1. Statistics is given in thousand people. http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/progn1.htm 2. Noone tells that Russia is the world leader#1. Of course it cannot compete with China's efficiency and western innovations. But it doesn't mean that Russia's economy is the weakest in the world. If the demand for raw materials and energ resources drops to zero it would mean not only the end of Russian economy but an already dead western economy! 3. I agree that the military might of USSR was much greater. USSR could afford military bases in almost every continent. Russia doesn't even aim at that. Few bases in Latin America, restoration of vietnamese base, security of syrian base renovation of Vladivostok weaponry and agreements with the bases in former republics of USSR in the east and maybe a complete project of security of northeren ocean is the only thing that Russia can support. I don't argue that this result is not to be matched with the USA. But how would you estimate EU and China then?! Do they deserve a name of 'regional power'? As for quality of machinery the market shows that russian machinery (not soviet) is still of demand in the world market. It is highly dteremined politically of course but russian machinery is quite competitive with american and european weaponry in such open countries as India for instance. PS.Sorry for my mistake. with the spelling I type russian much better than in english. And I am not familiar with proper names. So, it should probably be 'montreux convention'. The Monroe doctrine is smth completely different that doesn't refer only to a black sea. The mistake was really funny.
You are forgetting Hitlers march into the Rhineland, followed by the annexation of Austria, followed by the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Munich agreement and peace in out time. Hitler could have been stopped before Poland and WWII with relatively little loss of life but the democracies clung to the policy of appeasement instead.
That's drudge hysterics. What the west needs to do is completely shun Putin economically and politically. It will be economically tough for us as well, but much cheaper than a hot war. Ukraine will be another Afghanistan for the commies and Putin's delusions of grandeur will sink in the quagmire. Of course, we will also do our CIA best to help the Ukrainians, making life even harder for the Slavic thug.
Obama can't even organize a credible non military response. His empty threats so far have been an international joke.
That's exactly the right approach which is leading to such topics as the current one. A perfect opinion! Thanks.
I am forgetting nothing. The chances of getting anybody to support attacking Germany because it let its own troops march into its own territory were pretty much nil. As for Austria, it's difficult to protect countries against themselves. As for the Sudeten crisis, Hitler was actually very angry about being deprived of the war he sought at that point. But all of this is besides the point. And all comparisons of Putin to Hitler are simply ridiculous and in very bad taste.
Try looking at international population projections for 2050. Admittedly, those projections are always off, but the trend is pretty much assured. I never said Russia's economy is the weakest in the world (that of the Ukraine for example is much worse). It's the relative development that is the problem. Relative to other major economies in the world Russia is rapidly loosing ground and it has turned into an alomst purely extractive economy. And that's a shame because Russia does have the necessary engineering and other skills. But there is very little future-oriented industrial entrepreneurship in Russia at the moment. The EU is not a military power at all. Some EU-member countries (UK, France, Germany) have military forces that are high quality and are capable of serious operations. Others have high quality military but of a very small size. But overall the European military forces can play only a fairly limited role. The UK can obviously defeat Argentina if it decided to be foolish again and France is capable of intervening militarily in Africa. But one can't really call these major military powers. They are military powers, but of limited scope. As for China, that is already a major regional military power but it is still far from a global military power. Over time, however, China is clearly the greatest threat to Russia. The fact that Russia sells a lot of weapons is because they are relatively cheap and Russia will sell them to just about anybody who wants them (contrary to the US which refuses exports of its most advanced weapons systems) and limits even all other military sales to certain countries.
Stopping Hitler at the Rhineland would have been much cheaper than fighting WWII. Austria never voted to join Germany. And the German high command was ready to depose Hitler for his recklessness as soon as the democracies stood up for the Czechs. But the Brits and the French wimped out and after that there was no stopping Hitler. He could have been stopped without having to fight WWII.
Waging a preventive war against Germany in 1936 was not on the cards. No Western leader would have survived 1 day in office but would have been voted out immediately. The Austrians did vote (very overwhelmingly) in a referendum to join Germany. Only a handful of conspirators in the German high command would have tried to stage a coup during the Sudeten crisis and their chances of success were pretty much nill.
Germany annexed Austria BEFORE the referendum was held. And the vote was 97% for and .002% opposed. So for all practical purposes there was no vote. And you keep giving me excuses why the western nations were so spineless. I understand that then as now everyone was seeking the easy way out of a bad situation. But in fact the bad situation just keep getting worse thanks to the shortsightedness of the western allies.
Yeah, just like people thought there would never be another world war after the horrors of 1914-1918. Look, if Putin decides that after he has waltzed through the rest of Ukraine with ease-which is a very real possibility-what's to stop him furthering his ambitions and attempting to re-claim former Eastern Bloc nations? If he attempts that and NATO gets involved there will be all-out war. Guaranteed.
The referendum had been called by the previous Austrian government before it was deposed. And if you knew anything about history you would know that no serious historian would dispute that there was overwhelming support in Austria for joing Germany in 1938. I am not coming up with excuses. But to me reality and facts are more important than phantasies. And again you are wrong: Britain used the period of appeasement to build up its military in a way that was crucial for the conduct of the war in 1939-40.
Which is why there is ZERO chance that Russia will attack or even threaten any NATO country. So the chances for WWIII arising out of this are also ZERO.
