Putin the serial assassin proves he's no economist

Russian authorities face pressure as ruble plumbs new lows President Vladimir Putin puts himself into plenty of photo opportunities where he can create himself as the center of international attention. Nevertheless, Putin's abuse of power is now pointing out how his reputation as an international bully, a serial murderer of critical journalists and an ally of the evil Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has made him a dangerous world leader. But, regardless of how self appointed and far reaching Putin's powers are, the fact remains that he's not an economist. 

In fact, Russia's economy is failing miserably and the problem starts with Putin. Now, the nation's worthless ruble is close to being better utilized as gambling chips, rather than real currency. Faites vos jeux! (Place your bets! Russia's failed economy will finally be Putin's downfall- and Assad along with him!)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's ruble on Thursday plummeted to new record lows against the dollar, tumbling by over 4 percent at one point on the back of low oil prices and putting pressure on authorities to react.

Russia's ruble -- which was already battered over the past 18 months by low energy prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine -- fell briefly down to 85.99 to the dollar before recovering to around 84.3 in the afternoon.  (Hello? Calling that move a "recovery" is denying the curreny's prognosis. Rather, it's more like saying the ruble has entered the stage of "agonal breathing", and the currency is approaching the end of life!)

The ruble also fell against the euro, dropping to around 96.7 rubles per euro, before firming back up to around 91.75. (Yet, another last gasp!)

Russia's recession-hit economy relies on oil and gas for over half of its budget revenues and the authorities are coming under increasing pressure to act to stave off further damage to the currency.

The Kremlin insisted that the ruble's plunge was "not a collapse", saying the authorities would be able to stop the rot. (Well, surely Putin can lie as well as he does anything else. To say the ruble is not collapseing might be a stretch of truth, because the currency was already useless, even before the recent tumble.)

"The exchange rate is really changing, the rate is volatile, but it is far from being a collapse," spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian agency Interfax. (In fact, the exchange rate on the ruble was always terrible and now it's even worse!)

"There's no basis to suggest the central bank does not have plans drawn up to avoid a collapse." (OMG! Side step the urgency!! In fact, if there were a viable plan to save the ruble from collapse, the Russians would've put it in place by now. Their "plan" was to flood the market with oil; except, now the world is awash in black gold and nobody wants Russia's oil. Why don't they want Russian oil? Because, nations don't want to deal with corrupt Russian vendors and oligarths, that's why.)

With oil hitting 12-year lows, the ruble on Wednesday slipped past its previous weakest point of 80.1 rubles to the dollar that it crashed to during a dramatic slump in December 2014. (How many ways can we say the Russian ruble is worthless?)

The Russian currency has so far this year lost over 12 percent of its value against the dollar, meaning that a recession officials had been claiming was essentially over looks set to last longer.

Meanwhile, Russia's Central Bank shrugged off the latest ruble slump and insisted it is not preparing to repeat the major rate hike it made in late 2014, as it struggled to save the currency.

Analysts, say that while the ruble's fall was down to factors mostly beyond Moscow's control, the authorities would have to react in some way to reassure the markets. (Sure, out of Russia's control, meaning oil is plentiful from other places....).

"It is understood that this is happening against a background of an international collapse with local factors being a part of it, but the lack of a reaction from the central bank and authorities raises some questions," Anton Tabakh from Moscow's Higher School of Economics told AFP.

But others argued that with Russia's currency just following the oil market, there was little that authorities could, or should, do.

"Ruble exchange rate depreciation is now purely a function of the collapse of oil prices, and thus represents an adjustment of the fair value of the currency and does not require any CBR presence on the market," Alfa Bank said in a note.

The government has already admitted that tumbling oil prices will push it to slash spending as it struggles to keep the deficit to under 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

So far there has only been muted public criticism of the authorities under President Vladimir Putin (well, yeah....like, under penalty of death!!), who tightly control the state media, and the strongman's rating remains close to an all-time high.

But with legislative elections coming up later in the year, the government will face a difficult time as it tries to keep a lid on public discontent and balance its books.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday downgraded its forecast for Russia, predicting that the country's economy would contract by 1 percent this year.  (If this were a dismal projection of the US economy, the Americans would have called for a purge of the US Federal Reserve!)

The IMF warned that slower Chinese growth, a stronger US dollar and the collapse in oil prices could all wreak further havoc in struggling economies like Russia's.

