All in all, Putin has won round one of the new Cold War. Next stop? Ukraine . . . . . . or is it South America?

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia's annexation of Crimea on Friday, as investors took fright at a U.S. decision to slap sanctions on his inner circle of money men and security officials.  (Editorial note: what does down,  will come up, mark my words.  The deed is done and Obama/EU look like the sitting ducks they are).  

Putin promised to protect a bank partly owned by an old ally, which Washington has blacklisted, and his spokesman said Russia would respond in kind to the financial and visa curbs.

Russian shares fell sharply after President Barack Obama also threatened on Thursday to target major sectors of the economy if Moscow tried to move on areas of Ukraine beyond the Black Sea peninsula. The financial noose began to tighten as Visa and MasterCard stopped processing payments for a Russian bank owned by two brothers on the U.S. blacklist.

European Union leaders - who like Obama insist Crimea is still part of Ukraine - expressed their determination to reduce the bloc's reliance on Russian energy, and signed a political deal with the Kiev leadership that took over after Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich's ouster last month.

Editor's notes:  If the Russian markets are anything like ours, investors will recoup their losses,  and begin investing once again,  albeit in alternative stocks (perhaps).  In other words,  this ploy of the West and the EU will accomplish nothing.  The notion that Russia can be broken via financial pressure from the West,  is another LaLa Utopian myth  -  a "fact" only in the minds of those who can live outside of temporal reality.  

Despite a slight downgrade of the Russian economy,  there is no more reason to believe this is more critical than the downgrade levied against the American economy,  during the first two years of Obama.  Neither the downgrade or reprisals against a couple of dozen investors,  who were warned by Obama more than two weeks ago,  is expected to alter human events in the pro-Russian world.  All in all,  Putin has won round one of the new Cold War.  Next stop?  Ukraine  . . . . . .  or is it South America?  

Big question?  Has Putin already laid a foundation in Latin America that cannot be resisted by a do-nothing American foreign policy?  

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Related articles:  

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-strategy/201305-putins-quiet-play-for-latin-america

On Tuesday, Obama proved his instability when it comes to his failing foreign policy theory.

<<<<  You should know that Obama has ordered all Pentagon reports to be limited to 15 pages,  as if he is managing a group of little kids.  


Obama says Chavez is no problem.  Romney disagrees.  And I have the truth.

Since Obama has taken office,  he has set on the sidelines and watched Red China,  Russia and Iran forge major inroads into South America,  especially as relates to partnerships with Brazil,  Venezuela,  Argentina and Mexico.  Oil production in most of these countries is a key interest of our enemies, that and military arms and financing in Venezuela.  Understand that Russia has given Chavez 5 billion dollars for use on his military complex and in addition to its “gift” of  more than 100 land to air missiles to the Chavez regime.   

Iran’s only reason for a presence in South America is its imperialist intentions against the United States, whether that is served by its oil production contracts in the Southern Hemisphere,  or its effort at creating alliances that will help to soften the effects of an increased embargo  against  the nation.  Understand that because of Iran’s commitment to “destroy America,”  its presence in South America should not be tolerated and cannot be considered as "uneventual" by this or any US Administration.  

With all this in mind,  two days ago,  Obama, in an interview with a local Miami reporter,  made this ridiculous comment:

"We're always concerned about Iran engaging in destabilizing activity around the globe. But overall my sense is that what Mr. Chávez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us"    -- Obama           (Read more on this interview here )

Clearly,  foreign affairs is one of Obama’s major failings.  His only “foreign affairs”  success is the killing of a number of terrorist leaders.  When you consider the mess in Egypt,  Syria, Libya, his abandonment of terrorist interrogations,  the growing threat in Iran,  the disaster that is Russia/U.S. relations,  the fact that Obama has never visited Israel in the four years of his presidency,  the failing war in Afghanistan and his catch and release policy in that country,  the problematic relationship with Pakistan,  is refusal to leave a military presence in Iraq and his obvious [eventual] desertion of a US military  presence in the Middle East,  when all of this is taken into consideration,  you see the magnitude of his failure in matters of foreign affairs.  


For Obama to fail to see the long term damage being done to U.S. influence in South America by Iran and others,  just adds to the sheer idiocy of his presidency.

Romney has this say in addition to the above observation:      

“I was stunned by his [Obama's] comments and shocked by them.  This is Hugo Chavez who has invited Iran in, who has invited Hezbollah. Hezbollah, being a surrogate and a proxy for Iran that would have access to weapons that could be used against us. The idea that this nation, this president, doesn’t pose a national security threat is simply naive and an extraordinary admission on the part of this president to be completely out of touch with what is happening in Latin America. This is a very misguided and misdirected thought on the part of our president."

With a Romney presidency,  there is the promise of change from the nonsense of the past four years.  What better reason(s) to vote the most unqualified president of all time,  out of office??

As I have noted before,  after Obama,  the days of a community organizer as president are over.  At least Jimmy Carter was a governor before coming into the presidency.   Obama had no qualifying experience,  at all.  Like it or not,  Sarah Palin was infinitely qualified by comparison.    Lesson learned !!!