4 ms·

Their words are backed by nuclear weapons.

by synu 4y ago

celsoazevedo 4y ago
So are the words of other countries.
- synu 4y ago
  They seem more willing to play chicken with them.
cduzz 4y ago
Nuclear weapons are just the fastest way they can destroy the world. They also have a huge amount of oil and natural gas and coal. They also have plenty of brilliant people who are happy to work on a variety of projects where the outcome maybe a rapidly spreading drop tables computer virus or possibly even a rapidly spreading virus virus, certainly they've got a variety of boutique poisons for all occasions. Having fewer resources than everyone else isn't a serious constraint if you're not constrained morally or legally, and vlad the underware poisoner isn't constrained by anything except possibly father time.
- soco 4y ago
  Neither nuclear weapons nor viruses help you conquer the world. Destroy it? Sure. But you won't be there either to conquer the world after using them.
  - Koshkin 4y ago
    Well, hasn't Russia been conquering Ukrainian towns by destroying them?
    - belltaco 4y ago
      The difference is radioactive fallout that lasts a long time, and nuclear war ensuring the complete destruction of Russia as well. Even Russia knows it that they have contingency plans for Putin and other military/govt officials to try and escape it by fleeing to the barely populated parts like Siberia assuming(or hoping) that those population centers won't be nuked. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44814/flurry-of-government-aircraft-activity-over-russia-draws-attention-we-break-it-down https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44814/flurry-of-govern... Nuclear winter and the fallout will probably weaken or destroy much of the rest of the world, but if places like China/India/Africa survive them better, maybe they can rebuild faster and"conquer" what's left of the current first world in a century or two.
      - xyzzyz 4y ago
        > The difference is radioactive fallout that lasts a long time, Depends on the type of the bomb. For Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was mostly over in a matter of months.
- pvaldes 4y ago
  > they've got a variety of boutique poisons for all occasions Yes, but this sword can cut both ways and time is not in the side of Russia. Once the Pandora box is opened, is opened and you don't need to poison massively people to face retaliation. If millions of people in many countries of Africa would start starving by one man stealing and blocking all the grain, is practically guaranteed that Moscow would meet casually a lot of African diseases not previously seen in the area. In any case, the words of Putin are just propaganda to convince more naive Russian men to join the army and die for his delusions of grandeur.
warning26 4y ago
I'd just like to appreciate your Ghandi-in-Civ reference
- weikju 4y ago
  Nitpick: in the original (computer) Civ game, any leader gaining nuclear weapons would come up to the human player and say (write) these words. That it got associated with Ghandi in the long run is because of software bugs, but it wasn't exclusively his line in the beginning...
tomatotomato37 4y ago
Nuclear weapons of their ancestors, which since then require a lot of money and maintenance to remain nuclear weapons. To put it another way, around 8 years ago the U.S. found its own nuclear arsenal had deteriorated due to the usual organization reasons, to the point that only a singular wrench existed for servicing the MinuteMan warhead and thus had to be constantly FedEx-ed between bases like a stupid game of hot potato[1]. In response, the U.S. is undertaken one of the largest overhaul of it's arsenal ever, that's planned to take place over the next 30 years. The first decade of this program is estimated to have cost $348 billion dollars and will ultimately come out to around trillion once all is said and done[2]. The current entire military budget of Russia is $65 billion. A budget they have masterfully used to buy cheap Chinese tires, moldy MREs, cardboard ERA, and funny tank cages. Despite this, they claim to maintain an aresenal of 4500 warheads, or around 700 more than the global hyperpower that ran out of wrenches. [1]https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-wrench-nuclear-bases/story?id=26916107 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-wrench-nuclear-bases/stor... [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation_of_the_nuclear_weapon_arsenal_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation_of_the_nuclear_we...
- effie 4y ago
  You can't compare budgets between US and Russia. Price of materials, labor and skill are much lower in Russia. And with nuclear weapons, the exact number of them is not that important. Even if Russia's working warhear number is 1/10 of the declared one, it is still a valid deterrent.

