Putin explicitly says nukes are not necessary to fight ISIS

[Iroscato]

1. People who wish death on other people because they don't like what they say are scum.

Point out precisely where I did that, please.

2. Go fuck yourself.

If you insist.

3. I won't address the comparisons to certain other board members only because I don't wish to drag up shit from past threads and be accused of violating the vendetta rule.

My advice would be to simmer down lest you make those comparisons increasingly valid.

[The Romulan Republic]

You said you were cheering for me to have a heart attack, which I quoted. However, I went back and reread your post, and because you specified a mini heart attack, I suppose you're technically correct that you weren't wishing death on me. So my apologies.

Anyway, I've already conceded that my main conclusions in this thread were in error, and unless further criticisms are directed at me personally (as opposed to my argument, which I have already conceded) which I feel obligated to defend myself against, this will be my final post on the subject.

[Iroscato]

Your reading comprehension is quite shit, TRR. I said "Cheers for THE mini-heart attack". Meaning you gave ME one with that subject line. At worst, I'm guilty of hyperbole. I do not wish death on people, ever.

Really, all you've done is reinforce my conclusion that you need to actually pay attention to what you read.

Edit: For what it's worth, my original post was a bit knee-jerk. I'm sorry if I came across as overly harsh.

[The Romulan Republic]

Apologies then for the misunderstanding.

I will accept that when I am emotionally invested in a topic, I sometimes jump to conclusions and therefore misinterpret what I read. This is an unfortunately common flaw, but that is no excuse. I will try to do better to avoid this in the future.

[K. A. Pital]

Reading what people say - as opposed to what others say they said helps a great deal, TRR.

[jwl]

Who changed the title? Usually I dislike people changing the titles of articles to fit their own opinion (which is why I generally avoid doing it at all), but I do have to say, this ttle change made me laugh.

Romulan Republic, Russia has been absent from the world stage for some time, since the collapse of the USSR in fact.

What you have read is a document advertising the fact that the Russians have pulled themselves up far enough to start acting like a great power again.

That is all that Putin meant by this, along with some minor saber rattling. Stop assuming that your ideological foes are wildly insane, and you will be able to make sane predictons about what they will do.

In addition, it will prevent you from dropping dead of a heart attack before age 25. For your own physical safety, please stop and think before you bring yourself up to full froth.

I don't think Russia ever stopped being a powerful military power, they just stopped being a powerful economic power, and they are still a fairly weak in that regard now.

[K. A. Pital]

I changed the title, explaining the reason for this change on page 1 of this thread and providing the quote in greater context (as if it was not clear anyway). You are welcome.

[Channel72]

I don't think Russia ever stopped being a powerful military power, they just stopped being a powerful economic power, and they are still a fairly weak in that regard now.

Yeah, people often forget that Russia's economy is pretty small, relatively speaking. Surprisingly, Italy and Brazil actually have larger economies than Russia. Even during the USSR, the Russian economy was always much smaller than the US economy, with a GDP which was usually like half the size of the US, even during the height of the USSR. But the Russian military was much closer to the US military in terms of deployment capability and power projection throughout the 70s and 80s than it was after 1991, obviously. It seems as if in recent years the Russian military has made steps towards resuming its status as an equal to the US. Still, it's not really anywhere close to that in terms of naval power - they have a single aircraft carrier (as opposed to something like 11 or 12 which the US has), as well as a smaller air force, and a lot of older equipment. And of course, the US military budget is much larger. However, Russia is obviously catching up quickly.

I would guess that, looking back at the events of the early 21st century, we'll remember the aftermath of the Iraq war and the associated global war against terror states as a heralding of Russia's return to a much more formidable global presence.

Still, Russia's economy kind of sucks, compared with the US and Europe. I think the problem is that their economy is so driven by energy companies, with stuff like Gazprom and Lukoil being the largest firms. They don't have any really large influential technology companies, like Apple or Google, which contribute a lot to driving the US economy. I mean, they have Yandex, but it's much smaller than the big US/Chinese tech firms.

[K. A. Pital]

If you do nothing but sell oil, gas, grain and wood for a good 25-30 years starting with late Brezhnew... Well, you've got no one to blame but yourself for what happens to your nation. From 1950 to early 1970s Russia's heavy industry was delivering a lot of high-tech goods - by the standards of the period, of course.

The problem with Russia's economy is that it is being controlled by a bunch of cleptocratic oligarchs who are loyal only to their gangster circle (I am not joking: these are real criminals, gangsters, murderers, who ordered countless assassinations to get in control of certain sectors of Russian economy from oil to pulp and metal processing). These oligarchs, indeed, control all or most of Russia's industrial capital and keep only what they feel is a tangible and worthwhile asset (not to mention that they pervert the entire political system with their deadly power games in the shadows).

Fact is, no oligarchy is benigh, but a cleptocratic oligarchy built from real gangsters is usually even worse than something ruled by cold and callous technocrats. Though one might say a part of the elite is technocratic and the majority is criminal; but that changes nothing. It is like saying the mastermind of a criminal group is actually a PhD with a good plan. He still controls a crime empire.

On the other hand, the cleptocratic elite is usually very cowardly and not so bold - currently Russia's robber-barons might have gained some long-term perspective on their "national survival" by reasserting Russia's military power. But I don't think that they understand all that well the link between ideological attractiveness, economic achievements and military capabilities. The first two are essential; the third one is more like a superstructure based on them.

[Titan Uranus]

Who changed the title? Usually I dislike people changing the titles of articles to fit their own opinion (which is why I generally avoid doing it at all), but I do have to say, this ttle change made me laugh.

Romulan Republic, Russia has been absent from the world stage for some time, since the collapse of the USSR in fact.

What you have read is a document advertising the fact that the Russians have pulled themselves up far enough to start acting like a great power again.

That is all that Putin meant by this, along with some minor saber rattling. Stop assuming that your ideological foes are wildly insane, and you will be able to make sane predictons about what they will do.

In addition, it will prevent you from dropping dead of a heart attack before age 25. For your own physical safety, please stop and think before you bring yourself up to full froth.

I don't think Russia ever stopped being a powerful military power, they just stopped being a powerful economic power, and they are still a fairly weak in that regard now.

I never said that they stopped being a great power, on paper, militarily.
However, they stopped acting like a great power around 1991 and have since been acting like a regional power, more or less.
That's what the interventions in Georgia and the Ukraine were, Romulan, actions that one would expect from a regional power, with possibly some aspects of greatness, like China in the 1970's.