radon1 wrote:Another misleading trollish headline and thread.
I CHALLENGE THE INITIATOR OF THIS THREAD TO LINK THE DIRECT QUOTE WHERE PUTIN SAYS "RUSSIAN MILITARY IS UNMATCHABLE", AND IN CASE OF FAILURE TO DO SO, I DEMAND THAT THIS THREAD BE REMOVED FROM THE PUBLIC VIEW (OR KINDLY REQUEST SUCH REMOVAL FROM THE MODERATORS).
That's the yahoo / reuters headline, not mine:
Putin says Russia's military strength unmatchable: Interfax
Here is RT's article on it:
Putin: No external pressure on Russia will go unchallenged
Russia will always find an adequate response to any pressure coming from the outside, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a gala-show ahead of the upcoming Defender of the Fatherland Day, which honors those who served in the armed forces.
“Nobody should have any illusions that it’s possible to achieve military superiority over Russia – or put it under some sort of pressure – as we’ll always have an adequate response to such reckless schemes,” Putin told the audience.
The President said that Russian “soldiers and officers have proven that they are ready to act decisively, coherently, professionally and courageously, performing the most difficult unconventional tasks, as befits a modern, experienced, combat-ready army, which values its traditions and military duty.”
Defender of the Fatherland Day is an annual holiday in Russia celebrated on February 23. The holiday honors those who serve or have served in the military. It is also often referred to as Men’s Day (though the Russian military do not exclusively consist of men) to act as a counterpart to International Women's Day on March 8.
According to Putin, a lot has been done in the country in recent years to improve the effectiveness of the military administration.
“A large-scale program of rearming the Army and Navy is being successfully implemented, which includes an active development of the aerospace and nuclear forces. This is the guaranty of global parity,” the president said, adding that he will do everything in his power for the military’s potential to keep growing.
http://rt.com/politics/234243-putin-ww2-military-pressure/
Here is the quote from Putin:
This is the guaranty of global parity,” the president said, adding that he will do everything in his power for the military’s potential to keep growing.
Maybe the Reuters headline is unfair, but the gist remains the same.
It's a cold war man, it's not my fault and not yours. There was a Russian spy ship off Jacksonville. There were Russian bombers probing Cornwall. Yet somehow, Westerners are the bad guys.
If Russian forces keep pushing into new areas, in Europe, then I'm sorry but that may in fact lead to war. That shall be PUTIN's fault if that ever happens. You can see from the Westerners on this forum that obviously people don't want a darn war with Russia.
Putin is challenging the global order. We'll see how it shakes out. I for one feel confident he won't take it nuclear. What more can I say, it is what it is. If he can't keep things peaceful with Westerners then it's seriously HIS fault. We're frickin' democracies. Half of us are anti-war lefties. And our far right are libertarians and isolationist.
Maybe what Russia needs is to get about 50% of their population being anti-war and liberal, and become a democracy where it's not so easy to start wars, maybe THAT is what the problem is, ya think?
EDIT: if a mod wants to correct the thread title then okay, I just put in what the reuters headline was
Putin says Russia's military strength unmatchable: Interfax
I guess "unmatchable" is a shorter headline for:
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday other countries should not have the illusion that they can attain military superiority over Russia, Interfax reported.
So I don't think Reuters made something up.
And what are we arguing about, YES Russia is doing a military builduip, YES Russian forces fight in Ukraine.
YES that Russian foreign ministry sent a guy over to the Baltics at one point to give a speech to Russian minority there. That smelled a little like some hybrid war stoking. I don't have that article handy, but I made a thread of it at the time, there's some kind of "interests of Russians abroad" department that Moscow has. When they say Russians abroad, they mean ethnic Russian citizens of other nations.
What the hell are we arguing about at this point, we all know full well both sides of both issues and there is no infowar about it -- it's only a matter of how far Putin goes, and how much the West stands up. We'll see what happens.
I would just say that the kremlin should not be under any illusion that the West is weak. That's a mistake. The USA is reactionary. If Russia presents itself as a threat, then we will just re-orient to cold war.