Friday, January 07, 2005

Is Russia headed in the wrong direction?

Staunch Moderate is worried that Russia might be reverting to its Cold War ways, and he thinks that Western leaders aren't showing proper concern.

Here in the United States, we seem to not care about Russia anymore because they no longer want to spread communism throughout the world. The new threat is radical Islam which is trying to spread itself around the world through jihad.

And in Europe, they seem to have a much more Machiavellian approach to world politics. They don't like the United States being so powerful, even if we are the good guys. So they worry more about us than about Russia.

2 comments:

Old Blind Dog said...

The facts are that Putin is taking Russia in an authoritarian direction and using "terrorism" as an excuse to do so. Bush knows this but he already has a full plate and can't afford to rock the boat much. It isn't clear that Putin is much interested in "rolling over" old Europe but they may end up sorely disappointed if they are counting on us to save them. But we may supply as much help as we can to "New" Europe, the former soviet sattelite states that are caught between them.

Goldwater's Ghost said...

Even if the Russians are getting all Soviet (without the Socialist) on us, IMO they're at least third in line on the threat list, behind the Islamofascists and China.
The Russian economy is still not so hot, and their land and naval forces are crippled as a result. The only thing that makes them a serious potential threat is their massive nuclear arsenal.