Putin is crazy... WAPO: Russia is harassing U.S. diplomats all over Europe

[Hortensis]

3. Increased training: "Leave your pets in the U.S."

And maybe your children, depending on their emotional resilience.

Fascinating. Thanks, MADem. I've read about Putin's aggression against the nations bordering Russia, of course, but not this. (Btw, I just googled and scanned a bunch of "headers" to find another good one, and most present it as something that's happening to just American diplomats, whatever their articles say. A lot of us read only the headers on a lot of stuff. Drives me crazy!)

Putin must have been a delight on the playground of his elementary school. Earlier this year he sent nuclear-capable planes to circle Japan in some statement. This below describes what's going on along the border in the Caucasus.

"On July 10 (2015), as Europeans were haggling over Greece and the U.S. was busy sealing the Iran deal, Russian-backed South Ossetian forces redrew the province’s borders unilaterally by moving the border posts deeper into Georgian territory. According to the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia, signposts were placed 985 feet farther south near the village of Orchosani, while next to Tsitelubani the South Ossetian territory was expanded by a whopping 3,330 feet. Villagers went to bed in Georgia, only to wake up in South Ossetia. Predictably, Moscow denied the charges.

With this latest land grab, the Russian-backed separatists managed to gain access to almost a mile of the BP-operated Baku-Supsa pipeline, which carries some 145,000 barrels of Caspian oil per day to the Black Sea. Perhaps more worryingly, the E60 highway that runs from Kyrgyzstan via Azerbaijan and Georgia all the way to the western tip of France is now just a stone’s throw away from the rebels in South Ossetia. Apart from being the primary Georgian road, linking the country’s east to its Black Sea shore, it also represents a key commercial highway. For example, during the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, the road played a key role in keeping the oil flowing from Azerbaijan to European markets. BP operates a second pipeline, the 1.2 million bpd Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, which also runs along the E60.

This isn’t the first time pro-Russian forces have pushed back the border. In 2010, Georgia lost two more kilometers in the Akhalgori region to South Ossetia, while in 2013 the border shifted twice: in spring, five villages covering roughly 100 hectares were fenced in overnight, while in autumn, two further settlements were absorbed."

http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/the-heavy-handed-russian-move-nobodys-talking-about/