Free Republic

India is in real trouble with its weapons systems. Decades of over-reliance on cheap Russian equipment—equipment that is currently failing the battlefield test in Ukraine—risks exposing India’s military as little more than a paper tiger. It’s a tough problem. Nearly 60 percent of India’s defense equipment is Russian made, but with Moscow struggling to replace weapons lost in Ukraine, India’s era of easy access to cheap military equipment is over. Worse for New Delhi, Ukraine is demonstrating that Russia focused on all the wrong things in weapons development. Designed to support an older way of warfare, Russian gear has struggled...

A Limitless Friendship That Has Boundary Issues: In the runup to Russia’s debacle in Ukraine, China and Russia declared a friendship “without limits.” But both countries know that friendship agreements are fragile things. Less than two decades after China and the Soviet Union signed their last friendship treaty, the two countries engaged in a sharp series of border fights. Expansion-minded Chinese nationalists, coupled with China’s increasing and barely concealed contempt for Russian weakness, have the power to erode Russia and China’s current rapprochement in a matter of moments. The foundations for conflict are deep. China and Russia have bickered and...