TokyoDiman comments

US is the one destabilizing the whole world. Itaq , Afghanistan, libia, Egypt, ukraine...

But if US does it its ok! USA USA!

Ukrainian military has been attacking civilian blocks for days killing hundreds of innocent people. People who are unarmed and have done nothing except voice their opinion. They are trying to force these people to conform to the new government using heavy artillery...military is attacking civilian blocks in order to intimidate the Russian speaking civilian population into accepting the new west backed regime. The downing of a helicopter just proves that people will not surrender to the pro western/fascist government they did not ellect. They are defending themselves any way they can. As I'm sure anyone here would if they were in that situation.

On top of that the new government has no intention of paying it's huge gas bill and still expects to receive gas from Russia. Consumption of gas has increased dramatically in ukraine. Its ironic how US expects Russia to sit by and watch their Russian speaking population in Ukraine get slaughtered, accept the new pro west regime..which we all know was "democratically" elected and still provide free gas to Ukraine. I wonder what americans on this site would say if their own people were being slaughtered by the military of an anti american government. I wonder if they would just sit by and watch as its not their business to get involved into other countries affairs.

The truth is most people commenting on this site are americans or pro americans who believe in the blatantly hypocritical propaganda of their own government. Even the EU leaders condemn these attacks on civilians. All except the US.

Dont get me wrong I love america and have been living here a long time. Its just a shame average american people cannot form their own opinion based on facts and historical evidence.

Any country with a moral spine would say no to business with Russia. Russia and China looking more like a new evil empire everyday

This notion of Evil empire and good vs evil-us vs them is just a pathetic attempt to generalize a complicated political and business situation. No country will ever become allies unless there is not a mutual gain on both political and economic fronts. That goes for every single ally. This world is becoming smaller and more connected now then ever. People no longer trust bias propaganda from an individual source and now have the advantage of making up their own mind as to what is truly in their best interests.

Every country is trying to survive as best they can and provide an advantage towards accomplishing their own agenda. Russia, china , usa(especially), japan...are all doing what they can to stay on top and win the political and economic race. Some countries have more leverage(natural resources, land, military strength) and are bigger players than others.

Russia is using its abundance of energy as a strategic advantage and are able to direct and influence global politcs that way(no one is forcing Russian energy down the consumers throat..it's just simple supply and demand) on the other hand the Usa uses its military strength to bully other nations (irag,syria,Egypt,japan,mexico..even their own native American population) to accomplish their political agenda and to remain on top. Once again its just a different way to influence global politics.

But ask yourself ...is changing regimes by force as the united states has done and continues to do even now in Ukraine the best way to build peace and prosperity between nations? I dont see china overthrowing governments...and to those of you who still blindly follow the notion that Russia "stole" Crimea...please read some history and educate yourself on the history between Crimea and russia as well as reading news from outside your narrow scope view. Then make an intelligent and educated unbias decision as to what may actually be happening.

Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin criticized France, and accused Britain and the United States of hypocrisy in not wanting war crimes in Iraq referred to the ICC

Why doesnt US want war crimes in Iraq referred to the ICC? Ohhh Thats right because if America commits crime its ok.

The result of Obama's Asian pivot: Russia and China driven together.

This is exactly right and only natural considering the hypocrisy of the west towards both countries. Together Russia and China will be able to better influence world policy and steer away from pro american world order. Together those two couriers would be unstoppable. Together holding the land, population, natural resources and of course the veto power at the UN table. I just hope that one day russia and china use this power to influence global economy away from the self-righteous but quickly and mostly errelevant US grip on the world. Definitely glad I was born in the USSR.

