Saturday, May 23, 2015

Unclear on the Concept: Moscow Version

Somebody has something that belongs to somebody else, and that somebody else is upset.

Putin's Russia says that Ukraine must pay their energy debts to Russia:

Russia would adopt a tough position if Ukraine decided not to pay off debts owed to Moscow by its previous government, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview broadcast by Russian TV on Saturday.

Huh. Somebody having something that belongs to somebody else is rather awful. It's kind of like theft.

It's kind of like Russia's seizure of Crimea and ongoing home invasion in the Donbas region.

I still don't know why Ukraine doesn't present Russia with their own billing statement for renting the entire Crimea for the past 14 months, including mineral rights and the bases and of course a security deposit for damage to the carpet that will totally need to be steam cleaned when the Russians leave the premises.

Get the right accountants to do the figuring, and Russia will be in debt to Ukraine for generations to come, even taking Ukrainian energy imports into account.

As an aside, I remain totally impressed that when Medvedev speaks, Putin's lips hardly even move!

UPDATE: Ukraine should also watch John F. Kerry as our most Gumby-like Secretary of State ever asks the Russians not what they can do for us, but what we can do for them.