Russia Beware. A US Navy warship has arrived in the Georgian port of Poti

Russia is no super power.


Faltering Russian hardware

Soviet-era equipment will not be phased out of use until 2020. Most of Russia's navy has rotted in port since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Only 26 of Russia's 50 remaining submarines (compare to 170 in 1991) are currently operational, and the Russian Navy plans to reduce that number to 20.

Like the Tu-160s in Venezuela, Russia's combat aircraft are for the most part decades old.

Only 15 of Russia's latest and most sophisticated fighter jets, the Sukhoi-35s, are in active service. Russia's tank arsenal is still dominated by the antiquated T-72, which entered production in 1971 and was the backbone of Iraq's ill-fated army in 1991 and 2003.

Despite significant increases, Russia's defence budget is less than one-tenth the amount of annual US military spending.

According to a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, the Tu-160s that just flew across the Atlantic were even "escorted" by NATO fighter jets.

Nato supporting Georgia

Closer to home, Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, face the reality of US and Nato support pouring into Georgia even as their own forces complete their withdrawal from Georgian territory.

Their warnings to Western powers to steer clear of the crisis have been dismissed. The Caucasus pipeline continues to pump oil outside the Russian state monopoly that once controlled all former Soviet energy exports to the West.

Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian president, who is pro-Western and George Washington University-educated, remains firmly in power, more than a month after Russia's foreign minister bluntly said "he has to go".

Medvedev and Putin will soon have to live with deployments of anti-missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic - deployments accelerated by the Georgia crisis.

They know that a majority of Ukrainians now favour Nato membership, whereas only a few weeks ago the issue was divisive in that country. They can be reasonably certain that their evolving peaceful relationship with Nato and the civilian nuclear-sharing agreement with the US are now, effectively, dead.

 

This is no way Russia can muster the power of the former Soviet Union.

Gorbachev knew Russia was losing and let the evil empire crumble.

Russia has greatly inproved its economy with Western cooperation and Russians need to look at themselves in the mirror. What has the last 100 years of Russian agression gained them?

 

Russia is of no significant value, nor does it contain any such interests for any part of the world anywhere. As you recall, they were near utter economic collapse and resorting to selling used Subs to Canadians at one point.


The only reason Russia is mustering power now is because they know damn well that when oil gets down to $32/barrel again, they will be in the shits.

It's the high price of crude that has made Russia attractive. Their once expensive and crappy crude is now affordable with higher prices. The threat of that type of money and power disappearing is enough to make a country invade and take over other countries to insure it remains just that, in the money and power.

This too shall pass...

 

This is the danger of nationalized energy. People complain that Bush invaded Iraq for oil, and sure, the fact that it has huge reserves had to be considered, but the oil part of the equation was more about securing it rather than stealing it. Now there are companies from all over the world in Iraq's oil fields.
Russia on the other hand is a different story. It's the same entity that owns the gas, the oil, the subs, the rockets, the nukes, the tanks, the...you get the point.

 

Intelligent life does exist in the p/r.. Great post!

 

simplified thinking:

us goes into a brothel (small country), fscks, than goes out and pays the bill.
russia goes into a brothel, fscks, .. and never leaves.

I am from a small country, and I prefer to get screwed in the a$$ by the first. I say this calmly, with a cool head:nothing can be worse than what the russians do.

 

Colorful analogy, but makes the point.

 

i know. but it is true (so I think). Its politics.

 

Hey are you from Latvia by any chance. Most of my Latvian friends share your opinion almost to the T!!!

 

not Latvia but eastern eu.

I am not surprised. We share 60 years of first hand experience of russian ass fscking (pardon my french).
I would have prefered 2 atomic bombs over those 60 years . The Japanese were lucky.

 

The T-72 is turning out to be a massed produced piece of junk. The Czech Republic is upgrading some of it's T-72s. The cost is 4 million per tank.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/t-72cz.htm

The Russians don't have the money to upgrade.

Russian power is based on 40 year old weapons and a declining manpower base.

 

Homebiz, bogart, Mia, ....... McCain, Bush, Rice...

I am glad that the inteligent, honest, and fair Americans have completely different views, thinking and opinions than yours on all international issues. Unfortunately for America, America is not led by the intelligent and honest Americans. The sh##t that this admin did to America and the world hit the fan with full force and most of you refuse to acknowledge it. Instead of focusing on America's problems this admin is creating problems for others half way around the globe and they believe it is God given right. The philosophy, that you share together with this admin is a 100% failure - Fact!

 

The US will be arming Georgia with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin portable anti-tank guided-missiles. Georgia is a small country and it's army only has 4 brigades.

More likely the US will integrate Ukraine into NATO and help modernize its airforce.

 

You don't have to tell me about it, but I am sure glad you are telling other's here who do not realize. You guys truly were screwed, and I cannot fault you for any type of animosity, language or distaste for mutha Russia. I've heard stories, and have been witness to some pretty heated discussions on the subject. And those that lived through that have every right to be free, and even more right to be worried about it happening again.

Russia shit on everything it ever touched, and I see no signs of it stopping this behavior without others stopping them first.

 

Poor guy, and soooo ignorant..... and full of hatred. Go see a doctor man, or get your pills and get a life.

 

Someone's a bit defensive today. That your you have a case of a Mundays!

 

Russia has just recently become a grain exporter which is a good thing.

But I'm wondering why they couldn't feed themselves for hundreds of years and relied on occupation of Ukraine to feed themselves.

I believe that 10% of the Ukrainian population was starved to death during the 1930's during the Russian Occupation.

 

Because under Communism, everything is run by the state. So along with production of food, the distribution of it as well is run by the state. This gives them the control they need to control the distribution of the food supply.

They had a Food Commissariat for this specific task. Their job? To be the sole producer and distributor of food and to take what they need to meet the demands as they saw fit.

They broke up their people into 4 groups. Manual Workers in dangerous trades, the physical laborers, light tasked workers, and then housewives and professionals. The food was then distributed at a 4:3:2:1 ration. Though the manual class was the preferred group, they got little food. Most of those in the professional class just flat out starved to death.

It is this controlled distribution of food by classes by the Food Commissariat that is credited with creating a surplus of grain. Even any surplus that the ones growing the grain had had to be handed over.

In short, Communism created a surplus supply by simply starving out the demand and letting those they could not feed die.

I'd not be surprised if they were onto the same formula once again.

 

During communism in Russia, farmers were given a small plot of land where they could grow vegetables. The small farmers plots actually started producing most of the fresh vegetables in Russia even though the plots were no bigger than your driveway.

Communism was adapted from Russian Imperialism. That's why a nationalistic Russia is no different than a communistic Russia when he comes to stomping all over their neighbors.

 

what the fucking Russian Occupation are you saying about?
That was time of Stalin, Soviet Union Communist Dictator. He killed miliones of people, Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian and others. And he wasn't a Russian, he was a Georgian.