Putins' control over the Russian people is maintained by fear. Obviously, Putin is not an economist. He's a dictator, but not an economist. Those who can offer Russia and Putin expert fiscal assistance are fearing for their lives. 

Nobody dares to tell the big Russian wizard behind the curtain that his smoke, and mirrors are about to be ripped awayby the oil glut, and his nation will plunge into abject poverty. Tragic.  

What'ss Putin's life expectency when the Russian people finally stand up to him, after they figure out how his charisma doesn't include economic leadership?  Does anybody have some worthless ruble's to place on the betting table?  Faites vos jeux!

Russia's Putin might be going going going - but the resulting vortex drains into a dangerous void

"..the intrusions (from Russia) have become so probing, that Russian hackers have even gained 'carte blanche access' to portions of the White House and State Department servers, including portions of the White House and State Department servers including 'access to the president's private schedule'."

Although I'm not any kind of an authority on, or about, Russia, my father's ancestry, coupled with common sense, tells me there's serious trouble brewing for Putin.  But he won't be done in without causing horrible turmoil.

Nevertheless, Putin is still capable of causing enormous discord, even as his leadership is pulled into an international vortex, leading to the black hole of his extinction.

Meanwhile, Russia's impending leadership implosion is terrible news for the world.

Here's what we know:

1. Russians are living under Putin's authoritarian rule. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov's assassination was a warning shot for the entire nation. Don't oppose Putin. If you do, prepare to be as dead as the assassinated Nemtsov or poisioned with nuclear toxins like Alexander Litvinenko.

2.  Russia's ruble is worthless. Although some oligarchs prop up the Russian national currency, the bottom line is, the currency is useless. As global oil prices plummet, the ruble becomes buried in the lost revenues.

3.  Meanwhile, the US is engaged in a secret war with Russia, reports Ben Branstetter in DailyDot.com.  "...the latest in a long chain of attacks by Russia against the United States, a problem so severe President Barack Obama issued an executive order giving the Treasury Department official capacity to sanction any participator in such an attack, a similar punishment currently being levied against North Korea after their suspected involvement in the notorious hack against Sony Pictures last fall.

Despite constant threats from China, North Korea, and a myriad of other nations and private groups, breaches by Russia or Russian interests of American institutions of power is a common enough and serious enough concern that it should be treated, not as the vague capabilities of a former enemy, but as direct attacks by a current enemy, a cyberwar in the most literal sense of the term.

The U.S. is the top target of cyberattacks in the world and faces a variety of enemies, but the regularity with which massive piles of sensitive data are leaked onto Russian black markets speaks not to the devotion of a criminal element but to the apathy of the Russian government. The threats coming from within Putin’s country are far from rare—in fact, they are ongoing. The sanctity of everything from government communications to the financial markets is at stake and it is well past time to take it seriously.

"American's secret war with Russian has already started", writes Branstetter.  "It may not make the news most of the time, but 'vital components of the U.S. government and the national economy' are now under daily attack from Russian cyber criminals who enjoy the Kremlin's tacit support." 

In the midst of this uncertainty, President Putin must be feeling the pressure of Washington DC retaliation and his own internal insecurities. After all, in spite of Putin's delusional Napoleonic ambitions, he's just another power hungry human being who's as mortal as all who came before him.  

Unfortunately, just like all who came before him, like Attila the Hun, Napoleon, Hitler and Mussolini, Putin will cause an enormous amount of destruction before he falls into the black hole leadership vortex towards his extinction.

Meanwhile, the world is at the brink of a Middle East World War, while Russia works behind the scenes, engaging in power games and assaulting the US with dangerous cyber security attacks.  

It's hard to decide how to deal with Russia, when Putin uses cat and mouse diplomacy and cyber wars are assaulting US security. America must put in place an international alliance of leaders who are of one mind about how to protect the world against Putin, who will likely become unstable as he enters the demise of his mortal vortex.  

Moscow Times has reported, in the past, how Russia was potentially headed toward another Revolution, as a result of Putin's aggressive leadership. Well, the uncertainty of the value of the Russian ruble, plus Putin's desperation, might push the people to eventually remove him from power.  Maybe.  Maybe not. 

Nevertheless, Putin's mortality is the only given in the choices of how to deal with the growing war with Russia.  

Russia's economy can't sustain war and economic sanctions -but real estate might be a bargain

Russia's President Putin is reported to be planning a trip to visit Egypt, but his nation's credit card might want to check the balance on his account before he leaves the country. 

