A new Cold War started in Vilnius

[GePap]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Corrected.

Putin is just Putin. There is no admin. worth speaking about. Get it right.

[Serb]

edited.

[Dinner]

Yes, it was all the Soviet Union and the US & UK had nothing to do with it.

[Serb]

Yeah.
NATO sucks.

[Serb]

Seriously speaking, I salute to American and British veterans.
But NATO still sucks.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Hey look, switzerland is still independant on that book cover.


as usual, the swiss are there to resist any european projects (habsburg, napoleon, nato, eu and now I guess the belgians.)

belgian joke, translated from french.

So this belgian dude goes to france, goes into a bar sits down and orders a few drinks. he starts talking with the french guys. one dude tells him 'hey, let me show a funny game' french guy stands up, puts his hand up in front of the bar wall and says ' try to hit my hand' belgian dude winds up. at the last second the french guy removes his hand the belgian guy's hand ends up punching the wall at full force.

after nursing his hand and laughing it off (hahaha what a great game!!) the belgian guy goes back to belgium. sits down at a bar, tells his friends. "hey guys, i leanred this new game in france.' he looks around but cant find any walls, so he says 'alright', puts his hand in front of his face and says 'alright guys, try to hit my hand'

[Sikander]

Originally posted by GePap


Given how many times they have been invaded, it is more understandable than American self-rightetousness.

Yea, but we've been righteous as hell my whole life, and Russia hasn't even been invaded once the whole time.

[DanS]

Righteous, dude!

[Serb]

Originally posted by Sikander


Yea, but we've been righteous as hell my whole life, and Russia hasn't even been invaded once the whole time.

In Soviet Russia, they invade you.

[TCO]

Russians are just whining. Let them fricking cry. Noone in US reads international news--we hear them not.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Serb
Seriously speaking, I salute to American and British veterans.
But NATO still sucks.

I'm an American veteran that was in NATO.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by GePap


Any Belgian is welcome to explain it to the rest of us. In fact, I believe the question was asked.

Have seen no answer given.

it is, of course controversial. Belgiums greatest medieval historian, mainly famous for his work on general western european economic history ("mohamed and Charlemagne" etc) thought there WAS continuity with medieval Flanders.

from wiki:

"Pirenne's other major idea concerned the nature of medieval Belgium. Belgium as an independent nation state had appeared only a generation before Pirenne's birth; throughout Western history, its fortunes had been tied up with the Low Countries, which now include the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of north-east France. Furthermore, Belgium lies athwart the great linguistic divide between French and Dutch. The unity of the country might appear accidental, something which Pirenne sought to disprove in his History of Belgium (1899 - 1932). His ideas here have also proved controversial, with many historians preferring to stress the economic unity of the Low Countries as a whole"

[DanS]

Russia thinks everything would be fine, if the old Soviet satellites would know their place...

Russia says new states damaging EU relationship
>By George Parker in Brussels
>Published: May 21 2006 17:42 | Last updated: May 21 2006 17:42
>>

Russia has accused new European Union members from eastern Europe of bringing their “phantom pains of the past” into the 25-member club and putting strains on relations with Moscow.

Vladimir Chizhov, Russian ambassador to the EU, said their attitude had made it harder for Russia and Europe to forge a long-term “strategic partnership” – one of the key objectives of a summit this week between the two sides.

Speaking to the FT, Mr Chizhov said he expected the summit at the Black Sea resort of Sochi to be “businesslike” and to tackle the contentious issue of energy relations between Russia and Europe.

But he said the EU’s 2004 enlargement, which brought eight former communist countries into the union, had made relations more difficult. “With enlargement, the EU has not become an easier partner for us,” he told the FT. “Some, not all, of the new members have brought into the the EU their own phantom pains – people who concentrate on the sores of the past.”

But Mr Chizhov said relations between the two sides were not “in crisis”, adding that strident US attacks on Moscow could have the effect of bringing them closer together.

Referring to US vice-president Dick Cheney’s claim this month that Moscow was using its oil and gas reserves as weapons of “intimidation and blackmail”, Mr Chizhov said: “Speeches like that have an opposite effect on the European way of thinking.”

Energy will dominate Thursday’s summit; tensions have been high since March when José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, went to Moscow to ask Mr Putin to open Russia’s pipelines to third-party operators, in exchange for Gazprom having access to the EU’s retail market.

Gazprom responded by talking about shifting its focus to China and the US, and Europe remains cautious after Gazprom turned off gas supplies to Ukraine in the New Year.

Mr Chizhov said Russia and Europe needed each other, and Moscow was the EU’s “most stable and reliable” supplier, but admitted: “There is perhaps a problem with the public relations aspects of our relationship, which should receive more attention on both sides.”

He said Russia was discussing with the European Commission how Moscow might ratify the energy charter treaty – an international framework for energy supplies – but he thought a result was unlikely before the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

Mr Chizhov said the charter needed improvement first, including to its transit protocol covering access to pipelines and a disputes procedure, which he said failed to work in January’s stand-off with Ukraine.

This week’s summit will ease visa restrictions between Russia and the EU for some types of travel, but Mr Chizhov hopes it will pave the way for an eventual visa-free travel regime between the two sides.

It will also discuss a new “strategic partnership” between Russia and the EU, covering a wide range of bilateral issues, to replace the existing 10-year arrangement which expires in 2007.

[Serb]

Yeah, and USA thinks everything would be fine, if the rest of the world would know their place...

[DaShi]

UR, is that you?