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> Russia is insignificant You must be very naive. I do not say that in an adversarial way, but because Russia always has been (and will likely continue to be)
by bin0 7y ago
> Russia is insignificant
You must be very naive. I do not say that in an adversarial way, but because Russia always has been (and will likely continue to be) a major world power. It is the world's largest country, with a population of roughly one-hundred-fifty million. More importantly, Russia is, along with America, one of two potentially autarchic nations. They are the only two who can not only grow food but mine their own metal, drill their own oil, etc. without importing (at least, conceivably). Isolation would of course slow either significantly, but not halt.
Consider the pressure that was on the Soviet Union, consider the inherent instability of communism, and then reconsider how long it bore up under that pressure. Russia is and has always been remarkably stable under strong, authoritarian rule (i.e. Stalin, Ivan, etc.), and any nation in a similar situation would have collapsed much sooner.
- yxhuvud 7y agoRussia is not a world power economically or population-wise. And being a world power militarily without having the other two is probably not sustainable in the long run.
- notfromhere 7y agoRussia isn't really a global power. It's regional, and its global reach is only based on whatever legacy assets they held onto after the Soviet Union collapsed.
- noir_lord 7y agoICBM's mostly.
- coldtea 7y ago>You must be very naive. Yeah, either that or well studied. Russia is not a global player, it's a regional player. USSR only had global reach (e.g. to Latin America or Africa) through the communism ideology, and even that was little. Economy wise, Russia's economy is smaller than Italy's or Canada's... It just makes for a nice scapegoat (e.g. when losing elections), a nice Hollywood bad-guy store, and a hefty regional adversary (that sanctions etc try to constrain so that its regional influence dies and its assets are plundered by the highest bidders).
- tguedes 7y agoI would say that any power with nukes is not a regional player, considering they can blow up the whole planet. Russia also has significant influence in the middle east.
- coldtea 7y ago>I would say that any power with nukes is not a regional player, considering they can blow up the whole planet. Well, any power with nukes doesn't want to use them and be obliterated in return. Their advantage is you can't be arbitrarily invaded and pushed over whenever some power feels like it when you have them...
- checkyoursudo 7y agoLike South Africa in the 1980s or whenever they had nukes? Or possibly North Korea now? It seems reasonable to classify a country as a regional power while still having nuclear weapons. Just because you could wreck the world doesn't really mean that you can get anyone else to do what you want.