Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Richard Santos said:

I don’t think we are witnessing the end of Russia as a great power yet. The reason is because otherwise weak though she may be, she has a royal flush she could laid down in the form of her nuclear arsenal and she is, IMHO, willing and prepared to demonstrate she is fully prepared to take the world down with her if the world does not give her space to pretend to herself to be a superpower in other respects.

So russia will remain a great power so long as others are daunted by her nuclear weapons and are not prepared to pay the financial abs geopolitical costs of cordoning her off with a tight conventional military barriers from all those countries that are unwilling to concede to her sphere of influence.

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A backass country like North Korea has Nukes too.

So?

For anyone interested in an analysis into the sinking of the Moskva, I stumbled upon these two recently published articles:
1. Beyond the Horizon:
2. Warpill:

Some interesting extra detail on damage control and ability of ships to take punishments.

Broccoli said:

Britain and France learned during Suez war that they aren't superpowers/empires anymore and Russia is learning same lesson in right now in Ukraine.

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Last time when I checked Suez didn't neighbour France or Britain.

the difference is Russian can win using her nuclear weapons and winning that way still serves her purpose.

Richard Santos said:

I don’t think we are witnessing the end of Russia as a great power yet. The reason is because otherwise weak though she may be, she has a royal flush she could laid down in the form of her nuclear arsenal and she is, IMHO, willing and prepared to demonstrate she is fully prepared to take the world down with her if the world does not give her space to pretend to herself to be a superpower in other respects.

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Nuclear weapons are very limited tools. The DPRK has nuclear weapons but nobody thinks it is a great power. Nuclear weapons can guarantee Russia's territorial integrity against external aggressors, but they can't do much else.

Gertrude Bell wrote of Persia: Mother of human energies, strewn with the ruins of a Titanic past, Persia has slipped out of the vivid world, and the simplicity of her landscape is the fine simplicity of death.

There was myopia and poetic license here, as there is in applying any similar such sentiment to Russia. Yet I cannot help but feel that it strikes the appropriate tone. Eras pass, ages wherein nations and peoples rise to greatness and shape the world around them... pass. And I fear we are witnessing the beginning of just such an end here.

Every empire fall due to different reasons.


What came back to my mind is the Greek empire, that fall due to the deforestations.

They needed wood for the ships, houses and metal metling, means they deforested Greece, and the soil erosion did the rest.

Similar fate for the central american empires.

Lethe said:

To be honest, I think we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of Russia as a great power. The narratives in history books are often written thus: underlying structural deficiencies, exhaustion via prolonged conflict, new or previously suppressed actors exploiting the power vacuum. Let us at least admit that on a cultural and psychological level, it is very difficult for any nation to accept decline. For Russia in particular, where greatness has long existed in such close proximity to horror and suffering, it must be difficult to realise that there will be no glorious redemption; that Russia, once a great promising nation of the future, is now a nation of the past, with all its flaws forever etched in history. We are witnessing a kind of national psychological trauma, and such trauma expresses itself in many ways.

Leonid Ragozin put it

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Russia has more natural resources than China has. They have the potential to be a great power. They just need to be efficient in utilizing their potential. Corruption is their biggest enemy.

As long as Putin doesn't lose this war which might lead to a political crisis leading to the dissolution of the Federation leading to possible regions breaking away, Russia will be fine.

Kich said:

Russia has more natural resources than China has. They have the potential to be a great power.

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It's the human resources that is most important, since it's what develops innovative technology and produces economic output.

Russia's life expectancy is closer to Indians than it is to Chinese or Americans.

2020 life expectancy:
China: 77.1 yrs
US: 76.6 yrs
....
....
Russia: 72.3 yrs
India: 69.7 yrs

Broccoli said:

Britain and France learned during Suez war that they aren't superpowers/empires anymore and Russia is learning same lesson in right now in Ukraine.

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So many are writing Russia's obituary like it was caused by this war. Even if Russia wins this war and conquers the entire country of Ukraine, the problem they face pre-2/24/2022 invasion, they would still face after the war and then some. For Russia to become a great power, they need deal with so many internal and corruption problems that are beyond this thread.

So this war is irrelevant to Russia's status. The outcome although is very important in a sense they can't lose like Afghan style and then be beaten back by Ukrainian counterattack. Because it will lead to a major political crises and possible breakaway of the many different groups that make up Russia.

I said this a long time back and I will again. This war was inevitable even since NATO and EU crossed Russia's red-line in trying to bring Ukraine to the west. Russia is weak and couldn't use economic incentive to keep Ukraine in its orbit. This war was their only option. Without this war, they will watching as Ukraine continues to be trained and armed by NATO. And then have NATO Ukraine be like 800km to Moscow.

This war was their only option. And although NATO is now fully arming Ukraine, at least Russia can do something tangible about it instead complaining like it was before the war. They can seize and turn Ukraine into a landlocked country and many more other options.

They are still fighting with only 150K troops. They need a whole lot more if they wish to achieve some of the military objective and it will require a mass mobilization on the part of Russia; maybe a formal declaration of war politically.