Yoram Mizrachi is special for Kolmosant and Hidan
Towards the end of 2005, Russia's recovery from the breakup of the USSR reached a watershed. The encroachment on the strength and growth of the power, which lost a significant part of its geographical assets, ceased to be a matter of concern to the people and the leadership, who only for a short time recognized the country's decline in the international scale of power. Part of the recovery process is manifested in signs of a renewed global strategy of the Kremlin, one of the components of which is economic initiative based on the defense industries.
The change in the international atmosphere against the background of the "American confusion" since 9/11 proves that Russia remains a giant whose existence cannot be ignored, even without the republics that withdrew from the USSR. The country whose 144 million citizens represent six main nationalities and dozens of sub-nationalities living in 21 republics, 10 autonomous regions and two federal cities, feels a multi-disciplinary security, which came as part of the disillusionment of the shock of the wars in Afghanistan and the Caucasus and not only the collapse of the communist empire. The process allows the Russian leadership to strive for an international premiership, to challenge the supremacy of the United States and by the way to acquire new allies, who in today's political style, pay good money for every military product, from bullets to airplanes.
Natural treasures and fuel reserves
Russia is forging military and economic alliances, for example defense cooperation agreements signed with India and China, while by the way it is signaling to its fourteen immediate neighbors (!) that its policy does not include "regional policeman" markers in the style of the USSR. The Russia of the beginning of the 21st century is not threatening on the independence of its neighbors and almost without words, assures the concerned West that the era of intervention in other matters is over, as it was manifested until the brink of world war, for example following the crises of Hungary and East Germany in the 1.8s, the crises of Berlin and Cuba in the early 8.42s and Czechoslovakia in the late 578.6s. Instead of thousands of tanks of The Red Army seized the power of the natural treasures of the largest country in the world (about 6.5 times more than the USA) its ability to influence the international energy economy (fuel output 8 million barrels per day. natural gas output to XNUMX billion units) the gold and diamond market, as Skilled work and a continental layout that allows convenient connection with both Europe and Asia. In the last six years, Russia has demonstrated economic growth at a rate of XNUMX% per year and a decrease in the number of unemployed (with an unemployment figure of about XNUMX%, more or less identical to that of Germany) in the field of development and anticipation of the future, operations such as adapting Russian railway tracks to the European standard, laying oil and natural gas pipelines which according to the plan will reach as far as southern Europe and a constant improvement of the main means of transport, by land, sea and air.
financial disillusionment
Economic disillusionment is therefore taking place in Russia, which follows disappointment from the West and especially from the USA, whose consumer economy has moved to "exporting industry" (OUTSOURCING), which is a situation of "exporting industry for the needs of cheap imports" from sources of low-wage labor. The process enslaves the Chinese or Indian economy, consuming countries - luxuries, which can no longer be separated from the economic cocoon they created. The phenomenon, which tilted "in favor" of China, did not fulfill the Russians' hopes that the end of communism would bring investments and enterprises of all kinds, if and when the rich West connects to the pool of Russian manpower, which is usually willing to settle for little. In Russian media, it is taught that the country waited in vain for low technology industries, which could spread throughout the federation and strengthen weak areas, similar to the development of Western trade and the industrialization of the periphery in China, whose trade balance is against the US, whose Chinese import-export differences amount to two hundred billion dollars.
Back to military mode
All these and more were taught by the Russians, that under the existing conditions, there is no chance of competing with the Chinese flood, whose economic power sucks and gathers power from the multitude of commodities that fill the stalls of the marketing chains, connected to factories in China and the Third World. In front of this artificial abundance, on the side of the raging sinkhole of the "credit card world" Russia is regaining itself and is ready to compete in the military field, where there is no doubt about its technological ability to fulfill the demand for equipment of all kinds. The question is no longer who will be the next consumer of fighter jets or missiles, but how much will the customer be willing to pay, when in this respect the sky is the limit. The list of customers also extends to countries which until now were mainly connected to the USA, for example Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela and more.
