Reading Journal Delta

This week i read an article that might not mean much to others but means a lot to me. It was about the situation between Russia and the US. The reason why this article means a lot to me is that Platinium is a rare metal which is only found in very scarce areas of the world and the biggest supplier is Russia. So if the US goes to war with Russia, the the price of platinium soars through the roof. The increase would be almost 500%!!! So the $1,300 coin will go up to $6,500. One thing comes to mind. Invest.
Below is the article...

Mood between Russia and West gets worse
By Judy Dempsey
Thursday, September 18, 2008
BERLIN: Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated further Thursday, with a warning by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Kremlin's attempt to rebuild the country had taken a "dark turn" and that a "paranoid, aggressive impulse" from the Russian past was reappearing.
In a speech in Washington on U.S.-Russia relations, Rice also criticized Moscow for using its role as a major energy supplier "as a political weapon against some of its neighbors." She castigated Russia for threatening "journalists, dissidents and others."
"What has become clear is that the legitimate goal of rebuilding Russia has taken a dark turn with the rollback of personal freedoms, the arbitrary enforcement of the law, the pervasive corruption at various levels of Russian society and the paranoid, aggressive impulse which has manifested itself before in Russian history," she said.
Rice's tough speech followed a day of growing tensions between Moscow and major international organizations, including NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, which is based in Vienna.
The Kremlin's envoy in Kabul threatened to bloc NATO from using Russian air space for operations in Afghanistan.
And in Vienna, Russia failed to agree where military monitors from the OSCE should be deployed in Georgia's conflict zones.
Diplomats in Vienna said that the stance taken by the Kremlin underlined the difficulties that NATO, the OSCE and the European Union faced with Russia.
All three are dependent on Russia's support, with NATO using Russian air space for some of its cargo and logistics required for the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan.
The Russian envoy in Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told the BBC that Russian air space was "still open, but if the NATO countries continue with their hostile policies with regard to Russia, definitely this issue will happen."
Kabulov made his remarks a day after NATO's 26 ambassadors and its secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, ended a two-day visit to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
There, the envoys pledged support for Georgia eventually joining the NATO alliance, with de Hoop Scheffer insisting that the alliance would not be intimidated by Russia.
The Russian leadership has repeatedly warned NATO against admitting Georgia and Ukraine. But by sending Russian troops into Georgia last month, ostensibly to wrest control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia from Georgian forces, diplomats said Russia appears to have strengthened the alliance's resolve to commit to admitting Georgia at some stage.
In Vienna, the OSCE - which includes the United States, Russia, many of the former Soviet states and Europe - locked horns with Russia over the terms of sending military monitors into the buffer zone around South Ossetia. Russian forces last month drove out Georgian troops and then declared the breakaway region of Georgia independent.
After weeks of wrangling in Vienna over the terms under which the monitors would be deployed, the chairman of the OSCE said Thursday that all talks had broken off because there was no agreement.
"There is no point in continuing negotiations," said Antti Turunen, chairman of the OSCE council. "The area of responsibility for monitors is the main sticking point."
Anvar Azimov, Russian's envoy to the talks, said Russia was "keeping the door open, ready to continue the dialogue. No doubt we will find a constructive solution."
Paata Gaprindashvili, the Georgian envoy, said Russia did not want to allow observers into South Ossetia because it wanted it to be treated as an independent state.
Last month, after the fighting between Georgian and Russian forces ended, the OSCE member states agreed to increase the monitors from 8 to 20 immediately and then later raise the number to 100.
The agreement was that the monitors would be deployed in the areas adjacent to South Ossetia where they would monitor compliance with the conditions of a six-point plan negotiated by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Russia. This also includes the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The U.S delegation in Vienna insisted that the military monitors be given full access "to the whole of Georgia, with particular focus on the conflict zone, to include South Ossetia."
The European Union is planning to send up to 200 observers to the region by Oct. 1, before Russia withdraws its forces from the buffer zone inside undisputed Georgian territory.
Russia made it clear it was not prepared to give military monitors from the OSCE and the EU any leeway or flexibility in terms of their geographical deployment, although the monitors from both organizations expected they would at least have access to the buffer zone around South Ossetia.