In fact, maybe the Egyptians will even ask for advance payment for the cost of his visit.  In other words, Russia's economic woes are worsening even while President Putin continues to support military operations in the Eastern Ukraine as well as in Syria.  It's impossible to figure out how Russia pays the military as well as the cost of operations, while the ruble currency is in a free fall. 

As a matter of fact, the cost of world oil continues to slide as well. Therefore, the financial security Putin once believed would come from Russia's oil reserves is bringing in less revenue.

Nevertheless, according to a report in The New York Times, real estate may be a bargain in Moscow, because vacancy rates for high rise office space are climbing.  Apparently, the luxury office space in Moscow's financial district is being utilized by low rent occupants.  Sounds like a nice place to hang out, on the cheap.

Commercial Real Estate:  
In Moscow, a Financial District in Name Only
NOV. 25, 2014 by Andrew E. Kramer
 
MOSCOW — In the coveted corner office, a bearded man in sweatpants scrambled eggs at a kitchenette, all the while taking in the serene beauty of the city lights twinkling far below.


Moscow’s skyscraper district, formally the Moscow International Business Center, reflects the broader problems in the Russian economy. The country, facing broad-ranging financial sanctions and largely dominated by state-run companies, simply has no need for vast office spaces for stock traders, auditors and bankers.

Vacancy rates in the newly built financial district have become acute. The entire site, some 148 acres that now includes the tallest building in Europe, Mercury City Tower, had a vacancy rate of 32 percent at the end of October, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy. The rate is projected to rise above 50 percent next year when new buildings open.
 
In the conference room, or as the company prefers to call it, the “common area,” two other men lounged about playing video games on an Xbox. In place of cubicles, there are bunk beds.

High Level Hostel, one of the newest tenants in the financial district here known as Moscow City, sits on prime real estate on the 43rd floor of a multimillion-dollar glass-and-steel tower. It is not a youth-hostel-themed work space, but an actual youth hostel — dirty socks and all.

“We thought, ‘why not open a hostel in a skyscraper?’ ” said Roman Drozdenko, the 25-year-old owner. “Nobody’s done that before.”

The tower, with its marble veneer foyer, banks of elevators and breathtaking views, was clearly built for lawyers, accountants or stock traders. But “there were no questions regarding our guests” from the building management when he opened in September, Mr. Drozdenko said. “In fact, there were no questions at all.”

Moscow’s skyscraper district, formally the Moscow International Business Center, reflects the broader problems in the Russian economy. The country, facing broad-ranging financial sanctions and largely dominated by state-run companies, simply has no need for vast office spaces for stock traders, auditors and bankers.

Vacancy rates in the newly built financial district have become acute. The entire site, some 148 acres that now includes the Mercury City Tower, the tallest in Europe, had a vacancy rate of 32 percent at the end of October, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy. The rate is projected to rise above 50 percent next year when new buildings open.

“Russians have a great tradition of building things they don’t need,” Sergei Petrov, an office worker in Naberezhnaya tower, said of the emptiness behind the glass facades, a veritable Potemkin Wall Street.

Moscow City was envisioned as a hub of emerging market finance, a shiny skyscraper-dotted testament to Russia’s growing international influence. For a time, the idea was not improbable: From 2000 to 2007, the Russian economy grew on average 7 percent a year.

This herculean undertaking on a bank of the Moskva River was to be Moscow’s answer to the City of London or Manhattan.

One tower, called Evolution, twists in a DNA-evoking double helix. The spires of Federation Towers resemble billowing sails, evoking Russia sailing into a capitalist future. Federation Tower East, when finished, will rise 95 stories to a height of 1,224 feet, surpassing its still mostly empty neighbor Mercury City Tower as the tallest building in Europe.

Eight skyscrapers are finished, including the gold-tinted Mercury tower. Eight others are under construction, and two more are planned. The entire site is scheduled to be finished by 2018.

But Russia’s tanks are now getting more international attention than its banks, leaving Moscow City as a $12 billion reminder of the nation’s economic woes.

Western sanctions, for example, have taken aim at Russia’s largest state financial institutions, Sberbank and VTB, which both own towers or floor space in Moscow City. The two banks now have a limited ability to issue debt on global markets, thus limiting their growth options.