The legendary phoenix
Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, who by all signs has sobered up from the delusions of turning his country into a manufacturer of toys or home electronics, which will flood marketing chains in the West and put bread on the table of the Russian worker, makes Moscow trade in arms, when in many respects it seems that the legendary Russian "Phoenix" is rising from the ashes among rivals In the past, they face the constraints of a less stable economy than the one that characterized them at the end of the Cold War. Among other things, the Russian leadership is aware of the "migration tsunami" oppressing the West, a modern migration of peoples driven by the Third World, which mainly strives for Western Europe and North America. Russia is taking its own steps to curb the phenomenon of great migration and with the aim To protect the Russian citizen and his means of existence, it limits immigration to its territory from the Asian republics of the former USSR and supervises immigration fluctuations from the CIS countries and from one republic to another, measures intended to prevent the "leakage" of aid state resources and their distribution also to many refugees or illegal immigrants.
Controlled capitalism
Moscow's foreign policy consistently maintains the principle of non-participation in ad hoc coalitions and unpopular wars, for example the campaign in Iraq and while the US is entangled in swampy swamps of barren foreign policy, captive to the slogans of "democratization", the new Kremlin continues to change not only the nature of the national economy, from socialism Absolute - to controlled capitalism, but also changing the nature of the covert military-technological confrontation with the USA and its friendships. The irony is that the disintegration of the Soviet Union came, in part, from its inability to deal with the economic challenge presented by President Reagan's administration, through the Star Wars program and the acceleration of the space race It is also important to note that Russia's recovery is due in part to the billions of dollars that the West has invested in plans to reduce the arrays of the navy, the air force, and especially the Russian missile force, including the dismantling of ballistic missiles, the neutralization of nuclear warheads, etc. It shows fleets of nuclear or diesel-powered submarines, which are rusting In the ports of the Black Sea, the Baltic coast or the Pacific Ocean, he created an image of a hapless scrap metal nation, which failed even in its attempt to destroy the Kursk nuclear submarine that was lost in the North Sea. The reality is that the rusty vessels are being dismantled for scrap in Japanese-funded (fearing a nuclear fuel leak) missile dismantling plants Ballistics, etc. were established with German and American funding, and the aircraft carriers, which were never completed, were sold to India. The Russian security system, since 1998, has gone through a difficult period of freezing military development plans and upgrading the structure of the Red Army, making it a professional body smaller than that of the USSR. These created a Western wishful thinking, that here is the Russian bear, which for decades threatened the free world, lost its claws and darkened teeth.
Development of weapons systems
On the brink of a new year, it appears to analysts of global strategy that Moscow prefers in the meantime to reduce old commitments in the fields of society, starting with essential treatment of the AIDS epidemic, to cutting into general access to higher education. Instead of social improvements, as they hoped to see in the West as a sign of a permanent and prolonged process of Russia's transition to a capitalist economy, Russia is re-entering and aware of an ambitious competition with the USA in regards to plans that may determine, by the middle of the century, who will be the two leaders in regards to strategic influence on what is happening not only on Earth but also in outer space. Signs of Chinese strengthening in similar areas, which follow as a result The gains from enslaving American consumerism to Chinese labor are troubling Russia, that it will not be ready to accept Chinese hegemony, not only in the Asian equation but in the world, and the answer to this, in the eyes of the Kremlin planners, is the renewal of intensification. Commentators who follow the strategic processes in the Kremlin, comment that in contrast to the situation that prevailed in the first years after the collapse of Bara" m, the "new Russia" is returning to a full technological-military confrontation with the West. This fact is particularly noticeable in the field of developing means of carrying/transferring weapons of mass destruction, intended, according to President Putin's generals, to provide a new and preliminary answer to expensive American plans, first of all the completion of the global defense system Anti-missiles. In the field of fighter aircraft development, programs that raised dust have already been taken off the shelf and some are already in the stages of being refreshed.