Russia may not be a global threat but in Europe it may be a very real one. Her military strength is significant: http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=russia
No one is going to launch nukes over the crisis in the Ukraine. The Ukranian crisis is tense and complex with us, the EU, and Russia involved, but no one is going to shart a shooting war. This is, after all, a proxy war that was very common during the Cold War era.
Russia is a major regional power in Eurasia, which is why it is right now - legitimately - defending its security interests in Ukraine. This need not be a threat to anyone else.
If the support was so certain Hitler would not have needed to invade Austria and conduct the vote at the point of a gun. He might have won anyway but he was not entirely sure and wasn't taking any chances. As for Britain needing time, if they had stood up to Hitler sooner there would have been no world war in 1939.
I am? It's historical fact that the German high command was just waiting for an excuse to overthrow Hitler. But the allies were not willing to resist when they could have stopped Hitler without a major war.
"Security interests"? Nonsense; it's all about attempts at re-establishing the former Soviet. As for 'threat' that all depends how Russia's actions are perceived in the West, and 'security interests' is not how Russia's bellicose stance is presently perceived-particularly in view of the 40,000 Russian troops currently poised on Ukraine's borders. Furthermore if Putin did decide to take a vacation trip into Eastern Europe or more likely the Baltic states, it would present a very serious problem as regards military strength. His active troop numbers are more or less on a par with the combined forces of Great Britain, France and Germany but his greatest strength lies in materiel. Russia has around 15,000 tanks. GB, France and Germany have some 1,200 combined. Putin also has an extremely capable air force to contend with.
France, also, was militarily far superior in capability than the Germans were at the time but chose, instead, to revert to the idiotic notion that static defense in the form of the Maginot Line would suffice. France could have stopped Hitler in his tracks with a mobile strategy. Instead Hitler simply went around the Maginot Line to the North, outflanking it.
While the rest of the world might not care about the Ukraine, every country cares about its own interests, and if they see one country getting away with appeasement, they might well try to grab something they want. The simple truth is that there are too many countries out there that might well see this as a good time to make their own moves, and that could trigger a global conflict.
I tried already. The problem is that the information is identical, because statistics of UN is just the same. Here the loss of population during the last five years makes 0.1% Out of 140 mln it is 140 thousand people. 300 thousand per decade, which in thirty years (if the trend stays the same) wouldn't reach a million... From this viewpoint it is even more optimistic than the most pessimistic of russian estimations. Wikipedia tells the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia It is giving a trend of 0.28% growth. Plus. Not minus. So the question is still the same. Where the hell have you taken the information that extinction is threatning Russia? I assume this is something that you heard from your propaganda, which you trusted without checking... This would be a good and sincere answer. If you dare of course. Not so fast. As I said before Russian economy was growing in the times that are known as "world economic crisis" or "great recession" or "lesser depression". And this period lead to unemployment and economical losses of developed countries. This crisis is still actual for lots of countries that haven't still recovered being a part of EU... Am I getting you right that economic growth of Russia comparing to recession in EU made Russia weaker not at an absolute figures but in comparison with the others? Am I getting it right that while one side is gaining and the other is losing the ones who are losing are gaining more?! Why? The relations between China and Russia are getting stronger and stronger. China doesn't have a high quality military. But they have a strong economy. Russian military is much stronger than the their economy. Of course west would benefit from a possible conflict between Russia and China but so far there is not a single sign of any hostility between us. Chinese population is stable. Like Russian. THey haven't overgrown their territory and still have much to do to improve it to contemporary or even future standards of living. Both countries are gaining from mutual cooperation and respect each other. China is not making any hostile measures in former soviet republics of Asia. Although they could. At least they could finance one of the revolts in Kirgizia like the US did... Russia wouldn't invade a country that has friendly relations with it and is going to become an economic power #1 in the world. Besides Russia wouldn't gain anything from this. China would of course bargain for russian resources, especially energy resources. And they are tough bargainers. But the attempt to seize russian resources in a war doesn't make sense for China as well. If they can get an alliance with an ideologically close country to it then why would they risk to lose everything? So the main threat to Russia remains NATO, an aggressive alliance of pirate states who are invading different countries for resources, who are refusing of dissolvation of this pirate alliance in favor of cooperation with Russia and China or the UN and which bases are surrownding Russia threatening with radar and antimissiles the possibility of russian nuclear counterstrike. I think that it is worth of arming against this alliance and continue to aim the biggest cities of NATO members and their military bases just the way russian nuclear rockets are aimed at them for the moment. Russia is not selling the most advanced war technics. All the export versions have limited abilities comparing to russian army. And even this is enough to win the competition with american products. Its a regular practice. Noone will sell the weapon which will be used against himself. (with an exclusion of US and Al Kayeda). But still Russia is not buying older systems of US boasting that its military is stronger. It has its own military industry which is competitive. I am not telling that russians will come to NYC tomorrow and US navy seals will be blown off by the sneezing of russian medical nurses. This 'puf-puf' talk seems not adult like. But for sure Russia for the moment is atough nut to crack for NATO with or even without nuclear arms.
Not going to happen anytime soon . A big and growing chunk of the population is not buying the nationalist BS and those willing to shed their blood for the benefit of plutocrats is diminishing. Politically eastern Europe is a swamp with waters stalled for 70 years so naturally the tabula rasas will explore all possibilities including stupid ones.
The only one like that I can think of that could ever even half a tiny chance of happening and causing (*)(*)(*)(*) to really hit the fan would be China invading Taiwan... But there is almost zero chance of that happening. If China didn't even have the balls to do it under Mao, they don't have the balls to do it now.