Sanctions by the United States and the European Union are expected to trim about 1 percentage point of growth from Russia’s gross domestic product this year, and slightly more next year if they remain in place. Even without sanctions, problems have been stacking up. Rising inflation, falling oil prices, and a tumbling ruble have left Russia near recession.

The government also accounts for an outsize proportion of the economy, leaving scant jobs for the grunt workers of private enterprise, the bankers, lawyers and traders for whom Moscow City was built. In Russia, 81 percent of the shares of the top 10 companies are owned by the same entity, the state, compared with 11 in Germany, according to a study by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economists.

Rather than turning to banks, Russia’s largest company, the sanctioned state oil company Rosneft is now appealing directly to state funds for loans. And the Kremlin this year again delayed shifting pensions into the private sector, dealing another blow to financial sector jobs.

“Somebody had the idea that if you build a lot of skyscrapers in one spot you have an international financial center,” Darrell Stanaford, a real estate analyst in Moscow with Romanov Dvor, said in an interview. “But it doesn’t work. You need other things, too.”

Moscow City, which has taken a direct hit from these policies, is now shifting tactics to fill the glut of premier office space.

City, the management company for the development in the neighborhood, says financial services companies are no longer the majority of its new tenants. Of the new Russian occupants signing leases this year, 58 percent were nonfinancial companies as well as local small and midsize businesses, like High Level Hostel, according to the management company.

New buildings are also being repurposed at the development stage. One low-rise will become a 6,000-seat movie theater. (!!!)

In finished towers, various nonfinancial ventures are renting space. One company sells Cambodian citizenship to Russians wanting a second passport. A culinary school and restaurant are opening.

Many multinationals have rented space. IBM, General Electric, KPMG, General Motors, Hyundai, Energizer and Japan Tobacco International are all tenants, as is a major Russian investment bank, Renaissance Capital.

Prices, too, are falling. Mr. Drozdenko, the hostel owner, said a real estate agent offered him the space for about $8,000 a month for 1,600 square feet, or about $5 a square foot.

In Moscow City, office space currently averages $6.90 a square foot each month. That’s below the average of $7.75 for high-grade office space elsewhere in the capital, according to Denis T. Sokolov, senior analyst and a partner at Cushman & Wakefield in Moscow.
 
“We have to do this,” Dmitry Granov, the director of City management, said in an interview of the effort to broaden the range of tenants, because of the dearth of financial sector jobs in Russia.

“If before we were looking for international corporations, today we are looking for Russian companies, and small and medium businesses,” he said. He said dropping rents would attract technology start-ups.

City management company contested the vacancy estimate by Cushman & Wakefield. Cushman & Wakefield counts vacant sublease space in its total, while the management company does not. City says current vacancies are about 20 percent.

Meshing the various constituencies is also creating challenges.

“The cafes, amenities and dress code you need is different for clients of a youth hostel and for investment bankers,” said Mr. Stanaford, the real estate analyst, of settling tenants like High Level Hostel in their high-level location. “What image-conscious business is going to buy office space in the same skyscraper with a youth hostel?”

Empire Tower, the skyscraper where High Level hostel sits, is still largely empty two years after opening. In the foyer, an oval marble sculpture echoes the oval motif of the 60-story tower, designed for a more professional clientele.

Forty-three stories up, High Level Hostel opened in September with 24 beds, with prices starting at $25.50 in a six-person room, including a breakfast of toast, porridge or muesli. The hostel manager, Leonid L. Fedotov, 19, who goes by the nickname the Beard, recalled backpacking guests from Holland named Ron and Eve.

“It was really cool because Ron and I played guitar in the evening,” he said, as they gazed out at the twirling facade of Evolution Tower and the sea of lights of Moscow below.

+++++++++++++++

It's hard to imagine how Russia can sustain economic growth, when the posh office buildings in the nation's highest rent business district are essentially being lent out to kids in a youth hostel. In other words, some of the world's homeless people are benefiting from the low rents while residing in a high rent neighborhood.  

Meanwhile, the Russian ruble continues to be worth less than the paper it's printed on. It's only a matter of time before Putin will be on the ropes. Consequently, maybe Egypt will be a good hiding place for Putin, as long as his line of credit can cover living costs.

Building a coalition against ISIS might develop a Middle East defense alliance without Russia

President Obama rallies our nation against evil ISIS (or ISIL) with a coalition that should extend beyond integration and destruction of the non-Islamic and non-state barbaric group.

"Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists." President Obama, September 10, 2014 speech to the nation.

