U.S. SHIP SENT TO BLACK SEA : RUSSIA TEST LAUNCHES ICBM

RUSSIA REACTS TO U.S.S. TRUXTUN, A U.S. GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER, IN THE BLACK SEA
MARCH 10,2014
The passage of the U.S. destroyer Truxtun into the Black Sea was seen by official Russian news outlets as a challenge to the Russian fleet and evidence that the U.S. was "ramping up its military presence in the region."

The Russian government-funded RT news network charged that the Truxtun's presence during the Ukraine and Crimea crisis was part of a U.S. buildup in support of Ukraine.

The U.S. Navy has said the Truxtun's movement into the Black Sea was scheduled well before Russia sent troops into Crimea. Navy Cmdr. Andrew Biehn, the Truxtun's captain, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer and the nearly 300 sailors on board would be taking part in joint exercises with the Bulgarian and Romanian navies.

In addition to the Truxtun, the U.S. has sent 12 F-16 fighters and 300 U.S. personnel to Poland this week for a training exercise called in response to the crisis in Ukraine, according to Poland's Defense Ministry.

Last Friday, six U.S. F-15 fighters and a KC-130 tanker arrived in Lithuania to join air police patrols guarding the Baltic states.

Citing previous U.S.-Russian naval faceoffs in the Black Sea, RT reported that the "American battleship is highly unlikely to get anywhere near the Crimea shores, let alone Sevastopol, without a risk of repeating a hasty exit."

That was a reference to the Cold War incident in 1988 in which the cruiser Yorktown and the destroyer Caron were sideswiped by Russian ships in the Black Sea, causing minor damage.

The U.S. has estimated that at least 20,000 Russian troops are in Crimea.

PLANES AND TROOPS ALSO SENT TO POLAND
US F-16s, Troops to Poland Over Ukraine Crisis
MARCH 11.2014
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Polish government officials said Monday that the U.S. military was sending 12 F-16 fighter jets and about 300 service members to their country in response to the situation in Ukraine.

Some U.S. aircraft and service members had already arrived in Poland on Monday, with the remainder expected later in the week, a spokeswoman for Poland’s Defense Ministry said.

Where the warplanes and personnel were coming from is not known, however, as U.S. military officials provided few details on the mission.

It’s the second time in less than a week that the Pentagon has ordered combat planes and personnel to countries in Eastern Europe amid mounting tensions over Russia’s incursion into Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula. Last Thursday, the U.S. Air Force sent six F-15C Eagles and more than 60 U.S. airmen from RAF Lakenheath, England, to Lithuania to bolster NATO’s air policing mission over the Baltics.

The Baltic nations and Poland requested the deployments, officials said.
The U.S. service members and aircraft that have already arrived in Poland are on the ground at Lask air base, said the Polish Defense Ministry spokeswoman.

SENATE APPROVES SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA
MARCH 12, 2014
THIS COULD BE A HUGE MISTAKE FOR THE U.S.
RUSSIA WILL SURELY SEIZE U.S. ASSETS INSIDE RUSSIA WHEREVER IT CAN.
WASHINGTON--The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation including up to $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine and sanctions designed to pressure Russia in its escalating dispute with the country.
The vote was 14-3, reflecting a strong desire by the chamber to send a message to Russia. The Senate still must work out differences with House Republicans, who favor a narrower measure focused on providing up to $1 billion in support that cleared the House last week.
The Senate bill includes sanctions targeting Ukrainian government officials found to have engaged in abuses against protesters. It would also impose sanctions on certain Russian officials and their family members. Among other sanctions, the U.S. could revoke visas, freeze U.S. bank accounts, and block any of the targeted individuals from selling their U.S. homes.