For anyone who considers this kind of material appropriate, think very carefully about the future of this industry and what it could lead to. For instance computer generated imagery would not be considered " sexual exploitation of minors" as no actual children are involved in creation of such imagery. However this kind of media is evolving at an increasingly realistic rate, take "avatar" or "terminator" graphics and apply them to child pornography. This manga could and most likely naturally would evolve to applying such technology to "legal child incest manga".... Then say one day you are walking past a store and you see a comic book that uses this kind of new technology ...essentially depicting a real life child in a sexualy engaging situation. However no laws are being broken because the image is just a fabrication (computer generated)....then you look closer and the child in that image resembles your own 5 year old girl...maybe not identical but a clear likeness...then you take it further and you notice the person looking at the material is your local kindergarten teacher... Now keep in mind they are not doing anything illegal because no actual children are being used to create this image. Morally however it would be no different than that costumer fantasizing about your own 5 year old child. Real or not real...child pornography and insest should not be justified for any reason in todays society. Only reason it remains so in japan is because the industry is allowed to exist and remain profitable. Extremely unethical and wrong from any perspective IMO.

Its painfully obvious that any danger of a full blown civil war will be directly caused by the west if they do not get their way. Russia is damned if it does (helps people democratically hold referendums to decide their own fate) And damned if it doesn't (stays out of this mess entirely...still will be seen as cause in effect of what Putin has done by unleashing forces he cannot control) It seems a new world order is coming and the EU and US are the new dictatorship of Europe. Any country that stays in its way is deemed evil and will be destroyed via sanctions or coups.

FizzBit- finally someone with enough sense to do some research! Excellent find!

How did he do a good job? Crimea is part of russia now? If anything russia got what they wanted and America is left impotent. A prelude of things to come.

Putin is clearly the bigger man. Only proves one thing. American hysteria had no basis.

Check mate

@dcog you really dont know anything about international politics or the Russian people. Russians are in full support of a president who can stand up to a country like the us who has been bullying and taking over(illegally) other countries for decades now. The fact is that EU is heavily dependent on russia for natural resources and most people would agree that the double standard set by the US government only applies on a political level to countries who "owe" something to the US. Countries like Japan. I completely agree that eastern europe will be hit the hardest by this mess and their respective governments will come under severe internal stress because they depend so deeply on Russian exports. Everyone can see the hypocrisy and double standard perpetrated by the US and I for one am proud of Russia having enough strength to finally stand up to the truly apparent political weakness and economic irrelevance of the US.

LFR...if what you say is true what's the point for Russia to fight for crimea and risk isolating itself?

Superlib..what's the point? What would be the point to creating soviet satellite states? It wouldn't make any political or economic gain to Russia. What's the point in alienating one self from the rest of the world? Maybe you think he's just plain evil and Thats the reason. Putin is a business man. And a good one much better than Obama. And in terms of killing protestors. The west was behind those attacks to give a reason for the overthrow. Perhaps you should read some news articles other that USA today and then give more informed comments.

Look at the situation this way....a democratically elected leader gets overthrown by armed men who then appoint a new leader. The US supports that new leader as the true leader of Ukraine. Its so obvious that the US has some hand if not being single handedly responsible for this overthrow. The question remains why. Well let's look at why Russians want to keep Crimea. The russians need the Sevastopol black sea base to keep the strategical position and ensure its boarders and interests are secure. The Russian government will not try to overthrow the current government but instead let the majority of Crimea become part of russia through a democratic vote. Basically ensuring that Sevastopol will remain as part of Russia.

Why is the usa pushing so hard for Russia to back down? Why do they need Ukraine to be part of the west so much? Well clearly NATO bases which would replace Russian base in Sevastopol would weaken Russian defence and strategical ability in the future. But why weaken russia. Because russia and china are becoming too powerful and soon will be impossible to control or stop. The usa is still extremely sore about what happened in siria and how they could not overthrow their democratically elected leader because Russia stood by the president and were able to prove the chemical attack came from the side of the rebels which are entirely backed by the US.

The US saw an opportunity to weaken russia in ukraine. They overthrew the government and are now trying to weaken russia further. Once russia is weakened the US can pursue any kind of strategy they wish in terms of Syria and Iran. They need to get rid of Russian opposition and veto power in the UN. Even if they can't get a base in Sevastopol at least they will try to remove Russia from the G8 and the UN. This way they will be able to do pretty much anything they want when it comes to international policy around the world.

The us would be unstoppable. That is truly the scariest part.

