Tuesday 16th of April 2024

when the reds are a shade of cold steel blue...

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According to a recent report by a London-based think tank, the Russian Armed Forces are at their strongest and most capable since the dissolution of the Soviet Union nearly 30 years ago, despite being considerably smaller.

When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union dissolved itself in the final days of 1991, the Russian Federation emerged as just one of 15 new republics that inherited many of the Red Army’s weapons of war. As the economic crisis in Russia deepened through the decade, the armed forces waned in power as well. Today, however, one UK think tank warns that more than two decades of rebuilding, reforming, and reinvesting have turned Russia’s armed forces into their most potent since the Cold War ended.

On Wednesday, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) released a “strategic dossier” on Russian military modernization that documents the changes in thinking and practice in the Russian Armed Forces and some of their implications for the Western powers.

“Though significantly smaller than their Soviet predecessors, these forces are better equipped, with professional personnel increasingly prevalent,” the report concludes. “When combined with Moscow’s more assertive foreign policy, Russia’s armed forces in 2020 constitute a capability that should not be ignored.”

In 2018, the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy warned of “a resilient, but weakening, post-WWII international order” in which Washington’s position as chief world power is receiving new challenges from nations such as Russia and China, which it identifies as “revisionist powers.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy Report the following year further characterized Russia as a "Revitalized Malign Actor," which it says "seeks to advance Moscow's strategic interests while undermining US leadership and the rules-based international order."

 

 

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/russia/202010011080634257-hawkish-london-think-tank-frets-russian-military-now-strongest-since-soviet-days/

 

 

Image at top from 1959, SMH... Gus's collection of news clips.

закрой свой грязный рот ...

Moscow is to create the most extensive collection of WWII documents, open to all persons anywhere, to once and for all “shut the filthy mouth” of those seeking to rewrite history for short-term gains, the Russian president said.

Any person, Russian or non-national, will be able to access the archive, including through a website resource, and the ultimate goal is to debunk any disinformation about the most devastating conflict in human history, President Vladimir Putin pledged, during a meeting with veterans of the Great Patriotic War, held in St. Petersburg on Saturday.

The creation of the center would leave no chance to those willing to distort the truth about the war for their own political needs, he argued.

We will shut the filthy mouth of some public figures abroad, who open theirs only to achieve short-term political goals. We will shut them up with reliable and fundamental facts.

The center is expected to incorporate the biggest and most extensive collection of documents, as well as photos and video footage dating back to the World War II era. The president first floated this idea during his annual state-of-the-nation address earlier this week, arguing that Russia should combat “brazen lies and attempts to distort history.”

In St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Moscow should follow the example of Tel Aviv, which virtually allows no one on Earth to forget about the true horrors of the Holocaust.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/478610-russia-fight-history-distortion-putin/