Recently the Russian Federation, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has been using military provocation in the maner of the Soveit Union by sending bomber flights against NATO airspace. According to Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the USA has been using Cold War tactics against Russia ever since the end of the Cold War and this sentiment has been echoed as justification by several prominent members of the Russian government in recent weeks. These also point to the ongoing creation of a US missile shield which extends deep into Eastern European territory as a cause for serious Russian concern.

Questions to ponder upon:

Is the Russian Federation justified in resuming Soviet style provocation flights?

Has the USA, or NATO provoked the Russians into this course of confrontation?

What are the long term ramifications of a 'colder relationship' between Russia and the west. Will we see a return to the bad old days or is Russia revealing its impotence?

In recent weeks Russia has also engaged in military excersizes with China. Do these illustrate a growing, unified oppostion to US global hegemony?

Not really imo. The Mikhail Gorbachev interview was discussing Iraq and we all know Russia had commercial interests there, as did France that kept them from dealing with Iraq’s failure to comply with UN Resolutions for 11 years.



NO. We feel the need for a missile shield for use against a rouge country with a few missiles. The NATO countries are happy to be protected as well and I see no issue with it since Russia knows full well it would be nearly useless against a massive missile attack from Russia.



I doubt it. They will remain a rival to some extent – especially in the commercial area as they try to regain a “superpower” status close to that of the US. I see no reason for any military conflict in any of this. They have lots of oil and will use the revenues to rebuild their military.


They may consider their alliance as a natural counterbalance to the US but I see no strong threat and they are different enough culturally so that they will imo never be “close”. China is destined to be, at some point, the biggest market in the world just based on population.