Mood:
incredulousTopic: Random Political Diatribe
Guess the Ruskies are a little put-off by that fact that America beat 'em to the moon with the ol' Stars 'n Bars. Now they're trying to up the ante by planting a flag in the 'opposite' direction...
Before commenting on this... uh, interesting venture, I'll share a fantasy related to this kind of mission:
Putin is a totalitarian wanker at heart, and the fall of Communism never really sat well with him (and he's not had much luck in getting some people to be willing 'pawns' in his authoritarian ambitions).
This whole move reeks of Soviet-era posturing: the puffery of a system past its prime. Sure, Russia wants to CLAIM the territory down there (although the legality of an unseeable, underwater flag is dubious... after all, even the US's quite visible extraterrestrial flag didn't amount to much).
What the CCCP- (sorry, the Putin Administration) won't say is that only foreign companies can actually get to the resources down there because Russia's technological investment front is as dynamic as a collapsed lung.
But make no mistake: Russia desperately needs this cache of resources because the supply of natural resources seems to be the only tool left in the country's 'diplomatic negotiations' with others...
