- In terms of a military threat, Russia is now just a giant Potemkin village that Putin is trying to maintain to save face over the fact that it is no longer a military force to be feared. Without it’s oil reserves, Russia would be just a shell.
I’m convinced that this is the reason the Bush continues to humor Putin over his threats to do this or that in response to Bush’s star war plans. Bush knows that Putin cannot back up these threats and so he just plays along and then goes ahead and does exactly what he wants to.