LordKalvert
Banned
Are you suggesting that Russia would abandon its aspirations in Asia? No, they would continue to pour scarce resources into a conflict where logistics would bleed its economy and military dry. If Russia abandons its Asian aspirations and a blue water port, after bleeding itself dry - then the UK retains or even enhances its dominant position in Asia.
Really got a source for this? There already was talk about solving the Japanese War by threatening India. Since this scenario has Britain at war with Russia, why not concentrate on the easier enemy?
The Sultan's opinion of the British and Russians is largely academic, but in order to secure the defence of the Straights, wandering eyes would need to be prevented from identifying the disposition of the defences (minefields etc). Accordingly, closure of the straights (even to prevent British agents) was a prudent precaution. Even if the Sultan was fundamentally ill disposed towards the British, it was no secret the Russians coveted control of the Straights.
As mentioned earlier- a big so what The British can cut off Russian trade far in the Mediterranean. They can also cut the Baltic trade off at the Sound. Its not doing them a lick of good if the Germans aren't in the war and Willie shows every intention of letting Britain and Russia fight it out amongst themselves rather than risk his Empire. Now, if you offered him France, he might start thinking about it
Not 'the best', but a jaw breaker for the price of a postage stamp. Russian infrastructure increased dramatically before 1914, but demonstrated its inability to support industry when NOTHING could be exported in WW1. Suggesting a grossly inferior network, supporting multiple war fronts, could happily cope with such a dramatic re-orientation is dubious, at best.
Totally irrelevant to the discussion at hand- short of a German DOW, Russia will be able to trade with her neighbors (where most of her trade goes anyway). Try again
Two weeks? - channelling Cheney again? Even the British could match 10K - I vaguely recall 100K was an estimate of potential Russian strength in the great game.
Look at a map of Persia, Russia and India. The Russians have the Caspian Sea, the only real military force in Persia and, yes, Tehran would fall in two weeks. Now how the British march there, across thousands of kilometers of dessert, mountains and do it without any rail support at all, is something we can expect you to demonstrate for us
Yep - the Russians demonstrated that to the Japanese - no wait...
Read what I wrote- that the Russians were vulnerable in the Far East but that no decisive results could be achieved there. Absolute worse outcome for the Russians would be a retreat behind Lake Baikal- but what would the loss of the Far East mean? Not much
Good to know?
Yes it is- care to explain what the British can do to the Russians in the Baltic? Because they aren't going to try an invasion
Yes, I stated a blockade would not be effective on the military, but it would seriously hurt Russians economically. OTL Russia never defeated Japan on the battlefield.
And as has been pointed out repeatedly- there is no great harm done to the Russian economy unless the land border with Germany is closed
The 200,000,000 rubles of exports that go by way of the Straits is not going to hurt the Russian economy one twittle- its about what Russia is spending on tea (52,000,000) foreign travel (69,000,000) hearing (14,000,000) silk (20,000,000) coffee (5,00,000) wine and tobacco (10,00,000). And since they have an extra 20,00,000 tons of grain, they won't be needing to import much wool since they can feed their sheep grain (44,000,000)
So, no, closing the straits isn't going to bring the Russian economy down
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