babray

Once upon a time Soviet Union was a super-power. After it broke up in several countries Russia is still considered to be an important power. But for long we don't seem to get any global news regarding the developments in Russia. Can anyone here give us an update on Russia.

Dr Realism

Russia will always be considered an important power. They have always had their ups and downs. After beating Napoleon, they were at the top of their game. After the Crimean War, they fell back down. Then they went up again with the Russo-Turkish War and their incursions into Afghanistan, China, and Korea. Then they fell down again with the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution. They regained their status by about 1911 and then fell down again with their defeat in WWI and their revolution and civil war. They were up again by the 1930's and by the 1940's they were at the top of their game again. By the 1980's they were falling and now I believe they are beginning to rise again. It's simply the cycle that Russia goes through.

Today. Russia is having some big problems. Namely, Chechnya. It is a brutal war in which they have lost over 25,000 soldiers. It makes Iraq look like a joke. The Russian Army has been fighting there since about 2000. They also fought a war in Chechnya around 1996-1999, if I'm not mistaken. The Russian Army has not recovered since the 1980's. It is still a conscript army and has not modernized in the way the US has. In my opinion, Chechnya is breaking the army. Their morale is low, due to low pay and no pay, the fact that the Russian army is very brutal to it's young conscripts, desertion is a big problem, nobody wants to go to Chechnya and many young conscripts return home and commit suicide or have deep psycological problems. Putin has tried to modernize the army but the generals and bureaucracy are resistant.
As far as their old empire goes, I believe Russia still has forces in Tajikistan, Armenia, Kazhakastan, and their major Black Sea naval base is still located in Sevastopal Ukraine.
The Russians have been having tensions with Georgia, in the Caucus, because it is believed that many Chechnyan rebels take refugee in that country. Also, Russia would probably like to control Georgia again because of all the oil flowing out of the Caspian Sea, passes through that country.
AIDS is currently running rampant in Russia and the government has refused to do anything about it, believing that those people will simply die off. problem solved.
The Russian economy has been doing pretty well though. I think it's been growing at around 6% mostly due to the increased world oil prices. Russia is a huge exporter of oil and natural gas.
So, don't count Russia out just yet.

Kampfpanzer

Chechnya will have serious reprecussions in Russia for a while and will likely by wars end spur reformation in their military. However if the Russians lose which they very well could then many more rebellions could spark. I personally sympathize (spl?) with the Chechnyan's. If I were in Russia I know I would be a bit rebellious to.

Gorge123

Stop spamming.

Naomasa298

It's wisest not to reply to or engage with trolls. They're not going to listen to you, and in this case, doing so bumps a long dead thread up to the top of the list, which is probably what he wanted. Report their posts and wait for a moderator to take action.

chimera

?
A reasonable question and reasonable answer.
#4 and #5 sound like Russian trolls.

Learned Hand

Russia today is a very important energy and military technology innovator. It's future seems to be very dependent on the price of oil and other energy exports. The development of the "petrol-state" parallels with its increasingly authoritarian government, which is a disturbing combination seen in unstable countries in the developing world. However, Russia has a very powerful military and nuclear arsenal.

I don't know a lot about the country but these trends worry me a lot, not because I see Russia as a threat but Russia's instability to Europe and the world economy.

Morgoth

Russia today is on a path of development which is fundamentally about utilising its human capital reserves which are equal to first world levels to lift the overall level of development to first world levels compared to the current level of development which is closer to that of Chile than it is to say France.

Its overall economic growth in the last decade was quite fast mostly due to the economy recovering from the catastrophic 1990s but it has moderated in recent years as the economy has matured and standards of living have risen, its economy grew by 3.4% in 2012 and will probably grow between 2.5 - 3% this year, average levels of growth for an economy whose per capita income has already reached $22,000. Its main areas of weakness is the domination of its export market by raw materials, 85% of its exports are raw materials and as prices of raw materials grow slowly over the coming years its trade surplus will shrink dramatically.

On the military front, the situation is rapidly improving and wages are rising and new equipment, mostly for the navy and air force is being procured. Wages for the military relative to the civilian population are quite high, the average wage in the population was 27,000 Rubles per month in 2012 and the salary for new contract serviceman was 30,000 Rubles.

The political system in Russia is getting more stable, its political system is likely to evolve into a multi party system, the kind seen in Germany and not the two party system in existence in America due to the fact that no two parties are capable of encompassing the political views of the Russian people, the left alone has 2 parties, the communists and the Fair Russia party and the difference between the two lies in one being further left than the other.

Overall, Russia is on its way to becoming a rich, developed nation by the early 2020s and if the Eurasian Union functions as expected, it will ensure that Russia's influence in the world in 10 years time will be greater than today and Russia will be a major centre of power.

Scientist

Russia got weak. Now we are in decline. Maybe some day in future Russia will be powerful again, but it's a little probable. The worst thing is demography. If population decreases, we have no future

Kessler

Russia's biggest problem today is that its oil reserve will be drained for very profitable drilling in 5-7 years. Gas will last longer but still it would dry out in short terms.

Russia should try to be an EU member as well as NATO member.