Posted on 02/24/2008 10:39:21 AM PST by Decombobulator
MOSCOW. Feb 23 (Interfax-AVN) - After 2012-2015, the U.S. will be able to annihilate Russian strategic nuclear forces by a non-nuclear preemptive strike, said Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems.
"I declare that the likelihood of a military threat is great as never before now," Sivkov told Interfax on Saturday.
Western military experts have recently started to talk about the possibility of attacking Russia and annexing its territory, Sivkov said. "Russia is supposed to be dismembered into three parts, with the Western part going to the European Union, the central part and Siberia to the U.S., and the eastern to China. This is a rough scenario," he said.
Russian armed forces will be unable to successfully counter an aggression, Sivkov said. "At the present time, the conventional armed forces cannot properly perform their duties in a regional war, like the Great Patriotic War, even in theory. Even if fully deployed, their potential is limited even in local wars. The only factor that deters [the U.S.] now is the nuclear arsenal," he said.
Yes, but fall of Moscow wouldnt mean a thing. Just how many troops one eeds to control area from Baltic to pacific? 2, 3, 4 million?
And losses of occupying forces within 3 year occupation period would be, what 100,000?
1998 was the perfect time for us to intervene in Russia. All we had to do was to use proxies in breakaway provinces. Divide and conquer.
2. The Central part is a lot of "Stans" with Borat-type inhabitants - don't know about you, but I'm not interested.
3. Siberia - are you kidding? I was in South Dakota in the military. That's as close as I want to get.
Bottom line- the Russkies are flattering themselves if they think they have anything we'd want or need.
That's not a rough scneario, that's the vodka talking after a long Russian Winter without enough sunlight!
The issue was taking Moscow. Most of Russia is a wasteland. Once Moscow was stabilized, they could take the oil fields in the Caucuses and not really give a feather or a fig about millions of Russians starving in Siberia. BTW, with Russia prostrate, the Japanese Army in Manchuria could be relied on to over run eastern Russia.
the truth is that the US has been in a position to wipe out Russia for probably the past six or seven years
here for example is a very interesting article in Foreign Affairs magazine called US Nuclear Primacy
Not realy.
Napoleon DID take Moscow, but was forced to withdraw, simply overstreached forces.
Also, Moscow is not target at present. If Russia is invaded by NATO, the goal would be northern parts of coastland with vast reserves pf natural gas and oil. Problem is they are 2-3,000 kilometers deep inside Russian territory, and for safeguarding that bug chung of land NATO would need 3-400,000 troops at least at all times.
And losess would be pretty high i thing. Average 10,000 per year killed on occupator side.
must check history books, but it is claimed that China held large parts of Siberia in the mid-1800s.
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