Putin and Russia

[Zrow]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ews.html?in_article_id=502382&in_page_id=1811

The jist of the story is that Putin had a dissenter committed to a psychiatric hospital because of an impending protest.

Okay, so... when does this guy start to be a big problem? I've heard enough of these kinds of stories recently to make me believe Russia is heading down a slippery slope, fast.

 

[Solid Lifters]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ews.html?in_article_id=502382&in_page_id=1811

The jist of the story is that Putin had a dissenter committed to a psychiatric hospital because of an impending protest.

Okay, so... when does this guy start to be a big problem? I've heard enough of these kinds of stories recently to make me believe Russia is heading down a slippery slope, fast.

I 100% agree. The things Garry Kasparov said about the man were alarming and shocking. Putin is not somebody you want to pass over or take lightly.

 

[Tornado]

Assuming he doesn't have the Russian constitution changed (and lord knows his popularity is enough to get away with it), we will be gone next year. If that does occur, then...

 

[YSSMAN]

It all really depends on who you talk to and what exactly you believe to be going on. It is clear that Putin's power grabs have been vast and sweeping, and although he cannot be President again, that certainly does not mean that he can't continue essentially running the country as Prime Minister with a puppet President.

I'm worried about what the consequences will be for the Russian people, but I'm uncertain of what the ramifications will be for the outside world. He has been increasingly hostile to the West, particularly towards Britain and the United States, and his continued actions to make friends with our enemies certainly is a bit unnerving.

We'll see I suppose. I doubt anything outstandingly horrible will happen any time soon...

 

[Kent]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ews.html?in_article_id=502382&in_page_id=1811

The jist of the story is that Putin had a dissenter committed to a psychiatric hospital because of an impending protest.

Okay, so... when does this guy start to be a big problem? I've heard enough of these kinds of stories recently to make me believe Russia is heading down a slippery slope, fast.

I've felt for a long time that the Soviet Union fell but the Communist Russians never gave up. If left alone for long enough, Putin will put together a personal version of a reborn Soviet Union.
My only hope is that the people are Russia are not forced to endure a renewed Soviet Union but instead grow as a Free Russia.

 

[Year.Zero]

Warning: Massive Text Wall

In May, two Tornado F3s intercepted two Russian spy planes off Scotland.
And in July, two Tornados and Norwegian air force jets raced to meet two Tupolev-95s in the Arctic Circle.
Hardliner ... Putin


A diplomatic source said: “He has nothing to lose. He clearly wants to show that he is boss and will not be pushed around by the West.”


A fighter jet flying from Russia violated Georgian airspace for second time this month yesterday, when it flew 3 miles into Georgian territory.

Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said.

He said 14 bombers had taken off from Russian airfields early on Friday. The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam.

"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," he said.

The US military confirmed the presence of the Russian bombers near Guam, home to a large US base.

Russian bombers have also recently flown close to US airspace over the Arctic Ocean near Alaska.

On August 2, 2007, a Russian expedition of six explorers planted the flag of Russia and took water and soil samples for analysis, continuing a mission to provide additional evidence related to the Russian claim of the mineral riches of the Arctic. This was part of the ongoing 2007 Russian North Pole expedition within the program of the 2007–2008 International Polar Year.
The expedition aims to establish that a section of seabed is in fact an extension of Russia's landmass. The expedition came as several countries are trying to extend their rights over sections of the Arctic Ocean floor. Vladimir Putin made a speech on a nuclear ice-breaker earlier this year, urging greater efforts to secure Russia's "strategic, economic, scientific and defence interests" in the Arctic.

In 2002, the United States and Russia agreed to reduce their stockpiles to not more than 2200 warheads each in the SORT treaty. In 2003, the US rejected Russian proposals to further reduce both nation's nuclear stockpiles to 1500 each. Many say that this refusal was a sign of US aggression and accuse the US of thus leaving the danger of US and Russia's mutual destruction. On the other hand, Russia is actively producing and developing new nuclear weapons. Since 1997 it manufactures Topol-M (SS-27) ICBMs which current US air defence systems are unable to destroy.

