Russia Announces Major Military Expansion

I've been expecting this announcement for some time. George Dubya backed Russia into a corner and gave Russia no other choice than to build up its military to maintain its sphere of influence with its neighbors.

Russia has always throughout its long history maintained a circle of "buffer states" between itself and the rest of the world - especially Western Europe. The US undermined this when George Dubya encouraged the independence of Georgia and the Ukraine, negotiated the placement of US ICBMs in Poland and negotiated the placement of guidance systems for those ICBMs in the Czech Republic. Would the US react any differently if Russia placed ICBMs in Cuba or Venezuela or Mexico?

None of Russia's "Buffer States" in its long history have been friendly toward Russia. They were bullied into submission, conquered or outright occupied going back to the time of Catherine the Great. That's a history not too dissimilar to that of the "Monroe Doctrine" of the US which told Europe to keep their hands off of the developing countries of Central and South America because they were in the sphere of influence of the US. The US has a history of even taking unilateral military and/or covert actions when a Central or South American government got out of line. US history books generally don't cover that part of US history. The War with Mexico which was instigated by President Polk because the new and independent government of Mexico would not sell its northwestern territories to the US. So the US took them by force. Covering just that one part of US history is lucky to get even a small paragraph in a US history book, but Mexico and the rest of Central America sure have never forgotten it. The same goes for the US's manipulations to have the independent country of Panama created so they could have a government there that would permit the US to build the Panama Canal. There are also the well documented interventions into the internal affairs of Chile, Cuba and Venezuela which get very scant coverage in US history books. Thorough information on those subjects can only be found in the dusty archives of academic research which are not open to the general public and many other documents from that period of our history which are still classified so that only persons with proper security clearances can see them and then only with a proven "Need to Know".

From my perspective and understanding of history, the US and Russia have equal amounts of blood on their hands and generally for the same reasons - homeland security and imperialism.


Fred

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27.09.2008 | 14:00 UTC
Russia announces major military expansion

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a comprehensive modernization of Russia's armed forces and its nuclear arsenal. The plans call for a complete overhaul of the country's nuclear deterrant, including a new generation of nuclear submarines and cruise missiles, as well as spy satellites and an improved missile defense system. The upgrade would be completed by 2020. Earlier this month, Moscow said it was boosting its defense budget by 25 percent to 96 billion dollars.