Putin Wants to Play
New Arms Race! Just in time for the 2008 election. Maybe we’ll get a president who knows that game. Telegraph:
President Vladimir Putin declared the onset of a “new arms race” yesterday and vowed to expand Russia’s military strength to ward off predatory foreign powers.
In a televised address to the State Council in Moscow, Mr Putin delivered the belligerent rhetoric which has become his hallmark.
Appraising global events, the president said: “It is already clear that a new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world.”
He added that “no steps towards compromise” had yet been made on America’s plan to station a missile defence shield in Europe.
“There has been no constructive response to our well-founded concerns,” said Mr Putin. Consequently, he has vowed to modernise Russia’s armed forces.
“We are being forced to take retaliatory steps. Russia has and always will have a response to these new challenges. In the near future, Russia will start production of new weapons systems that will not be inferior and in some cases excel those held by other countries.”
This was necessary to defend Russia from unnamed foreign powers who, he claimed, were bent on controlling the world’s natural resources.
“Foreign policy actions and diplomatic moves smell of oil and gas,” said Mr Putin.
Funny he should mention that. Oil and gas being one of the main weapons in his arsenal against his formerly Soviet neighbors and erstwhile adversaries in western Europe.
Despite all Mr Putin’s rhetoric, however, Russia’s military strength cannot compare with America’s. The Kremlin’s total defence spending of about £35 billion this year is only 11 per cent of the Pentagon’s £310 billion budget.
While Russian military spending will rise by 23 per cent by 2010, the gap with America is unbridgeable. Moreover, the Kremlin must use about seven per cent of its entire national economy in order to sustain a military budget barely one tenth of America’s.
Washington, by contrast, spends only 4.5 per cent of its far larger economy on defence.
Russia does, however, outspend Britain. The Ministry of Defence’s budget is £34 billion this year and this will rise by only 1.4 per cent after inflation.
Putin is playing a largely psychological game for domestic consumption, but his remarks have other intended targets, near and long far. Eastern Europe, western Europe, Britain, us. Russia meddles heavily in its formerly Soviet neighbors and remains keenly interested in playing above its weight. That works as long as the other players let it. And as murderous KGB actions in Britain and Ukraine and Russia’s overt support for Iran’s nuclear program have shown, Russia is capable of causing serious problems and not at all shy about pursuing that course.
The one audience Putin isn’t worried about may be the one that matters most. The voters of the United States, and much of Europe. He knows they aren’t paying much attention, and aren’t inclined to take him seriously.
Russia, Iran, global jihadis. It never ends. You know, if I lived in Old Europe, so close to those threats, I think I’d be concerned that my country barely has a military, is unwilling to use it in my defense, and has a foreign policy largely based on whining and wishful thinking. There are some positive indicators. Britain has been the example no one wants to follow, but is all but out of Iraq now, and calling for an assist in Afghanistan. Sarkozy is indicating a desire to elevate France to the status of an engaged and useful nation, and Merkel has been holding a line re Iran. But maybe the time is ripe for a paradigm shift in Europe. Get over the post-war traumatized peacenik thing, develop a realistic view of the nature of the world and recognize Europe’s role in its security and advancement.
Of course, they’ll need the example of a United States that can show the way, and isn’t actively deluding and undermining itself. A determined leader, capable of being inspirational, who recognizes the multiplicity of opportunistic, parasitic threats in the world and is willing to call on other nations to unite against them. While they are manageable. I wonder if we’ll get a leader like that in November.
Topics: America, Europe, Russia, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:15 am on Sunday, February 10, 2008
4 Responses to “Putin Wants to Play”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I don’t understand this. Is Russia saying it needs to have Europe be afraid of it’s missiles, and the missile defense shield would put an end to that? I thought they were friends.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I’d say that Vlad is pushing it more as “if you won’t trust us, we won’t trust you.” It’s just an excuse to get public support for a military expansion, of course. We do not, and will not any time in the foreseeable future, have a missile defense capable of stopping the Russian nuclear arsenal. The goal is to have protection from the smaller nuclear powers who do not have high technology or a high number of missiles, and secondarily, from an accidental (or not so accidental) single launch from a major nuclear power.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Russian xenophobia is back in style, I see. Not a good thing when combined with equal amounts of Russian nationalism and greed.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
“I don’t understand this.”
Any nation that wants to have a military either has to either maintain an military/industrial infrastructure on its own nickel or buy from someone else.
Once a shipyard closes…and the engineers and shipbuilders sent on their way…or an Aircraft factory..etc…it takes at least 10 years to spin it back up.
Modern aircraft/ships are incredibly expensive tand difficult to design. One doesn’t do it with recent college graduates…one does it with engineers that have spent decades building modern aircraft and ships.
If we look at US het Fighter procurement…it is pretty much based on a 10 year design cycle, followed by a low rate 10 year procurement cycle. I.E. The F-22 design cycle ended 10 years ago…and the F-35 design cycle is due to end soon.
The Europeans manage to afford a 20 year cycle.
Russia’s GDP is a fraction of the US GDP…hisotorically…it has funded much of its design costs thru exports. Unforunately, not a lot of countries are particularly happy about capabilities of Russian Aircraft….why buy what amounts to a “Clay Pidgeon”.
So Putin, wanting to keep his military-industrial capacity intact…has to somehow justify the huge expenditure of maintaining it. Our politco’s do the same thing…we pretty much have one submarine in production at any given time for the sole purpose of keeping the ability to manufacture submarines. Our politoco’s usually point at a potential China/Taiwan conflict to justify the expenditure.
I’m not going to comment on the reality of the threat….the reality is that if we close the last US Submarine Shipyard…in the event we at some point in the future need to build submarines…we will have no one that knows how to build a submarine.
The same goes for Tanks and FIghter Jets. One just has to look at how long it has taken to spin up the MRAP production line to see the problem. MRAPS pretty much use off the shelve heavy equipment engines, axles, tires etc…but it has taken at least a year to get production up to the “hundreds” a month.
One can’t use a commerical aircraft engine or tires or anything else for a fighter jet.
Which means a seperate design and manufacturing team has to be maintained for virtually every part in a fighter jet…which costs big bucks.