There has been work on new propulsion systems for the Topol-M which may enable it to evade an anti-ballistic missile.
The missile is designed to be immune to any planned US ABM defense. It is capable of making evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill by terminal phase interceptors, and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys. It is shielded against radiation, EMP, nuclear blasts in distances less than 500 meters, and is designed to survive a hit from any laser technology.

Russia on USA's suggestion to station missile defense systems throughout Europe:

Why does Russia object? Because it says that the missiles in Poland and the radar in the Czech Republic could threaten its own defences. The system might be small to start with, it says, but could expand. The radar could be used to spy on Russia. What about President Putin's threat to target Europe? Before the G8 meeting in Germany in June 2007, he did threaten to target Europe with nuclear ballistic or cruise missiles again (something given up after the Cold War) if the proposed defence system went ahead.

NUCLEAR WARHEADS
Russia
Land-launched: 2,146
Sea-launched: 1,392
Air-launched: 624
Total: 4162
USA
Land-launched: 1,600
Sea-launched: 3,168
Air-launched: 1,098
Total: 5866
Source: Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) data 2007

"Media"...

During the Yeltsin years, there was a media explosion in Russia. The picture today is very different. Television remains by far the most influential news medium. All the major channels are either controlled by the state or businesses loyal to the Kremlin.

The main evening news bulletin has regained its Soviet era title, Vremya, and signature tune. Some would argue it has returned to Soviet-style editorial values, too.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday. It was the latest show of Russia's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.
Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."
Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify.

Full article: http://www.pjstar.com/stories/091207/NAT_BEBANL31.046.php

Russia ranks at or near the top of many metrics of military power including in numbers of tanks, fighter aircraft and naval vessels;[68] it has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.[69] It also has the second largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and is the only country apart from the U.S. with a modern strategic bomber force.[69] As of 2005, 330,000 men are brought into the army via conscription annually, though the Army is currently phasing out conscription altogether.[70]

Defence spending is consistently increasing by at least a minimum of one-third year on year, leading to overall defence expenditure almost quadrupling over the past six years, and according to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, this rate is to be sustained through 2010.[71] Official government military spending for 2007 was $32.4 billion, though various sources, including the US Department of Defense, have estimated Russia’s military expenditures to be considerably higher than the reported amount.[72][73][74] By some estimates, overall Russian defence expenditure is now at the second highest in the world after the USA.[75] The recent steps towards modernisation of the Armed Forces has been made possible by Russia's spectacular economic resurgence based on oil and gas revenues as well a strengthening of its own domestic market. Currently, the military is in the middle of a major equipment upgrade, with the government in the process of spending about $200 billion (what equals to about $400 billion in PPP dollars) on development and production of military equipment between 2006-2015.[76] Russia is the world's top supplier of weapons, a spot it has held since 2001 (think: year after Putin was elected), accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales.[77][78] Russia is the principal weapons supplier of China and India, and provides weapons to Iran, Algeria, Venezuella and other countries. Recent arms deals seem to show that Russia is building on its former influence, both in the Middle East and in Latin America.[79]

 

[Touring Mars]

Wait... are you telling me that Russia is not a real democracy after all?

I guess Putin must be quaking in his boots now that The Daily Mail are on to him!

Still, the question of whether Putin was/is good for world peace will always be a vexed one. Arguably, having the Kremlin in control is better than the chaos that the former Soviet Union went through under Yeltsin - and when it comes to a nation (or group of nations) with a nuclear arsenal the size of the former USSR, a one-party state/dictatorship is better than no control at all.

