Quote Originally Posted by mcatdog
Well if people go to the desert to gamble then maybe they'll go to the tundra too?

To be honest this thread title could have referred to any number of things Russia has done lately, Putin is just dead set on gaining control of the country's burgeoning oil industry, which is currently too private and/or corrupt to be within his control. In order to gain that control, this right Machiavellian muddafuckah is striking at the sources of capital his rivals have, chief among them gambling revenues. What will Putin do once he's nationalized the oil industry? Use Russia's economic influence to force the UN and US to allow him to take over all the breakaway republics formerly under Soviet control.

And why will he do that? Because for the most part, they are oil and resource rich countries, control of which will only solidify Russia's (and, by extension, Putin's) influence and intensify a strategic trading partnership with China thanks to both geographic proximity and potential exclusivity. This essentially ensures Russian superpower status until such time as China decides it doesn't need anyone else and destroys the rest of the world...that is, until the robots take over.

But, I'm skipping ahead. Why does Russia need to be an economic superpower? To build hockey playing robots with lasers for eyes, good at killing penalties, ldo. These are not the robots that will eventually take over, however. Only the Chinese are smrt enough to build those.
FYP. Dude, it's like you don't even read National Geographic.