Not worried about Iran or North Korea
These days, the Russian Missile Corps Command, the Space Command and the Russian Navy conducted a successful test of a modern ballistic missile intended for arming nuclear submarines. In addition to this came an announcement about the development of a new generation of land-based ballistic missiles and polar changes in the anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense system. All of these are intended to raise Russia from its position inferior militarily relative to the US for a new strategic situation, in which there will be no room for naive assessments, that Russia has supposedly accepted a decline in power in favor of "new players" who are getting stronger, such as China and India. In this regard, for example, the Putin administration is working to strengthen a "strategic understanding" with the two Asian countries which houses about a third of the world's population. Russia consistently acquires new arms consumers, who grease the wheels of the industry when the consumers know that the Russian department store is operating at full speed, with cheap products compared to those offered by the West. The customers, from Iran to Venezuela or Thailand, know that the Russian supplier, who requires payment in cash, or Barter is worth a dollar, does not introduce reservations or try to enforce social and moral norms. The way Russia handles the nuclearization of Iran and North Korea, for example, is a good example of a policy that proves that at this stage Moscow is not worried. The sense of danger that characterizes the Middle East, Western Europe or Asia, in any related to Iran's nuclearization and North Korea's nuclear blackmail, are not a Russian problem. In the eyes of the Russians, the extreme and nuclear-prone countries do not pose a threat, as none of their leaders have any doubt that if an urgent constraint arises to curb their ambitions - this will be done without "Western hesitation" without coalitions and defiance before the UN. Iran, for example, fulfills an economic need, a factor that strengthens the Russian economy and provides work for many, especially in the centers of heavy industry and administration. In this equation, Russia does not support the idea of an arms embargo of one kind or another to be imposed on Tehran.
Learning from American security investments
The analysis of the Russian reactions to the question of Iran, whose principles are no less foreign to the Russians than to the Americans, shows that Moscow sees the diplomatic confrontation with Tehran as a sign of a "petty cold war" that allows it to appear as a regional policeman, protecting clients and preventing Western reactions of the belligerent type, as happened in Iraq. There is no doubt that Russia You will not help reduce the threats from Iran or North Korea, and you will not cut off an important source of income just to appease the US or the European community and Israel. From the Kremlin's point of view, the question will be what price the West is willing to pay and what the US has to offer the Russian people, who, like the American people, find that security plans Ambition is not only a question of itself, but a factor in maintaining an economy based on advanced industry. One of the examples studied by the Russians is that of the plan to upgrade and load nuclear fuel on the American Carl-Vinson aircraft. The operation is carried out with an investment of about two billion dollars and it alone creates 3500 jobs in the Newport area. There are many similar examples. From the Kremlin announcements it appears that, like the American operation, This is how Russia will create a program to develop new systems, upgrade existing ones and thus, while exporting massive weapons, it will provide work from border to border. Such and other programs in the field of military technology will allow the Russian technician to buy those luxury products made in China and enjoy a full pocket, which means a full stomach and satisfaction from the government.
A new strategic horizon
The process that emerges on the strategic horizon requires fundamental changes in the Western world, which is systematically weakening due to the flood of cheap Chinese goods, which give the illusion of a "dollar store" and an artificial benefit to the luxury-hungry individual, in contrast to the preservation of national security assets, which today more than in the past, serves as an economic engine. There is no doubt that the Putin administration correctly analyzes the international temperature and by the way reconciliation smiles "and western papers" so to speak, returns Russia to a cold war, which was fought without an iron curtain, without totalitarianism but with a new steel fist, hidden in a fur glove.
(Yoram Mizrachi is a veteran Ethnoi and who was the first commander of the Southern Lebanon A.D.L. region and currently lives in Canada. He teaches at the university)
A compilation of Yoram Mizrahi's articles on the Hidan website
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~345956060~~~184&SiteName=hayadan