Noticeably absent in the coalition that's building with US leadership against ISIS is any mention of Russia as an ally among the nations coalescing against the barbaric intentions of ISIS.

It's entirely possible the outcome of the eventual decimation of ISIS could be a Middle East defense alliance. Maintaining a strong anti-terrorism Middle East alliance is as important today as the North Atlantic, or NATO, alliance was, post World War II.

Putin's leadership of Russia has isolated the nation from both the NATO and any potential Middle East defense alliance. 

Russia's omission from both alliances is an unmistakable message. If this Middle East defense alliance holds beyond the denigration and destruction of ISIS/ISIL, the result will be a marginalization of Russia as a world power and a complete rebuke of the ruble as the Russian currency.

As a result, President Obama creates an unlikely legacy. He was elected president to end war, but his administration has been faced with continuous war.

Although the US has experienced difficult political acrimony during Obama's presidency, his eight years of leadership will be remembered for building a strong Middle East defense alliance and for preventing Cold War II by isolating Russia from the world's power nations.

God willing.  President Barack Obama's speech posted here:

Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additionalauthorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. 

Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all.

Third, we will continue to draw on our substantial counter terrorism capabilities top revent ISIL attacks.Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses; counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East. And in two weeks, I will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council to further mobilize the international community around this effort.

Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities. We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.This is our strategy. And in each of these four parts of our strategy, America will be joined by a broad coalition of partners. Already, allies are flying planes with us over Iraq; sending arms and assistance to Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian opposition; sharing intelligence; and providing billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. Secretary Kerry was in Iraq today meeting with the new government and supporting their efforts to promote unity, and in the coming days he will travel across the Middle East and Europe to enlist more partners in this fight, especially Arab nations who can help mobilize Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria to drive these terrorists from their lands. This is American leadership at its best: we stand with people who fight for their own freedom; and we rally other nations on behalf of our common security and common humanity.

My Administration has also secured bipartisan support for this approach here at home. I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL. But I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together. So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger. Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. 

And any time we take military action, there are risks involved especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground.

This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.

And it is consistent with the approach I outlined
earlier this year: to use force against anyone who threatens America’s core interests, but to mobilize partners wherever possible to address broader challenges to international order.My fellow Americans, we live in a time of great change. Tomorrow marks 13 years since our country was attacked. Next week marks 6 years since oureconomy suffered its worst setback since the Great Depression. Yet despite these shocks; through the pain we have felt and the grueling work required to bounce back America is better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth. Our technology companies and universities are unmatched; our manufacturing and auto industries are thriving. 

Energy independence is closer than it’s been in
decades. For all the work that remains, our businesses are in the longest uninterrupted stretch of job creation in our history. 

Despite all the divisions and discord within our democracy, I see the grit and determination and common goodness of the American people every single day and that makes me more
confident than ever about our country’s future.

Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists. It is America that has rallied the world against Russian aggression, and in support of the Ukrainian peoples’ right to determine their own destiny. It is America
our scientists, our doctors, our know-how that can help contain and
cure the outbreak of Ebola.

It is America that helped remove and destroy Syria’s
declared chemical weapons so they cannot pose a threat to the Syrian people or the world again. And it is America that is helping Muslim communities around the world not just in the fight against terrorism, but in the fight for opportunity, tolerance, and a more hopeful future. America, our endless blessings bestow an enduring burden. 

But as Americans,we welcome our responsibility to lead. 

From Europe to Asia from the far reaches of Africa to war-torn capitals of the Middle East we stand for freedom, for justice, for dignity. These are values that have guided our nation since its founding. Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward. I do so as a Commander-in-Chief who could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform pilots who bravely fly in the face of danger above the Middle East, and service-members who support our partners on the ground.

When we helped prevent the massacre of civilians trapped on a distant mountain, here’s what one of them said. “We owe our American friends our lives. Our children will always remember that there was someone who felt our struggle and made a long journey to protect innocent people.”

That is the difference we make in the world. And our own safety
our own security depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation,and uphold the values that we stand for
timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth. 

May God bless our troops, and may God bless the United States of America.

Putin takes on MacDonald's hamburgers but where's the Kraft Super Bowl ring?

Rather than build Russia's disastrous fiscal outlook, the egotist Vladimir Putin has decided, instead, to take his "tit for tat" economic sanctions campaign to the Moscow McDonald's Restaurant.  

