A Bit of Disturbing News

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

Taken from an article in my newspaper

President Dmitry Medvedev made his debut as the commander in chief of Russia's armed forces Thursday, touring a missile base and promising to provide the funding needed for nuclear forces to counter global threats. Medvedev inspected Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles and spoke to officers at the base near Teikovo, a town in the Ivanovo region some 150 miles northeast of Moscow.

"I'm impressed by both the weapons and the level of training," Medvedev said after inspecting the missiles, which are concealed by the military in a dense pine forest. "It's good that the military is getting new missiles like the Topol-M."

Missiles from the base were displayed in the May 9 Victory Day parade, when Russia showcased its combat vehicles and other military hardware on Red Square in Moscow for the first time since the Soviet collapse.

Medvedev said that he "felt a drive" when he watched the missiles and other weapons rolling across the square. He promised that such parades will continue and may even be expanded.

"Our task for the next few years is to make sure that the Strategic Missile Forces receive the necessary funding to respond to modern threats and the current situation on the planet," Medvedev said in televised remarks during a meeting with servicemen. "Certain progress has been made recently, and we mustn't lose the tempo."

He also promised to raise officers' salaries.

Medvedev, who was sworn in on May 7, has cast himself as a liberal and avoided the harsh anti-Western rhetoric of his predecessor and mentor, Vladimir Putin.

Most observers, however, expect Medvedev to continue the policies of Putin, who has taken an increasingly assertive posture on the international scene and vowed to strengthen the military.

Putin, now the prime minister, fiercely opposes a U.S. plan to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as NATO plans to grant membership to Ukraine and Georgia. Putin has threatened to point nuclear missiles at countries that take part in the U.S. missile defense shield, and he opted out of a key Soviet-era arms control treaty.

Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away. They are deployed in both silo-based and truck-mounted versions.

"It's a new step in missile design," Strategic Missile Forces chief, Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, said in describing the Topol-M to Medvedev.

Putin and other officials have boasted about the Topol-M's ability to penetrate any missile defense.

Its designer, Yuri Solomonov, has said the missile drops its engines at a significantly lower altitude than earlier designs, making it hard for an enemy's early warning system to detect a launch. Solomonov also has said the missiles' warhead and decoys closely resemble one another in flight.

Windfall oil revenues have allowed the Kremlin to buy weapons and fund the development of new missiles. The deployment of Topol-Ms, however, has proceeded slowly, and Soviet-built ballistic missiles have remained the backbone of the nation's nuclear forces.

While the government put cash into modernizing ground-based missiles, the naval component of Russia's nuclear forces has deteriorated. Soviet-built nuclear submarines frequently need repairs and rarely leave their bases. The first in a series of new nuclear submarines is to be commissioned this year, but the nuclear-armed missile developed for it has failed tests.
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To me. this all sounds like the cold war all over again, which has me worried.

What do you guys think about it?

[Zurke]

Will nuclear weapons ever go away? IMO, fat chance.

Will there always be somebody in some sort of arms race? IMO, yes.

Do the 'people' of any country really have control over world politics? IMO, No.

What is left is living with it. Or one can believe that they can some how change the above. IMO, Best of luck I will continue modding.

[FLESH]

Meh it's all politics. Putin is a harsh and cruel man but he knows how to lead his country. Now that he is PM most of the power will be relocated unto that title, as previously he was president and that title had the power. They wont start a war.

[Kodama]

Sounds like Russia is wasting more money then it has, it's their problem and I don't expect it to become my problem.

[Gyssar]

Originally posted by Kodama
Sounds like Russia is wasting more money then it has, it's their problem and I don't expect it to become my problem.

Not true, we've got a proficient budget :chaos:

But anyway, Russia (or the USSR for that matter) can hardly be called an agressor. How do you think any country would react if a nuke shield was deployed several hundred miles off it's border. I really don't think that Medvedev, or even Putin would push the hypothetical "button". Or even establish a new iron curtain. There would be too many complications. Russia is now home to hundreds of international corporate monsters. And it's got a lot less allies than back in 1945 after WW2. "Iron Curtain mk2" is posotively out of the question. At least in the next 30 years or so.

An arms race - now that's a totally different question. But that's just politics. And trillions of dollars turnover and several hundreds of thousands of jobs. Nothing more, nothing less IMHO.

[MarcusAurelio]

with Russia just around the corner , it's somewhat unrelaxing living in Estonia...

[FLESH]

I agree with you Gyssar, the men in power in russia are not idiots.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Originally posted by Gyssar

Originally posted by Kodama
Sounds like Russia is wasting more money then it has, it's their problem and I don't expect it to become my problem.

Not true, we've got a proficient budget :chaos:

But anyway, Russia (or the USSR for that matter) can hardly be called an agressor. How do you think any country would react if a nuke shield was deployed several hundred miles off it's border. I really don't think that Medvedev, or even Putin would push the hypothetical "button". Or even establish a new iron curtain. There would be too many complications. Russia is now home to hundreds of international corporate monsters. And it's got a lot less allies than back in 1945 after WW2. "Iron Curtain mk2" is posotively out of the question. At least in the next 30 years or so.

An arms race - now that's a totally different question. But that's just politics. And trillions of dollars turnover and several hundreds of thousands of jobs. Nothing more, nothing less IMHO.

Yea, threatening to point nuclear missiles in the direction of countrys that ally with the U.S. isn't threatening at all, it's sort of like saying 'Hey, come over here and let me give you a hug!'.

[Lady Nerevar]

aw comon people, take a look at what the US is/has been doing :no:

yes, russians got da bomb, but us gots 30 times more of da bomb and is a whole lot more willing to use it

[Siegfried]

Originally posted by Lady Nerevar
aw comon people, take a look at what the US is/has been doing :no:

yes, russians got da bomb, but us gots 30 times more of da bomb and is a whole lot more willing to use it

The biggest problem with Russia having the bomb isn't so much them pointing it at us, as it is them helping Iran build nuclear reactors, even if it is for "energy" purposes (because the one of the world's biggest oil producers needs more fuel... did I mention there leader says he wants to wipe Israel off the map).