Earlier today an even more shocking recording has been "leaked" this time one between the always concerned about human rights EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet, in which it is revealed on tape that all those photos of horrifying deaths of Ukrainians by snipers during the last days of the Median stand off, were in fact caused not by Snipers controlled by Yanukovich, but that the snipers shot at both protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders!

Here is the key exchange, just after 8 minutes into the conversation :

Paet: "All the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. ... Some photos that showed it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it is really disturbing that now the new coalition they don't want to investigate what exactly happened. So there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition."

Ashton: "I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh."

Paet: "It already discreditates (sic) this new coalition."

So first US orchestrates the Kiev overthrow, and now the new "leaders" of Ukraine are allegedly found to have fired against their own people - the same provocation they subsequently used to run Yanukovich out of the country and install a pro-Western puppet government. Of course, said pro-Western coalition has not been discreditated (sic) because Ms. Ashton has sternly refused to investigate, knowing quite well how horribly this would reflect on the new Ukraine "leadership" - a government which shot its own people to fabricate the pretext under which it rose to power.

Is it any wonder then that Russia has responded the way it has?

I've seen every one of those movies and almost all of them were boring and dull. With the exception of wolf and maybe 12 years....how about nominating "her"....best movie I've seen in years and truly makes you think

Lostrune...its very difficult to gage the level of effort as neither of us are actually part of the team. I understand that you feel they didn't try. I've seen all the games myself and to me it looked like they tried very hard but lost to a better squad. We can't guess as to what might have happened but we can make an educated and somewhat accurate estimation. If that goal in fact counted it would give the usa team 5 minutes to eaven the score. Thats an unlikely possibility. So more probably then not they would have lost. Russia would have faced Czech and would have probably won. I dont consider beating Czech an over achievement. Maybe beating canada,Finland or Sweden. Finland is one of the top 3 so defeating us would not be an upset.

Obviously we are on different sides of this issue but at least we can both agree that these were definitely memorable and probably the most exciting Olympics in years.

Most laws in society are created to better the conditions of people within that society. We have rules that everyone must follow and consequences if we do not. Not everyone has to agree with those rules however if you want to remain a part of that society you must follow the rules even if you do not agree with them. Freedom of speech is one thing but denying the truth entirely is different. I'm sure some people dont agree with homosexual rights and color integration even to this day. However if you outright call someone a *and *** there will be reprocautions as our society has evolved to give everyone the chance to feel safe and secure. Denying the Holocaust is like denying homosexuality or race in the eyes of the people who had family members go through that horrific experience. Same thing applies to Japan denying the mass rape of Nanking and the use of comfort women.

Putin does have interests in Ukraine a desire to keep NATO and U.S. military bases out, ties with Ukrainian aircraft and shipbuilding enterprises closely linked with Russia's military and industrial complex, his own Black Sea Fleet, in Ukraine's port of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, as well as ensuring unimpeded transit of natural gas to Europe. Putin and his advisers essentially see Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians as one people.

I don't think the Russians are about to invade Crimea. What I think is more likely is that, in the future, the various regions of Ukraine will present their own claims and may go in different directions on a number of issues. And attempts by Kiev to clamp down on those autonomous or regionalist tendencies could lead to a new spike in tensions in Ukraine. This is because I believe that Putin and the russian government gave up on Yanukovich long ago whos only goal is to stay in power and to protect his wealth and the wealth of his family. With Yanukovich vacillating between Russia and Europe and always having his own private interests in mind. The only way I see russia sending in military forces is if a full blown civil war breaks out and russia needs to protect their cremian population.The main driving force behind his policy towards Ukraine will be not a desire for expansion, but a desire to reduce the risk of chaos spilling into Russia. Also you must remember a Ukraine in continuing turmoil would make a difficult and unpredictable Russian intervention almost inevitable and make it even less likely that the country could ever pay off its huge Russian gas bills.