Putin's tantrum and "whining" campaigns closed the doors on the restaurant because of sanitary issues, reports The Guardian. 

Rather than engage in a petty act of desperation, Putin's government, instead, should have insisted that Putin return Robert Kraft's Super Bowl Ring. Now, that would've been a statement with substance!  

Unfortunately, Putin appears to be obsessed with keeping the coveted Super Bowl ring (he "forgot" to return), but hamburgers, apparently, are not his particular dietary favorite.

It's hard to imagine how many Russian restaurants could pass a McDonald's level inspection. 

Nevertheless, Putin's government only hurts the nation's spiraling unemployment rate by closing a restaurant, regardless of how the sanitary regulations were violated. 

Moreover, it's customary for restaurants to receive notice of sanitary violations prior to a shut down. 

Obviously, there's no evidence of this customary protocol notice for the Moscow McDonald's, but I doubt any other eating establishments in Russia's capital city would be given the same abrupt treatment. Clearly, McDonald's didn't produce enough "bribe" money to protect the establishment from closure.

Putin and his ambitious expansion into the Ukraine has caused his nation economic harm, caused by the US led sanctions to help protect further encroachments into Eastern Europe. 

Rather than fix the problem, by pulling back on Ukraine ambitions, Putin has made a strategic decision to close down the Moscow McDonald's Restaurant. This absurdly immature response hurts hard working people who earn a salary by working at the restaurant and others who, likely, might find it to be a convenient place to eat. 

The Guardian reports:

Russia has shut down four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow for alleged sanitary violations in a move critics said was the latest blow in its tit-for-tat sanctions tussle with the west.

The federal monitoring service for consumer rights and well being announced on Wednesday that the offending outlets included the famous restaurant on Pushkin Square that opened just before the fall of the Soviet Union. The body said the eateries were being shut down for "sanitary violations" discovered during inspections this week.

Of course, when One Russian ruble = $0.28 cents; at this rate of exchange, it's hard to understand how ordinary Russians can afford a Whopper.

The Russian "well being" agency has a history of banning food from countries out of favour with Moscow, and the move will almost certainly be taken as a political statement in the sanctions war. It has previously banned wine from Georgia and dairy products from Belarus after those two countries began to improve relations with the west. This summer, it has banned canned vegetables, fruit, fish, juice and certain beer and vodka from Ukraine.

Earlier in August, President Putin ordered an embargo on meat, poultry, fish, dairy and produce from the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the European Union in response to those countries' economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

I challenge President Vladimir Putin to return Robert Kraft's Super Bowl Ring to demonstrate his misplaced outrage toward western and US led economic sanctions!

Ukraine must not be the 21st century deja vu of 1939 Poland versus Hitler

Russia's President Putin's actions to challenge a take over of the Ukraine is like Adolf  Hitler's evil ambitions in the years before Europe was ravaged by the Nazi and the 1939 invasion of Poland.

In the mid, and late 1930s, France, and especially Britain followed a foreign policy of appeasement with Germany, Hitler and the Nazi political party. The objective of this policy was to maintain peace in Europe, by making limited concessions to German demands for claiming Austria and Poland. In Britain, public opinion tended to favor some revision of the territorial and military provision of the Versailles treaty after World War I. 

Moreover, neither Britain nor France in 1938 were militarily prepared to fight a war against Nazi Germany, so few years after the World War I horror.

Britain and France essentially acquiesced to Germany's rearmament (1935-1937), remilitarization of the Rhineland (1936), and annexation of Austria (March 1938). In September 1938, after signing away the Czech border regions, known as the Sudetenland, to Germany at the Munich conference, British and French leaders pressured France's ally, Czechoslovakia, to yield to Germany's demand for the incorporation of those regions. Despite Anglo-French guarantees of the integrity of rump Czechoslovakia, the Germans dismembered the Czechoslovak state in March 1939 in violation of the Munich agreement. 

Britain and France responded by guaranteeing the integrity of the Polish state. Hitler responded by negotiating a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1939. The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939, which stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland's border, had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939. The demarcation line for the partition of German- and Soviet-occupied Poland was along the Bug River.

In October 1939, Germany directly annexed those former Polish territories along German's eastern border: West Prussia, Poznan, Upper Silesia, and the former Free City of Danzig. The remainder of German-occupied Poland (including the cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Radom, and Lublin) was organized as the so-called General gouvernement (General Government) under a civilian governor general, the Nazi party lawyer Hans Frank.

Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January 1945.

Fast forward to 2014, and the world is in a deja vu situation.

Now the ambitious Russsian President Putin acts like a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. Instead of Poland, Russia's Putin has decided to annex the Ukraine, using whatever means he can resource to gain leverage toward his Napoleanic ambitious goal.

With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border near Donetsk, Western leaders have worried that Moscow might use unrest in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking areas as a pretext for an invasion.

LOVYANSK, Ukraine — For the first time, the Ukrainian government on Sunday sent its security services to confront armed pro-Russian militants in the country’s east, defying warnings from Russia. Commandos engaged in gunfights with men who had set up roadblocks and stormed a Ukrainian police station in Slovyansk, and at least one officer was killed, Ukrainian officials said. Although several officers were injured in the operation, as were four locals, officials said, the Russian news media and residents disputed that account, saying the Ukrainian forces had only briefly engaged one checkpoint. In either case, the government in Kiev has turned to force to restore its authority in the east, a course of action that Russia has warned against.

Putin's ambitions must be stopped. 

Economic sanctions have had a negative impact on Russia's stock market;  moreover, the currency of the ruble has been valueless, as a foreign currency, for decades.

Nevertheless, Russia's Putin is fiscally desperate. Money is owed to investors who extended their credit on the cost of the military and the opulence of the now passe Sochi 2014, Olympic Games.

Understandably, 21st century leaders are justifiably horrified by the prospect of challenging Russia and provoking the potential for another European conflict. Unbelievably, the only world leader who doesn't appear fearful of a European conflagration, like the prelude to World War II, is the Russian President Putin.

Ukranians can't become victims to Putin's ambitions. 

Ukranians don't have a puppet leader like the Syrian President Assad. Syria's president is supporting Putin's ambitions to maintain an open sea port at Tartus, regardless of the millions of innocent people, many of them Christians, who are murdered, tortured, killed and persecuted.

It will be difficult for all of Europe to hold together against Putin's ruthless vision to create a 21st century empirical Russia.

Yet, the horrible lessons of the 20th century must motivate the world to stand in opposition to the proliferation of Putin's evil ambitions.

Face of New Russia post Sochi was apparently like a Mardi Gras facade

Sochi, Russia's Winter Olympic games, were supposed to unveil the new and modern Russia. It didn't even take the Napoleanic egotist Putin a week to rip the mask off this apparent post games Mardi Gras face. Russia may be yearning for "new", but their leadership is as regressive as during the Cold War.

Incredibly, Russia's invasion of the Crimea, about a week post Sochi, incites a completely unprovoked escalation of world tensions. Even more incredible, Putin has little money to pay for an escalation of his nation's defense.  

In my opinion, if the Ukrainians began to pay their army with US dollars, there would be a defection of Russian troops because it's doubtful the ruble can survive against the strong US currency.

Pitifully, while the world is obviously in condemnation of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine and takeover of Crimea, there's little intestinal fortitude to do much about this aggression.

Meanwhile, the Syrian people continue to suffer a humanitarian crises because Russian President Putin props up the puppet government of the country's evil President Assad.  

Americans are supporting economic sanctions against Russia in retaliation against the evil Putin perpetrates in the name of protecting "Russian people". Obviously, Putin doesn't care about protecting the Syrian people. How about protecting Ukranians?  

An unintended outcome of Putin's maniacal compulsion to bully Russia's "in your face" to the world is to unite Americans. When Americans are united, there's no army or world that can obstruct our resolve. 

President Putin's "new" Russia was obviously like a Mardi Gras facade, a parade for the purpose of showing off for the world. But, at a cost of about 60 billion dollars, the cost hasn't been recovered and the Sochi venue is yet to see a return on investment.

Perhaps a Ukraine takeover was a way for Putin to monopolize the pipeline of energy from Russia to Europe. This would allow Russia to increase the cost of providing energy to hungry Europe and provide a way to fund the Russian enormous debt.

Obviously, Putin's new Russia is in economic trouble and his government cannot sustain a military takeover of anyplace, especially if his military is being paid in worthless rubles.

But, there was a similar situation in the world in 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland.

Putin is a Hitler clone and he must be stopped. Unfortunately, the world let Hitler murder as many as 80 million people before he was eventually defeated.  Let's stop Putin before anybody else has to die as a result of his ruthless ambition.