What can Russia do exactly?
 

Hello

I was interested to read that Britain is "braced for Russian backlash" (here: Britain braced for Russian backlash - Yahoo! News UK ) but I'm not really sure what Russia CAN do.

There isn't a huge amount of trade that could be effected and what there is would probably effect them more than us?

Steve

Don't they supply the UK with rather large amounts of oil and gas? I'm guessing that cutting that off could cause the odd problem or two ;)

Wel, they could turn off our gas supply. That would probably be a bit of a bind.

Unlikely though.

Mor elikely that there will be aseries of tit for tat expulsions.


We are being a bit silly, really. Russia have been asking for Bergozovsky to be extradited for years - And then we throw a hissy fit when Litvinenko isn't extradicted as soon as we want him.

There are all those Russian brides as well of course ...

http://www.cindyagency.com/girls/3154/1.jpg

Steve

this is pathetic and to think our wonderful government could really do us damage over this! Who gives a **** that an ex russian spy was killed?
Why the hell does Brown come in and take on the world?!?

They could VERY easily cut off our gas supply! This could get nasty because Brown and his chums think this will teach them a lesson. My god, do they care?

Withdraw funding from Chelski FC:D
Provide even more weapons to the ............................(insert any fanatical group) currently opposed to the West. Initiate another Cold War.

They are already on about the APT (Arms Proliferation Treaty) and their none compliance. The State of Georgia (FSR) have more nuc's than the good ole UK.

The Bear still as claws:Suspiciou

Russia will have no qualms about playing dirty..

One thing the end of the cold war, and the effective end of communism in the Soviet Union exposed was the comparative military weakness. It was assumed they were on a par with the US, when the reality is they were miles behind. Many of those Nuclear Warheads are in a state of disarray and disrepair.

To give some comparison, Russian military spending is roughly on a par with the UK - Around £30 billion per year (which make the UK, Israel and Russia more or less equal second in terms of military spending). The US spends roughly $400 billion per year. They are the only super power. The days of a cold war ar elong gone, Russia cannot hope to compete with US military might.

They might posture and portray themselves as the powerful enemy of old, but the reality is in the modern military world they are also-rans

International Sponsored Terrorism is a far more potent weapon than overt military action!!!!

Wake up and smell the the Semtex, EFP and rogue chemical weapon suppliers:brickwall

It ain't a computer game world out there....people get killed!

Very stupid to give them an excuse for a backlash by expelling the diplomats. Real knee jerk stuff due to lack of any other sensible ideas.

Should have stuck with diplomacy.

Les

They did, just GB's version of it; if you don't play by my rules I'll take my ball home.

Agreed.

And it makes us look like spoilt children.

Us "Give us back Litvenenko"

Them "Sure, just as soon as you give us Bergozovsky , like we have been asking for years"

Us "But...but.. we don't wan't to"

Them "We don;t want to give you Litvenenko"

Us "But..but, he's wanted for murder"

Them "And Begozovsky is wanted for raping the Russian economy for billions"

Us "We don't beleive you

Them "We don't beleive you

Us "But we can prove it"

Them "So can we"

Us "We havent seen your proof"

Them "We haven't seen yours."

And so on....

Kicking out the diplomats was stupid.

Have to agree with Les on this.

Here we are, KNOWING that Russia are p*ssed at the USA, and by association, the UK for wanting to build missile defence bases in ex-communist bloc countries. we also know that WE have refused to extradite to Russia someone THEY have been asking for for ages.

Then along comes Miliband, (who teachers referred to as "the year 8 in a suit" when he was at Education), and thinking to make a name, expels their diplomats.

What a wnaker!

By the way, if he's called Miliband, does that make him one thousandth of a band? Rubber band, of course:D

Alcazar

It is utterly stupid.. stick an international arrest warrant on him, he can never leave russia..

I don't see how the death of some gobby ex-KGB agent is important enough to become involved in a public diplomatic spat with a fellow member of the UN Security Council; as I said, utter stupidity.

It's the number of people put at potential risk through the use of polonium 210 that the foreign office are most upset about I beleive, rather than specifically the Murder of Litvinenko.

I think you flatter him with any decision making ability. Whatever is done would have been decided by the people behind the scenes - the advisors, consultants etc.

Yet another example of misguided hubris by the New Labour Government.

I suppose it's that sickening little dick Miliband trying to make his mark on British politics – and never mind about the consequences of his actions on the country. :mad:

We kick out Russian Diplomants.
Russia will arrest and charge British Diplomats with Spying.

Our government over the years has made Britain dependant of foreign energy supplies.
Russia will stop their energy supplies to Britain.

British fuel pricing will go through the roof
Russia's won't

Britain will in the end cave in
Russia won't.

Britain once practically ruled the World.
Now we don't, and other countries walk all over us.

Once we were an Empire...........and we had an Empress.
Then we were a kingdom and we were ruled by a King.

Now we're a country..............ruled by Gordon Brown:mad:

Alcazar

Agreed. They probably don't give a stuff about a dead Russian. Police to busy catching real criminals .................. speeders.

They are however concerned at the way they went about it. Shoot him, fine. Poison half of London with Polonium 210, and thats a different matter.

Wonder if most of our Nuclear subs are now sat off the Russian coast line, set to defoc 3?

I wonder if Russia could cut off our energy supplies. Its not as if there is a pipeline marked "For the UK" that comes out of Russia and snakes its way to our shores. All the gas goes down the same pipelines. They could screw around a little, but in the end if Russia won't sell us the gas, I am sure we could buy it through someone else, who in turn is getting it from Russia.

There is some sort of system like our national grid. All the power comes from the same places. Just different people pay different companies different prices for the same stuff.

It probably isn't in Russia interest to shut off gas supplies to Europe - Especially the UK. They rather like having the money, and god knows they need it.

Didn't they cut off a neighboring country last year? Lots of pipes, lots of Stop-cocks.

We should strike first. Wipe out Moscow while everyones asleep. Send a couple off to Iraq and Iran while we're at it.

Britain rules. No-one f*cks with Britain. If only :(

They can bring back the Cold War! LOL

The Yanks are going full pelt with the ABM shield with Poland (not good!)

The Germans are acting a bit funky too (Russians dont like them BTW)

Of course all of this at the same time that the UK goes all funny on the spy scene........

Cold War was good, kept eveyone in check, hope it comes back! :thumb:

Is this the same money that they are spending up large with in the UK?

:cry: They might stop sending us vodka :cry:

It was a stupid move by Inept Brown - still nothin more than I expect these days... Inpetitude is the new brown...

Most likely so, so you guys are in a win-win situation lol!

So? Can still get Absolut, Finlandia etc

And in English? :)

Yes they did, I forget which one. I think it was under Russian rule or something. They were measuring the pressure of the gas as it went into their country, and when it left. If they used any they were going to send in the tanks as far as I remember.

Thats not really an option for us, tanks tend to sink in the channel ;)