Russia Today

[mistermack]

You can now drive to Crimea from the rest of Russia. The road bridge is done and Putin opened it on 16th May by driving a truck across it.





Funny how the BBC never heard about it. The longest bridge in Europe opens, and the BBC don't want you to know anything about it.

It just shows how our news is being managed for us by our "betters".

In other news, the England football team kicked the ball into the net more times than the Columbians.
This got a little bit more attention from our media.

[Rum]

Given the paranoia about Russian designs on clawing back some of the old USSR territory, which Putin has more or less admitted to and given the disarray that appears to be encroaching on the old western alliances which the Beeb reports on regularly I wonder why you feel there is some sort of conspiracy about this.

Oh and I wonder if you heard a report on Today a week or so ago (radio 4 BBC) about this very topic. I’m not sure what your point is.

[pErvinalia]

Wide enough for tanks...

[Svartalf]

a bridge to te Crimea? is that over the Kerch straits?

[mistermack]

a bridge to te Crimea? is that over the Kerch straits?

Yes.
It's a two part bridge. The road part is complete, the rail part will be finished next year.
From a tourism point of view, the rail link might be more important, given the huge distances in Russia.
I would think that the airport would still be a major way in for tourists, but the road and rail will reduce prices generally, and make it a more attractive destination for Russian tourists.

[Scot Dutchy]

Wide enough for tanks...

The new American Embassy is now operational. All the cycle paths around it (it is on the edge of a popular wood) have been widened by hidden concrete slabs covered by earth and the small bridges have been widened and strengthened to take a tank.

[Svartalf]

mmmh, a tank at the American embassy? Abrams or T80?

[Scot Dutchy]

They are a bit too wide. The strengthening is about 3.5 metres. Standard two way cycle path is 2.2 metres. The cycle paths are all concrete with these hidden blocks on the side. The bridges used to be wooden affairs now thick concrete and steel tubes painted green and brown.

[mistermack]

Those pesky Russians are at it again.

Another bout of Novichok poisoning, just eight miles from the Earlier Salisbury incident.
Like it's likely that the Russkis are going to use it on a couple of random UK residents. Right in the middle of hosting the World Cup.

If I was in charge, I'd be having a very long look at Porton Down chemical warfare section. It's far more likely that they have a rogue operative who's gone off the rails, than the Russians using a highly traceable poison to bump off an agent that they could have killed a hundred times over in the past.

[Forty Two]

Trump colluded with them to get the bridge built. https://www.unian.info/politics/1011844 ... ridge.html

But, I'm sure the EU is taking the necessary action against Russia on this. I trust the EU to do the right thing and ensure that Russia's illegal bridge construction is torn down. If they don't, the EU should impose drastic sanctions against Russia, which is the EU's prime enemy in the world.

The Dutch, of course, are abiding by international law and norms at all times in their assistance to Russia in the construction of the bridge. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russ ... SKBN1I5201 Those Dutch firms who colluded with Russia are bound to be punished. At least we know that none of the directors of those companies will ever reach political office in the Netherlands, due to the very clear lines drawn there -- nobody who had links and connections to Russia would be able to obtain political office.

[mistermack]

It's actually likely that the economy in Crimea will enjoy a bit of a boom in the near future.

Apart from some filter down of money from the people building the bridge, the tourism industry has pretty much rebounded to pre-Russian levels, after a two year fall :

After the Russian annexation of Crimea in early 2014 and subsequent sanctions targeting Crimea, the tourist industry suffered major losses for two years. The flow of holidaymakers dropped 35 percent in the first half of 2014 over the same period of 2013.[84] The number of tourist arrivals reached a record in 2012 at 6.1 million.[85] According to the Russian administration of Crimea, they dropped to 3.8 million in 2014,[86] and rebounded to 5.6 million by 2016.[87]

Fat chance of the people of Crimea ever voting to be part of Ukraine again. Which is something totally ovelooked by the western media.
Scotland was and is considered to have the right to split from the UK if there is a 50.00000000001% majority in favour.
Crimea has voted, and the vote was in the high nineties to split from Ukraine. And it would be even higher, if they voted again tomorrow.
Yet somehow, this is a "crime against democracy".

[pErvinalia]

It was an invasion of another country's territory.

[Clinton Huxley]

It was an invasion of another country's territory.

Consensual Annexation, please.

[Jason]

mmmh, a tank at the American embassy? Abrams or T80?

T-14 Armatas! Get with the times! It's all about that sexy new hardware.

[Svartalf]

frag, I didn't know any Armata vehicle was ready for deployment yet