 

[exigeracer]

TIME magazine just named him Person of the Year. Vodka shots for everyone!!!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear

 

[Omnis]

It all really depends on who you talk to and what exactly you believe to be going on. It is clear that Putin's power grabs have been vast and sweeping, and although he cannot be President again, that certainly does not mean that he can't continue essentially running the country as Prime Minister with a puppet President.

I'm worried about what the consequences will be for the Russian people, but I'm uncertain of what the ramifications will be for the outside world. He has been increasingly hostile to the West, particularly towards Britain and the United States, and his continued actions to make friends with our enemies certainly is a bit unnerving.

We'll see I suppose. I doubt anything outstandingly horrible will happen any time soon...

It's not that he's been hostile to us so much as he's been against our military globetrotting. So, yeah, despite the power grabs, he's still very reasonable with foreign policy.

 

[YSSMAN]

While true, he just seems a bit more testy these days of the United States and other NATO powers. I think he knows and understands that Russia really cannot do much on their own to start or be involved with any kind of war, it isn't financially possible (not to mention their utter lack of population), so I don't think he'd go about picking a fight.

Still, whats going on in Russia is a bit odd at the very least. It definitely brings back some memories of old Soviet Russia...

 

[Omnis]

He's just annoyed at the foreign encroachment, though. We would be pretty uneasy too if China wanted a huge missile defense center in Guatemala.

 

[Year.Zero]

(not to mention their utter lack of population)

You call 140 million an utter lack of?

9th most populous country in the world.

 

[a6m5]

While I kind of do agree with Omnis on his take on Putin, I do believe that he is borderline evil.

Way he handles his enemies. Or how they sometimes just disappear or end up dead. And in order to fight the Western dominance, I believe that he is willing to do whatever it takes. And I'm not saying that standing up to America is evil, but at the same time, he does have that, "if you are not cheating, you are not trying" mentality. He will create his own rules to play, and he will play dirty.

I just hope his future plans doesn't get too many people killed.

 

[Omnis]

While I kind of do agree with Omnis on his take on Putin, I do believe that he is borderline evil.

Way he handles his enemies. Or how they sometimes just disappear or end up dead. And in order to fight the Western dominance, I believe that he is willing to do whatever it takes. And I'm not saying that standing up to America is evil, but at the same time, he does have that, "if you are not cheating, you are not trying" mentality. He will create his own rules to play, and he will play dirty.

I just hope his future plans doesn't get too many people killed.

Yeah, agreed.

 

[YSSMAN]

You call 140 million an utter lack of?

9th most populous country in the world.

I guess I should have phrased it better (it sounded good in my head)... I was alluding to their population problems, negative population growth and all. You know, the forced sex camps and such to spur population growth under Putin, etc.

 

[Alfaholic]

He's just annoyed at the foreign encroachment, though. We would be pretty uneasy too if China wanted a huge missile defense center in Guatemala.

... you mean like you were with the Cuban missile crisis? Are there any parallels between that and what NATO are doing in Poland? (genuine question. I really don't know much about either except it seems to offer the one force a significant military advantage over the other)

 

[YSSMAN]

It depends on how you look at the situation. I did a big project in one of my Poli Sci classes this past semester on the US/NATO missile system in Poland/Czech Republic, and really, its just a mess.

From Russia's point of view, its likely looking like a way to severely limit the power of The Russian Federation and their ability to strike their enemies at full-capacity. Similarly, their "alignment" with Iran has been a bit odd as well. Their suggestion of building these anti-missile sites in Europe while using the radar stations in Azerbaijan thus far seems to be the only way in which these systems could serve as collective security throughout Europe. That is, if Russia wants to have collective security in Europe.

From the "allied" perspective, this is a defense against a clearly more threatening Mid-East and East Asia. That being said, noting current defense estimates, we're nearly a decade before we'd even have to consider some systems a threat to the rest of the developed world. Again, collective security is the key, and protecting NATO certainly seems to be something that we (as a community) should have the capacity to do.

We've honestly got bigger fish to fry on that continent, but it is key nevertheless. Who knows.