blog is really shaping up, I implement new ideas every day. The blog rank in the US is 692,486, and 146,777 in the UK. That’s pretty darn good for my first blog. I really had a rough start at the end of October 08. I didn’t know anything about the blog scene. And only in the last two weeks have I started to use blog sites like blogcatalog, technorati, linkexchange, and entrecard (thanks to BC Doan). These sites have made my site explode with 15-20 new unique hits a day.

I have a larger vision for this site that really incorporates the map you see in the sidebar. I don’t know if I will keep that service with platial.com or if I will implement my own, but it’s what the site is based on. The Big Picture _ today. One of the larger visions is extensive in-depth blogs of current and ongoing issues as part of multi-part blogs. The first will be of Russia’s Aggression. Suggestions are always welcome.

Part 1: Timeline and Introduction

I’m not an alarmist. I don’t want another Cold War. Heck, I lived a few miles from a Russian cold war nuclear target (Sunflower ammunitions plant, and the Honeywell Defense Co) as a child in the 80s. Who didn’t?

Why am I writing about this? The wall came down!?! Well Over the last couple of years Russia’s economy has turned around with oil revenues. This in turn has had the real estate market in Russia boom. This has snowballed into a healthy economy. An economy that, at one time made citizens stand in line for toilet papers, is now selling fo-fo cafe-lattes.

Russian Aggression Timeline:

• Cold War - February 1945 – August 1991 (Full timeline)

  • Berlin Wall is knocked down - November 1989
  • Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia - May 1990
  • Fall of USSR - August 1990

• US Missile Defense ‘’Shield’ from rouge states’ Fiasco – June 2007

  • Czech teams with US for Missile Defense program, homing one of the sites – April 2008
  • Russia Deploys military to South America – October 2008
  • US offers plan details - 6 November 2008
  • Russia Rejects US offer as a cover up to curb Russia - 6 November 2008
  • Russia offers Obama to remove military forces if Missile Defense plan is shelved

• Russia Increases defense spending through 2011 – 19 September 2008

  • more plans of modernization of Army and Navy through 2015

    

• Russia invades Georgia to ‘protect’ Russian citizens - 8 August 2008 – 8 October 2008

• Russia’s Natural Gas Fiasco, Europe goes cold – January 2009 (Previous blog post)

• Russian presidential office time is legally extended from 4 year terms to 6 years – 30 December 2008

  

  • Allowing a possibility of Ex-president V. Putin to return to office
    • Current president (Dmitri Medvedev) accused of being Putin’s puppet as he was picked by Putin himself

• European Union Publicly denounces Russian Aggression – January 2009

  • “Landaburu, the European Commission's director-general for external relations, told the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee that "the aggressive nature of Russia's policies" regarding its neighbors puts the EU "in a position where it becomes vital for us to reinforce cooperation with our eastern neighbors."” (source Citing Russian 'Aggression,' EU Steps Up Neighborhood Plans )

Hope everyone has a safe weekend! I plan on working extensively tomorrow. More to follow tomorrow :)

Links:

Georgian Crisis Timeline
What the New U.S.-Russia Fight is Really About
Cold War Timeline
US offers Russia fresh proposals on US missile defense plan
Russia's warships head for exercise with Venezuelan navy
Russian presidential term extended to 6 years
Citing Russian 'Aggression,' EU Steps Up Neighborhood Plans
Russia approves hike in defense spending
Boom Time: Russia's Abundant Oil and Gas Reserves Are Powering up the Economy