Their words are backed by nuclear weapons.

by synu 4y ago

Their words are backed by nuclear weapons.

celsoazevedo 4y ago

So are the words of other countries.

synu 4y ago
They seem more willing to play chicken with them.

cduzz 4y ago

Nuclear weapons are just the fastest way they can destroy the world. They also have a huge amount of oil and natural gas and coal. They also have plenty of brilliant people who are happy to work on a variety of projects where the outcome maybe a rapidly spreading drop tables computer virus or possibly even a rapidly spreading virus virus, certainly they've got a variety of boutique poisons for all occasions. Having fewer resources than everyone else isn't a serious constraint if you're not constrained morally or legally, and vlad the underware poisoner isn't constrained by anything except possibly father time.

soco 4y ago
Neither nuclear weapons nor viruses help you conquer the world. Destroy it? Sure. But you won't be there either to conquer the world after using them.
- Koshkin 4y ago
  Well, hasn't Russia been conquering Ukrainian towns by destroying them?
  - belltaco 4y ago
    The difference is radioactive fallout that lasts a long time, and nuclear war ensuring the complete destruction of Russia as well. Even Russia knows it that they have contingency plans for Putin and other military/govt officials to try and escape it by fleeing to the barely populated parts like Siberia assuming(or hoping) that those population centers won't be nuked. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44814/flurry-of-government-aircraft-activity-over-russia-draws-attention-we-break-it-down https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44814/flurry-of-govern... Nuclear winter and the fallout will probably weaken or destroy much of the rest of the world, but if places like China/India/Africa survive them better, maybe they can rebuild faster and"conquer" what's left of the current first world in a century or two.
    - xyzzyz 4y ago
      > The difference is radioactive fallout that lasts a long time, Depends on the type of the bomb. For Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was mostly over in a matter of months.
pvaldes 4y ago
> they've got a variety of boutique poisons for all occasions Yes, but this sword can cut both ways and time is not in the side of Russia. Once the Pandora box is opened, is opened and you don't need to poison massively people to face retaliation. If millions of people in many countries of Africa would start starving by one man stealing and blocking all the grain, is practically guaranteed that Moscow would meet casually a lot of African diseases not previously seen in the area. In any case, the words of Putin are just propaganda to convince more naive Russian men to join the army and die for his delusions of grandeur.

warning26 4y ago

I'd just like to appreciate your Ghandi-in-Civ reference

weikju 4y ago
Nitpick: in the original (computer) Civ game, any leader gaining nuclear weapons would come up to the human player and say (write) these words. That it got associated with Ghandi in the long run is because of software bugs, but it wasn't exclusively his line in the beginning...

tomatotomato37 4y ago

Nuclear weapons of their ancestors, which since then require a lot of money and maintenance to remain nuclear weapons. To put it another way, around 8 years ago the U.S. found its own nuclear arsenal had deteriorated due to the usual organization reasons, to the point that only a singular wrench existed for servicing the MinuteMan warhead and thus had to be constantly FedEx-ed between bases like a stupid game of hot potato[1]. In response, the U.S. is undertaken one of the largest overhaul of it's arsenal ever, that's planned to take place over the next 30 years. The first decade of this program is estimated to have cost $348 billion dollars and will ultimately come out to around trillion once all is said and done[2]. The current entire military budget of Russia is $65 billion. A budget they have masterfully used to buy cheap Chinese tires, moldy MREs, cardboard ERA, and funny tank cages. Despite this, they claim to maintain an aresenal of 4500 warheads, or around 700 more than the global hyperpower that ran out of wrenches. [1]https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-wrench-nuclear-bases/story?id=26916107 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-wrench-nuclear-bases/stor... [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation_of_the_nuclear_weapon_arsenal_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation_of_the_nuclear_we...

effie 4y ago
You can't compare budgets between US and Russia. Price of materials, labor and skill are much lower in Russia. And with nuclear weapons, the exact number of them is not that important. Even if Russia's working warhear number is 1/10 of the declared one, it is still a valid deterrent.