..............Russia's mineral wealth has few rivals. A local legend says as God scattered riches around the world, his hands froze when he came to Norilsk and dropped everything that he was carrying............ ..................... Without titanium from Russia's VSMPO-Avisma, Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's A350 XWB couldn't fly, analysts say. The metal is also critical to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an advanced fighter bomber being jointly developed by Britain and the U.S. ......... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_bi_ge/russia_s_metal_giants I wonder why the Russians just not stop selling titanium to US if US is building antimissile site at Russia's doorstep? Making the russians enemy is not worth it.
yeah russia is a great country but they does not want to take the power of the world like the US . They are very calm now and don't want to control any country like US want's to control the world.
even they are calm and without ambition Rusia will react violently if surrounded Like what NATO is doing in Poland and Georgia
putin is a terrorist and dictator. russians are weak and impotent letting an putin rule and fool the whole country. neo-nazi russians are dumbest in the world, crushing everything millions of their forefathers died fighting for, at least those dumbhead could choose another name.
It will only get worse. You have a worldwide financial crisis and Putin is trying to posture like it's the cold war. It's bad for business and foreign capital is fleeing quickly. Add in the fact oil prices won't be recovering any time soon and Russia's economy is in big trouble. Plus, acting like the US putting in a "defensive" missile shield is somehow hurting their defense is bullshit. All it hurts is their first-strike capabilities.
Yes it has, but that doesn't mean Russian is strong. You need to make full use of your land, manpower and resources. From what I see Russia uses too much of its resources to try to buy back their long lost prestige during their times as Soviet Union rather than using their resources (especially when crude oil was at all time high) into developing their lands, manpower and further developing their industries. Now that the crude oil prices crash, Russia isn't going anywhere as it has overspend and over sketch its resources. Take a look at Japan for eg, it doesn't have the land, nor the manpower nor the resources but it is the 2nd largest economy in the world.
Financially Russia is in trouble. Since August they have spent 161 billion or 27 percent of its reserves to protect the ruble.
And that was August, a lot of water has flowed passed the bridge since then. I would cast doubts on whether they can sustain their reserves with the sharp worsening of the economy since Aug. Russia needs to forget about its glamor past as a Soviet Union and concentrate and building its economy and not just its military. A super power needs a super strong economy to sustain it.
2009 is going to be a tough year for Russia. It will be interesting to see if Putin will be able to survive.
He will survive. He is an expert in rallying people around him. At most what I can foresee is Mr Putin looking for another imaginary enemy and rally the Russians around him.....
Putin's big chance now, he thinks, is to re-ignited the cold war. His timing couldn't be any worse for it. Their cash reserves are down quite a bit so starting an "arms race" so you can give weapons to pariah nations is a really bad idea. They needed oil to be at $70 a barrel to meet their budget in 2009. It's half of that now.
My guess will be Georgia, small enough to be bullied without fear of repercussions and strategic enough for USA and NATO to intervene further inciting Russian nationalism.
Georgia is a good choice for Russia. Ukraine could be next. Putin could incite the ethnic Russians and Eastern Ukrainians to shift to the Russian orbit. Ukraine has more problems paying its natual gas bill and this could be an excuse for Russian meddling.
Ukraine is a much harder bone for Putin, I don't think he will be too keen on that. That country has been steadily building up its armed forces and military industries and is definitely no push over unlike Georgia.
Ukraine has a pretty smart administration regarding foreign affairs. Besides, their PM is far more hotter than Sarah Palin