Russia Said Planning Nuclear Exercise

Looks as if Russia wants to show that its still a force in the world. However does anyone else find this statement absolutely absurd?



Is Russia trying to send a message to the United States? Or is this just a normal test?

What do you think Russia's intentions are? Is this a move meant to intimidate?

Do you buy that this is meant to fend off terrorist threats?

I wish engineer kimov was here to explain some of the russian mentality behind this. (Edited to remove inflammatory comment)

MY take on it however, is this is both some political maneuvering, plus gathering some scientific data. One area that has brought some very badly needed cash into the country is thier technologies, some of it moral and above board, some of it the black market (see the night vision goggles in Iraq). They have been speculating allot in thier newspapers about nuclear powered space ships, and this might be a way to kill two birds with one stone- both to make a political statement and to further some of thier scientific theories.

Also, many poeple don't know how many of the Russian poeple advocated total nuclear war with the US over the Serbia/Kosovo thing- there were MAJOR demonstrations calling for war with the US over this- you just never heard about it our <ahem> "liberal media" LOL

There are still some hard feelings over this and Iraq now in Russia, and a great many generals and population in general feel that beefing up thier nuclear arsenal will stop, and I quote, "US imperialism".

As for terrorist threats, that is kind of silly, except to build up the very bad morale of the Russian troops perhaps.

I think this has a bit to do with Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia joining the NATO alliance this year. We are therefore required to make plans and prepare a defense for those countries. I expect we have probably already sent some troops and weaponry in that direction, right up next to Russia. This looks agressive to the Russians, and was a very bad move on our part.

Hmmm- well, I feel you are right and wrong on this one- Russians don't feel very threatened by Europe, and didn't feel very threatened by us until recently ( I wonder why ) , and there was some speculation by Russians prior to Iraq that due to 9/11 they would get some help in the Chechnyan war themselves, perhaps the US would feel some sympathy towards what, to them, is nearly the same problem.

Lithuania has a Russian majority population though (or near 50/50 split if I recall, I hope I have the right balkan state here) and there is some serious discrimination going on there now.

To reiterate, I never heard much bad about Europe in Russia, and the only bad thing you heard in political conversations was about GW- in fact, they were fans of Bush the 1rst. I think that much of the world is now has the feeling, right or wrong, that the US has entered a empire/expansion phase, and feel everyone needs to arm themselves to the hilt against this.

I don't think we need be too concerned about it, unless the excercise turns into a Three Stooges scenario. Its as much about the Russians assuring themselves that their much neglected military can still defend Mother Russia as it is about reminding everybody else that they still have a nuclear arsenal capable of wiping any other country (except maybe the US) off the face of the Earth. (That, btw, is not a "maybe" I would bet the survival of the US on!)

A Three Stooges scenario would be bad, because it would humiliate the Russians in front of the rest of the world. They're not nearly as sanguine about such things as the French (and their fine new aircraft carrier!)

Yep, it's absurd to see this exercise in total mutual destruction as an exercise against terrorism.

It is terrorism. I'm terrified that a few ICBMs just accidentally carry nuke warheads and go off over Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD), just a few miles from here. But then, that solves a boatload of personal problems. We've always felt that ground zero is the place to be. Get it over with quickly.

I'm hoping that it is just as the article speculates: a political ploy to ensure Putin's reelection. The terrorism spin should be familiar to us. Lots of non-sequiturs have been rationalized as supporting the war on terror. Maybe the terrorism spin is Russian humor?

This whole thing would make a great Tom Clancy novel.

Military exercises are carried out all the time, I wouldn't give it a second thought. We're talking about a nation with antiquated tanks, submarines, airplanes, and other equipment. I would be more concerned about them losing a nuclear submarine at sea, rather than worry about them trying to pick a fight. The exercise will be a success if every ship makes it back to port. Their economy is in the dumps, and they are shell of the shell of their former selves.

They are not as antiquated as you think- the deal is- the new stuff is being massed produced for thier military, but rather, for sale, which is even scarier. They have an enormous pool of very talented scientists in that country, and even more of them focused on the military/space programs, because that is where success is in Russia for engineers, because there is no huge group of private corps competing for the brains in thier country. We should be very careful with that country still, and not just write them off- especially since there is a "new sherrif in town" there right now. The Oligarchs that allowed the "wall" to fall over there have been arrested and thier power removed, and the FSB (the old KGB) is back in charge again- they are trying to use the capital influx in thier country to regain some of thier old powers.

But the terrorist angle is the same thing as GW is pulling here IMO- just a diversion from thier own power grabs.

And thier "economy" being in the dumps is not quite true- there are regions that are powerhouses of industry right now- my wife's region of Tartarstan is doing VERY well- of course, it is not up to western standards, but outside of the VERY poor regions, there are some real success stories happening too- I think they are over-cultivating the "poor" thing on purpose for the exress purpose of further "help" from the western world, and more foreign capital influx. There is money to be made in Russia if you have the connections!