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lol over how many more decades?  No way by 2020.

Their economy has a hard time spending 88 billion every year let alone 700 billion.  Remember that 88 billion is going to maintenance, salary, weapon development and other up keep.  Only a very small slice can go to new acquisitions.  Are they going to grow their economy 8 times over night?

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I suspect any war the killed off a few hundred million people just on one side would not have a clear "winner."

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You also need to consider military purchasing power.



In the US, DoD has a lot of pull with contractors, obviously, but it's nothing like Putin has within his military/industrial industry.  The Russian cost of acquisition for an identical item would be significantly lower than ours for that reason, among many others.  China's acquisition costs compared to our own is incredibly low.  Something to keep in mind when people say, "But we spent twice that."

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I agree but the point I was trying to drive across is Russia's social and economic situation makes a massive military expansion on their part an almost impossible task.

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We've got malaise by the truckload too.

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Russia's even more corrupt than us.  Expect $200B in never-leaves-development vaporware, $100B in recycled Soviet-era crap and $400B which just disappears.

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Yes the Russians are going to pull 5 trillion dollars out of their assets and magically revamp their entire rotting military from the ground up in the next 5 years.

Because Putin is a "strong" leader that is just going to wave his hands and make it happen.  

And you guys just eat it up. LOL

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Russia's even more corrupt than us.  Expect $200B in never-leaves-development vaporware, $100B in recycled Soviet-era crap and $400B which just disappears.

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The Bolsheviks are no doubt rearming, but that plan seems overly optimistic. There's no way they can achieve it in only 5 years.

Putin wants to keep the Internet - but only if it is Russian.

The Security Council will discuss the possibility of isolating Russia from international web sites during crises, writes the Moscow Times.

The idea is to isolate the Russian segment of the Internet, RuNet, from the international network. The insulation must be deployed in times of crisis, such as the military threat or larger demonstrations. The proposal is said to be due to the EU's and the USA's "unpredictable behavior".

- We must consider how we can ensure our national security, said the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday, according to the Moscow Times.

According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the Security Council met Vladimir Putin to evaluate RuNets protection against external threats.
"Separate Russian online from free web"

Sources in the IT industry say that the Council deems RuNet as vulnerable facing foreign attacks, and that security must be increased. The most radical proposal to increase safety is to eliminate the Russian network from the free web. According Vedemosti restrictions can be deployed in the spring by 2015.

The proposal is one of many attempts to limit internet usage for Russian citizens and be seen as a step towards creating a controlled Internet under the total control of the authorities.

An earlier bill, which was approved by Russia's lower house, requires mandatory registration for all users of public Wi-Fi networks and blogger with over 3000 readers per day. Bloggers must also, by law, relate to the same rules as for major media and can not be anonymous. Human Rights Watch activist Hug Williamson called the bill "draconian" and "another milestone in Russia's relentless dismantling ytrrandefriheten" writes the BBC.
Social Media and Google may suffer

Under the bill, all the sites that handle information about Russian citizens store them on servers located in Russia - which could mean that sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google may shut down in September 2016 if they do not follow the requirements.

- They want back the Iron Curtain, with everything written on paper, as in the Soviet Union. It feels like the Duma to lock us into a cell armor to protect us, but without asking if we need it, said Vladimir Kantorovitj, vice-president of a lobbying organization for the Russian tour operators, told AFP in July.

Putin has repeatedly stressed that he is skeptical about the Internet, including by calling it "a CIA project."

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I'm sure it'll be fine, everyone laughed at Romney when he said that Russia was going to be a problem in the future.

Right, guys?  Right?

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Goodbye America

Hello third world nation

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Money for the military is even more screwed up in Russia than it is here. A portion of it will just flat be stolen by everyone from Politicians to Generals and shoddy worksmanship also hurts them. (even worse than in the US) so it will not boost them as much as people think that it will.

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Send in the Krauts.....again.

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2020 is 6 years away... hell almost 5 years.



5 years for an entire first world army overhaul including design, acquisitions, and training?

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It's ok.  We're not worried.  We got Area 51.  I'm not sayin it's aliens but.....

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The Bolsheviks are no doubt rearming, but that plan seems overly optimistic. There's no way they can achieve it in only 5 years.