The Ghost of the USSR

The Americans are surprised and perturbed by the fact that our country under Putin is trying to return to independent politics, practiced during the time of the USSR. They have become used to living by stereotypes from the ’90s, when Western political analysts talked about Russia as a colonized territory. Remember Brzezinski: “Russia is not a partner. Russia is a client.” And in every possible way, we have upheld our “client” status: We surrendered post-Soviet territory to America; we tolerated the expansion of NATO; we left the Middle East, the Balkans, etc. And suddenly — a 180-degree turn. Today, we disagree on the matter of Syria, [with Russia] thrice blocking resolutions against Damascus in the U.N. Security Council. After many years of disarmament, we are trying to rebuild our defense capacity. If Yeltsin declared the goal to be “incorporation into Western civilization and society,” Putin has emphasized the Eurasian territory. We are consolidating our relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States, China and India …

But by fighting on two fronts — the liberal and the sovereign-patriotic — we will not be able to bring back our former independence and superpower status. Seeing as we are completely dependent on the world financial system, we cannot launch important economic projects. Russia is also increasingly vulnerable in terms of military strength. And the European missile defense system, which so aggravates us, is only one tiny element of the U.S.’ strengthening military power. It is developing a naval force, creating a type of high-precision cruise missile and working on a concept of a fast global strike, clearly aimed against Russia.

A system is being created that will simply make it impossible for a single one of our warheads to reach the U.S. Some will be destroyed even before takeoff, and the rest will be shot down at different points on the trajectory. Our nuclear missile potential is ceasing to be a deterrent factor. And in terms of developing standard armament, we are almost a half-century behind the States. So exactly what kind of parity can we speak of?