I wasn’t arguing with you.
I think @anna_5588 is on-the-mark here.
It depends on what you mean by “superpower”. IMO that means global conventional force projection, among other things.
Can they affect nuclear annihilation? Yes.
Do they have a robust blue water navy? No.
Do they have a high GDP? No.
I’d say Russia falls under the old “Great Power” definition, but that’s even more of a stretch lately.
China is knocking on the door of the superpower club, but lacks the blue water naval power. Don’t be fooled by ship count. The tonnage is not even close and the capabilities are galaxies apart.
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Well, that’s the problem. The main thing they have is a big nuclear stick - the quality of their conventional troops will be ascertained in the next hours and days - and lack the financial capability to play geopolitical games with other methods.
Xi can freely hand out loans until he bankrupts your country and takes over everything as collateral (cough Sri Lanka cough cough), but the Russians cannot do that, they can only coerce by force.
None whatsoever. I fucking loved one of the clips showing how the riot police arrested a food delivery guy on a bike just passing by - old school Stalinism, punishment has to be random, unjustified and undeserved.
A military superpower. Theyve never been more than that.
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Not exactly. In the 1960ies, the USSR was around 20% of the global GDP, falling to below 10% by it’s dissolution in 1991. Now Russia is below 2% on par with Spain or Italy and below South Korea.
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They are not a military superpower. Only nuclear.
They have some good weapons systems but their air forces are a generation behind the west’s. Aside from nukes, and modernization programs on things like T-72 tanks that are older than I am, they’re still running Soviet-era equipment, not unlike…
The Iraqi army in 1991.
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If their hyper sonic missile system is (big if) as good as they say, it is a game changer. And potentially why Putin has gone now.
In theory:
Hyper sonic weapons are undetectable by radar. Defy conventional counter measures even if detected. And are accurate enough to slam an aircraft carrier.
If they are as good as the Russians say then the ability of a nation to project power with an aircraft carrier just diminished.
In “my” real world, that is the definition of power.
When I see the world (have the balls to) mount a coalition of forces to stop a Russian invasion of insert country here, I will agree with you.
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Perhaps, but that capability has yet to be demonstrated. The aircraft carrier is the only airfield in the world that moves at 30 plus knots.
Perhaps the new generation of anti-ship missiles will be the same sort of revolution in military affairs that ushered out the battleships and prioritized carriers. You’ll know when it happens.
Russia is definitely more capable than the Iraqi’s in 1991, but that doesn’t really close the gap on conventional capabilities. It’s still massive, just like it was compared to Iraq’s. The Ukrainian steppe shares a lot of characteristics with a desert theater of war, terrain-wise.
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Hey!
I remember you expressing a real affinity for some of Russias leaders.
Any new or different thoughts now that we see their cultural legacy play out in real time?
Still a big fan?
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The whole national identity of Putin’s Russia is formed around WW2.
Kids in elementary school learn the text of the first Soviet news bulletin informing listeners that Nazi Germany invaded (ironically it starts with “Kyiv bombed at 4am”). Now they’re the Germans, despite claiming to want to de-nazify Ukraine.
In addition, Putin’s insane plans foresee the harvesting of Ukrainian human capital (white orthodox brothers led astray) to counter the Chinese pressure on Siberia and the assertive Caucasian Muslims in southern Russia.
And the problem is that he has no fucking idea who the Ukrainians are. From what I could gleam from his public speeches he’s wedded to the old Tsarist (and later KGBs) belief that they’re mostly shifty, semi retarded peasants who bow to authority when given the occasional educational kick in the backside.
And well, the times have changes and I think he’s angry and flustered that the peasants are resisting instead of folding.
Isnt that kind of how a majority of russians view the ukrainians and have historically?
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Shifty, semi-retarded peasants is basically how Ukraine’s neighbors the Poles were viewed in the United States when my grandparents arrived, with these sentiments extending even into my childhood. Reagan even made a Polack joke.
I was the brunt of several Polack jokes about putting screen doors on our submarines around the same time as Reagan’s crack when I was in elementary school. I feel like I should get some taxpayer money for this.
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And he was never heard from again.
That doesn’t accurately describe any Ukrainians I’ve met, granted that is a very low number.
He’s an open book. He’ll be fine.
Seems the GOP is pretty split. Tucker the overgrown fratboy is fawning all over Putin and blaming the USA, while Marco Rubio and other more establishment GOP are bagging on Putin and his invasion.
I wonder when Joe Rogan will weigh in?
My grandparents came over from poland in the early 20th. From what i was told the polish kids had a tougher time learning english when compared to the other immigrant kids and thats what started the polack thing.
Maybe its just hollywood portrayal and loose history but i always thought the russian people never really accepted the ukrainians as anything more than traitors and dolts.