Fast forward thirty years and the President of Russia in dealing with USA has zero economic power, zero military power and yet is winning the ideological battle because his best asset for defeating the USA is the President of The USA.
Slowly but almost surely Putin is becoming the President of a reconstituted Soviet Union.
Putin has lots of oil and mineral wealth.
Leverage over Europe, dependent on Russian natural gas.
A strong enough military to save Assad in Syria and steal the Crimea from Ukraine. Not to mention taking over the Eastern edge of Ukraine, securing chunks of Georgia and Moldova, while keeping their foot on the throats of Chechnya and Dagestan.
While maintaining a menace towards the Baltics.
And not as the Soviet Union. Russia very unlikely to incorporate all those -stans and former republics again. Or to have satellites in Eastern Europe. Maybe Belarus would join Russia for old times sake. Putin is powerful and dangerous, but it's Russia +, not nearly the old Soviet Union +.
Oh ffs!
I was just fucking with Red, not writing a white paper!
Red rhetorically asked who is the president of the Soviet Union. OK so it’s “Russia plus”
Sheesh!
Meanwhile Russia was getting the crap kicked out of her through sanctions after 2014 hence they handpicked the new POTUS.
While they have leverage over Europe in terms of energy they’re doing more damage to the continent by sponsoring and spreading white nationalist ideology. But I wasn’t talking about Europe...
in dealing with USA has zero economic power, zero military power and yet is winning the ideological battle because his best asset for defeating the USA is the President of The USA.
Yeah, he can back up Assad and fuck up shit in spots around the world, however in a head to head with the USA they are totally outmatched militarily (witness the fierce fire fight in Syria between US forces that resulted in 400 Russian mercs killed) and unless they’re lying they won’t be able to replace their naval flagship (air craft carrier Admiral Kutsenetsov) with a nuclear powered aircraft carrier until the next decade.and meanwhile the Kutsenetsov was in dry dock when the dry dock sank massive,y fucking up the already fucked ship. Projecting their military power is problematic once they’re off continent.
They have a fairly formidable economy about the size of Texas but it’s almost totally dependent on fossil fuel... so they’re vulnerable to market fluctuations:
Asked about why, despite his overwhelming victory in the latest elections and the virtual non-existence of opposition, economic plans have struggled to take off, Putin said, “It’s not a question of the percentage of votes in the elections, but of the economic reality that Russia has to deal with, such as falls or fluctuations in international prices for our traditional export goods, from oil and gas to metals.”
The Russian president added, “Nor should we forget the influence of external restrictions,” most likely referring to U.S. and European sanctions that followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. However, Putin also said Russia was ready to work on improving bilateral relations with the United States, but added that the ball was now in the U.S. court.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Putin-Oil-Price-Volatility-Is-Hurting-Russias-Economy.htmlBut once again they're in better position because they hand picked the POTUS and probably why the GOP donor base is trying its best to kill renewable, sustainable energy,
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