[ken5050]

I'm no fan of Vlad's..but anyone who thinks that he is worried about the USA is nuts..Putin's concerned about Red China..and rightly so...Imahgine, say, abotu 20 million, give ort take a few..Chinese just walking north..annexing Siberia one foot at a time..and Putin well knows that NO WAY would the USA take Russia's side in that war...so he has to have the ability to wipe our most Chinese cities....it's the old Cold War scenario of MAD updated to the current world.. because ast the same time he rearms Russia..he also sells the Chinese much of their military technology...but much of Russian arms sales to PRC ..which involve naval assets and sea based systems..would not be readily useful in a land battle between the PRC and Russia..he's "keeping his enemies closer"..following the Godfather maxim...

[snarks_when_bored]

You have a point. But I wasn't pleased to see that big joint military exercise that Russia and China put on a few months ago.

[snarks_when_bored]

But you could argue that the joint military exercise was Putin's way of getting an inside look at Chinese military readiness.

Wheels within wheels...

[Hill of Tara]

"Putin's concerned about Red China"

If he was concerned about Red China he wouldn't be selling them billions of dollars of weapons each year.

"which involve naval assets and sea based systems..would not be readily useful in a land battle between the PRC and Russia"

What about the Su-27 and the Su-30 and the AA-12 missile? There are also other land based systems that Russia has sold to China.