AND RUSSIA WILL DO THE SAME THING OVERSEAS.
MARCH 7, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Underlying the talk about taking harsh punitive measures against Russia for its military incursion into Ukraine are economic complications and worries that sanctions levied against Moscow could, in the words of the Kremlin, "boomerang" back on the U.S. and Europe.
Heavier U.S. and European Union sanctions could sting Russia's already slow-growing economy and hurt its financial sector. But Moscow could retaliate and seize American and other foreign assets or cut exports of natural gas to Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russia for energy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday warned Secretary of State John Kerry that U.S. sanctions could "backfire," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. During a telephone call, Lavrov urged the U.S. not to take "hasty, poorly thought-out steps that could harm Russian-U.S. relations, especially concerning sanctions, which would unavoidably boomerang on the U.S. itself," the statement said.
In a separate statement on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry also warned the European Union that any sanctions it imposed would not go unanswered and would harm "the interests of the EU itself and its member nations."

LAWS TO ALLOW CONFISCATION OF FOREIGN ASSETS
MARCH 5, 2014
Russian lawmakers are working on a draft law to allow the confiscation of property, assets and accounts of European or U.S. companies if sanctions are imposed on Russia over Ukraine, RIA news agency said on Wednesday.

RIA quoted Andrei Klishas, head of the constitutional legislation committee in the upper parliament house, as saying the bill “would offer the president and government opportunities to defend our sovereignty from threats”.

12:30 A.M. The White House called Russia’s test launch on Tuesday of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile “routine” and said the United States was given advanced notification, as required under the New START treaty.

“This was a previously notified and routine test launch of an ICBM,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement, adding that “Russia and the United States routinely flight test their ICBMs and SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles).”

RUSSIA DID TEST-FIRE AN ICBM
March 04, 2014
The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from a region near the Caspian Sea, successfully hitting its target in Kazakhstan.
Defense officials told Fox News the test was "not unexpected" and that "START treaty notification occurred."

AND WE SAY TO OURSELVES THAT NEITHER NATION IS STUPID ENOUGH TO ESCALATE THIS THING TO A WAR.

TO THINK OF HOW THE ALLIES TO EACH NATION WOULD REACT BOGGLES THE MIND.
TO IMAGINE HOW MANY RUSSIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE SIMPLY UNACCOUNTED FOR ALSO TROUBLES ONE'S THOUGHTS.

September 7, 1997 Retired General Alexander Lebed, former secretary of the Russian Security Council, told the CBS news program "60 Minutes" that he believes more than 100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons are unaccounted for.
Although lacking in many specific details, Lebed told "60 Minutes" that the 1 kiloton weapons, once assigned to the Spetsnaz special forces of the former Soviet Union, are especially dangerous because they can be transported and detonated by a single person.
In May 1997, Lebed informed six members of Congress about these missing weapons during their visit to Moscow. Lebed told the delegation, led by Representative Curt Weldon (R PA), that he could only locate 48 out of the 132 suitcase-sized nuclear devices.

UKRAINE'S CRUISE MISSILE NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP

Numbers don't seem to add up in the Ukrainian cruise missile story. Ukraine was reported to had 1068 Kh-55 cruise missiles after the breakup of the Soviet Union, 581 of which it sold to Russia in a 2000 deal. The Financial Times reported  that the CTR program record show that 483 missiles have been destroyed. This leaves 1068-581-483 = 4 missiles unaccounted for. Where did Ukraine get 14 more to sell to China and Iran?
Of course, (some of) the numbers may be wrong. Another possibility would be that these 14 came from the 581 missiles that were supposed to go to Russia.

THE SUPER-POWERS CONTINUAL "EMPIRE-BUILDING" AND INSATIABLE GREED FOR OTHER NATIONS' NATURAL RESOURCES SHOULD BE REIGNED-IN ... BUT HOW, BY WHOM?
WHERE IT WILL END THIS TIME IS ANYONE'S GUESS, AND HOW MANY WILL SUFFER FROM ANOTHER BOUT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE U.S. IS SOMETHING WE WON'T KNOW FOR MONTHS OR YEARS.

MADNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS.