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Crimean people celebrate the anniversary of reunification with Russia and sing the State anthem of the Russian Federation along with Russian pop singers. Even schoolchildren and children from nearby summer camps came to the party and also proudly sing this hymn. This is a visual evidence that the Crimeans are happy to return home to Russia. No amount of force will force them to return back to Ukraine.
Putin is a dictator and he is friendly with the Oligarchs. Furthermore Russia has extreme income inequality (like the US).
But Americans seem to think Russia is like in the movie Die Hard. They think Moscow is a bunch of rundown commie blocks with a perpetual grey overcast.
That was true in the 1990s but not anymore. Moscow is a developed global city like London or New York. The Russian military has advanced air fighters and ground troops.
Yes their Navy is a few decades behind and the M1 Abrams is better than the standard Russian tank but they also have state of the art tech and robotics. They tested their first hypersonic missile in 2018, before China or the US.
Their economy is also not the size of Italy. Jake Tapper jokes on his program that Russia's economy is smaller than Italy but this is misleading. Russia had a larger economy before the Ruble tanked. If the Ruble were to shoot up vs. the dollar everything would change.
That is because the ranking of Russia below Italy comes from Nominal GDP. But if we use GDP PPP Russia is the world's fifth largest economy. It also has the lowest external debt to GDP ratio in the world.
So yeah their economy is smaller but it is more stable than the US economy and less prone to fluctuation. They have a larger foriegn reserves holding, and more untapped economic resources.
American media still mocks Russia because everyone here is stuck in the 1990s when people saw Russia as a heaping pile atop the ruins of the USSR. But it is not the 90s anymore, wake up.
One is NEVER wise to underestimate an enemy. Russian fast mover fighter aircraft have come a long way. They've got planes can can slug it out with our high end F 15s and F22s. Personally I don't have a lot of confidence in the F 35. It's to expensive to complex and WAY to maintenance intensive out of say 10 birds maybe 3 are fully good to go. That ain't exactly awe inspiring. Russian tanks are behind ours technologically. My answer there is ...and? The Russians use tanks for what they are intended for. Mobile heavy artillery and supporting infantry.
The US has had this facination with tank to tank combat and the Russians don't fight that way. The M1 is faster, has a better gun and way better targeting systems and is a great hunter killer especially at night. But it is also maintenance heavy and it's performance against Iraqui armor in DS and Iraqi Freedom is hardy a weathervane as to how it will stack up against Russian equipment manned by Russians. Yes the Iraqis used Russian tactics but NOT like the actual Russians will and they had no air support. Or artillery and their infantry was all pathetic conscripts other than the RG and surendered en masse. That won't happen with Russians.
The Russians come big and they come mean. And while our military has been training to and actually fighting terrorists the Russians have been training intensively to fight the US .They've had 20 years to study us in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now our Navy does present a serious threat and the Russians don't take that lightly. Rest assured they have their Tu22 Fleet ready to go there. Their sub fleet is behind ours but their skippers are double tough and know the game. Their destroyers are good boats and ae nothing to sneer at as well. We certainly have them carrier wise. But they will launch heavily against our naval assets from land bases as they have always planned to.
They have certainlyrebounded from post Cold War levels economically and militarily. The should NOT be taken lightly. The DC puppet show in charge of our military now doesn't get it.
I think Biden and the Dems think Putin is a joke and Putin certainly feels that way about Biden and the now weakened US. The world saw what happened in Afghanistan with the pitiful withdrawal/ retreat/ embarrassment and Putin knows that the Dems don't have the fortitude to be tough. Trump on the other hand was a skilled negotiator that knew to keep his friends close but his enemies closer.
Obama thought Russia was a joke. There was that time in the debate against Romney and Mittens said that Russia is a great threat, Obama replied "hey Mitt the 80's called and they want their foreign policy back" and he got a big laugh for it. What is it with the Dems?
Russia is poised to launch a ground attack the likes we haven't seen since the Blitzkrieg. Imagine tanks and troops moving in mass across Eastern Europe again. What is Biden going to do? Probably not much but if those Russian troops are not fully vaccinated they better watch out because Biden will have some harsh words for them.
Oh such a great threat, in a country where they'd tried everything to increase the dismal fertility rate and get Russian women to have babies, to prevent the Muslim immigrants streaming north from the Middle East!
The population in Russia is dropping and dropping and oh what a great threat they are!
Oh such a great threat, in a country where they'd tried everything to increase the dismal fertility rate and get Russian women to have babies, to prevent the Muslim immigrants streaming north from the Middle East!
The population in Russia is dropping and dropping and oh what a great threat they are!
I don't underestimate Russia but I simply no longer care. I don't care if they invade Ukraine I don't care if they poop all over Europe. It essentially is meaningless in comparison to our own problems. You can worry about Russian commies all you want but we've got millions of them ruining California right now and setting their sights on the rest of the country. Forget Ukraine we've got an invasion on our own southern border.
with all the thousands of nuclear weapons stashed all over, i would think the next few hundred years will be hard for humanity to NOT destroy itself
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