Posted on 06/22/2016 9:54:15 AM PDT by NRx
Russia is not the country you think it is. Its economy is smaller than South Korea’s. Its people are poorer than Kazakhstan’s. It trails Finland in technology. And it has a smaller military budget than Saudi Arabia...
...Russia hosted the Olympics, punched Georgia in the nose, took back the Crimea, invaded Ukraine, flew bombers through NATO airspace, built military bases in the Arctic, and generally flexed and posed like an oiled, aged, but still buff, body builder. And we’ve been paying increasingly rapt attention, not noticing the geriatric walker hidden just off stage. A closer look is almost shocking.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s most recent data, the Russian economy is approximately the same size as Australia and slightly smaller than South Korea. As an exporter, it is now less important than Belgium, Mexico, and Singapore.
And it is poor. The World Bank ranks Russia’s GDP per capita below Lithuania, Equatorial Guinea, and Kazakhstan. A larger proportion of its population lives below the poverty rate than in Indonesia, India, or Sri Lanka. It is ranked 67th in the world in the Global Competitive Index and 66th in the UN’s Human Development Index.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
The countryside, I would THINK, could feed itself, at least. Maybe not.
Had to look up that word. And, what you say is true, no truth in their information and no information in their truth.
The simple fact is the United States today can’t even visit the ISS without getting technological help from Russia.
So don’t get too puffed up over something that happened almost fifty years ago.
The world pooh-poohed us when JFK said that we would go to the moon. The USSR was supposed to be SO much better at space travel. I remember it all very well. I remember all the snide remarks from people who would NOT believe that the USA could even do it.
And I WILL get puffed up about the USA landing on the moon, FIRST and three times. It was a DREAM of humanity for a long time. If one can't "puffed up" about a THREE-TIME MOON LANDING, then what CAN one be "puffed up" about? Geez, are you a wet blanket about that wonderful accomplishment or what?
Six times.
I STILL can't keep from getting "puffed up" about it.
The USSR was all talk. Their press kept the world from knowing what dire straits they were in.
My husband and I visited St. Petersburg in 2008. That was supposed to be the "best" of Russia.
Yick...what a disappointing place.
For many, the face of poverty in Russia is to be found in the country’s dying countryside, but a new survey finds that more than half of the population of its largest cities is now poor, and predicts that ever more urban Russians are becoming poor, a development with potentially ominous political consequences.
Even in Moscow, 43 percent of the residents are poor, with nine percent of them critically poor, according to a study of 35 cities in the Russian Federation with more than 500,000 residents carried out by sociologists at the Russian government’s Finance University.
http://www.interpretermag.com/more-than-half-of-russias-urban-residents-are-now-poor/
Have I got it wrong?
By objective standards the Soviets WERE much better at space travel, which was the prime motivation for Kennedy's 1961 speech to Congress wasn't it?
By the same objective standards today, the Russians make better rocket engines without which the United States couldn't even launch their own satellites.
Rather then resting on laurels earned decades ago maybe its time for another Presidential speech, or at the very least a tamping down of the irrational Russophobia...ymmv.
What about rational Russophobia?
Objective standards usually require TRUTH from all sides. I don't really believe that the world heard much truth from the USSR or Russia about their abilities.
1. Yes, it probably was. Yuri Gagarin's flight woke up the first world. That is where the USSR stopped. Reagan just ran the USSR out of money.
2. Maybe they do make better engines; maybe they don't. I guess you believe what their media say. My husband always said that the Germans made great engines too, but he was just a mechanical engineer so what would he know?
3. 100% agreement with you.
No you are right, but it is even worse: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/putins-kleptocracy-by-karen-dawisha.html
It wasn't just Gagarin either...in 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, followed by the first three man space crew, followed by the first space walk.
These accomplishments were eventually eclipsed by the first successful moon landing but remain as empirical evidence of 20th century Soviet technical prowess.
The fact the United States still relies on Russian rocket technology in the 21st century is simply more empirical evidence that defies the stereotype this author attempts to portray.
The decision to use the RD-180 for the Atlas V launch vehicle is a result of post-cold war cooperation between U.S. businesses and the Russian defense industry. The RD-180 relationship was urged by the U.S. government as a means of preventing Russian military technology from proliferating. The RD-180 was jointly developed by U.S. and Russian Defense Industries to provide the Atlas V with a technologically advanced and reliable engine. Since then, the Atlas V product has provided enormous value and mission assurance for ULA customers.
http://www.ulalaunch.com/faqs-rd-180.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180
The reason to use the Russian produced rocket engine was not only to prevent proliferation, but as well financial. The production cost in Russia was, and is, much lower than in the US: The added cost for launches would be over $2 billion,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2016/05/23/banning-russian-rocket-engines-will-increase-costs-and-risks/
4/8/16: U.S. needs up to 18 more Russian rocket engines: Pentagon
4/28/16: House panel doubles authorized purchase of Russian rocket engines
Nationalists understand that you NEVER outsource such critical military technology because it creates exactly this kind of national security vulnerability, not to mention the loss of thousands of good paying rocket manufacturing jobs.
You have a point, it looks like it was a mistake to assume that Russia would be a partner.
But it is never too late, or is it?
I fear the NWO more than I fear Russia. The NWO is one of those bad guys who pretends to be a good guy, you know like Obama. I am sick of these western leaders who a slick liars and treacherous. Who has opened the doors of Europe and the United states to a Muslim take over? Not Putin. Not Russia.
Russia had Communism forced on it by the Russian Revolution which had to be funded and very well organized. It is reputed that the money came from Wall Street. It appears that the Russians have been set up in an cynical international chess game from the time of Napoleon, to World War I, the Communist Takeover and World War II when the Eastern European countries were also ceded to the Communists.
You got it right!
Putin is what he is—the western leaders are sneaks.
You can’t be a top rank nation if you have a JV president.
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