Lostrune...no what's stupid is saying that US didn't try. They did try and lost to every contender country. Let's face it they lost to Russia but I'm not talking about Russia being a contender. I realize that they didn't live up to expectations. I'm not trying to defend their poor performance. You are trying to defend the poor performance of the usa. Let me explain to you what I mean by contender counties. There are 3 contender countries ..canada, Sweden and finland. The us lost to two of the 3. Chec republic, Slovenia,Slovakia are not contenders. The american team player their best but couldn't score even one goal in the two most important games of the Olympics. Thats poor performance. Just accept it and let it go. Sometimes we try and dont win but it's ok to admit the other team was just better.

JoeBigs...EXCLUSIVE-Russia to resume oil pipeline supplies to Ukraine's Odessa <http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKL6N0JW22H20131217?irpc=932

Pukey...dont let your blind hatred cloud your judgement. Dont pretend like mafia and embeselment are unique to russia. Do you think the yaks dont have a hand in everything that goes on in Japan, they sure will when it's time for the construction of the new olympic stadium. And enough with the pussy riot nonsense. They were disturbing public peace plain and simple. If it was the KKK that burst into a cathedral and started preaching their beliefs the same thing would happen anywhere. It doesn't matter if they are cute girls preaching gay rights, they are still disturbing the public peace.

Bass4funk... Thats because these are the biggest Olympics to date. Every Olympics is full of controversy. What do you mean by the most controversy out of any Olympics? Are you referring to the figure skating? Because only two countries seem to have a problem with the decision. Russians are not honest and don't have integrity in your mind...I'm sure if they lost every event then you would be happy to consider them honest. Cold war is over and you shouldn't believe everything you see on TV. If you've never been to russia and experienced russian culture then you have absolutely no right to pass judgment.

What some of you dont understand is that Ukraine has no industry. They depend on Russian for absolutely everything. In fact a lot of ukranians are moving to Russia to find jobs as Russian is basically their native language. Ukaraine needs russia its not the other way around. Russia is only concerned with Ukraine as a buffer to the west. Nobody likes America meddling in their back yard. Same as china and north Korea. The divide and split is funded and entirely sponsored by the west with no concern over the ukranian people's safety or stability. Russia will and should definitely impose imbargos on Ukraine when it comes to natural resources if ukraine decides to divide. They should not receive any benefits they have been used to of they bite the hand that feeds. Noriyosan.....actually I liken Abe more to Hitler then putin. Trying to change history to suit their interests sounds like Nazi germany to me. Russia is now finally getting back on their feet and standard of living has increased dramatically. Russia has the resources and the land to become the most desired place to be in in the near future.

Thats funny knox Harrington because they were considered the most expensive and well planned Olympics to date. They wanted russians to think wow. They wanted the world to think Russia is a power. Just the fact there are so many Russia haters after these Olympics proves they accomplished that. I know it hurts to lose but at lease lose gracefully.

Lostrune...obviously Kain didn't try so hard...seriously? Obviously if they tried hard they could have won...wow...every player that competes in the olymipics tries to get a medal, otherwise whats the point of even competing. He had 2 penalty shots and didn't try hard? us had forwards blocking shots in goal with their bodies. They looked down and depressed in the third period because they were down 3-0. Not because they didn't care. I think you need to face the facts that this team was highly overrated by the us media. Finland won because they are a better team plain and simple. The only reason US won earlier is because they played non contender teams. They truly lost their bout with Russia btw.

Lostrune...no they cleaely played as hard as they could. Did you see the game? They were demoralized by the 3rd period. The Finns are a better team hands down and crushed the US squad. Btw I'm sure team america would have loved to walk away with a medal. Even bronze is better than nothing.

Lostrune...us team tried so hard. I saw the game, the frustration had set in by the 3rd period and they kept getting penalties against them and just couldnt score. They tried so hard but still couldn't even score one goal. Pretty pathetic for an olympic team. Kane couldn't even score 1 goal for the entire tournament including 2 penalty shots against finland.

Chucky..it doesn't matter what you think or what any Korean thinks. The Koreans and Americans are the only ones upset over this. Just accept that Koreans lost with grace like Kim. It doesn't matter if Kim had plastic surgery or not. She's a genious on the ice. If it was a beauty contest I'm sureRussian women in general would win anyways. :p

Chucky the scores are anonymous how would you possibly know that?