PARANOID, AND LOVING IT
Strategy Page –
June 24, 2007
July 2, 2007: Russia will veto a Kosovo independence vote in the UN,
fearing that the dismemberment of Serbia will encourage separatists
in Russia and some of its neighbors (Georgia, Armenia and Moldova).
Russia also fears that an independent Kosovo will become a refuge
for Islamic terrorists, as it believes Bosnia has.
July 1, 2007: The government has passed laws that make it more
difficult for new political parties to be formed, and to operate. In
addition, existing parties are complaining of many hacker attacks
on their web sites and network access. This is seen as a government
Cyber War capability, which the government denies, but which keeps
showing up when the government needs it.
June 30, 2007: There are still terrorist incidents in Chechnya, but
they occur about once a week, about as frequently as new arrests
of terrorists are made. Most of the surviving Chechen terrorists
have moved to neighboring areas, or farther abroad. The Chechen
government, now run by Chechens, wants to end the amnesty program,
because those who were serious about using it have, and those who
haven’t just use the amnesty program to catch a break between bouts
of terrorist activity.
June 28, 2007: After several failures, there was a successful test
of the new ballistic missile, the Bulava. This is a naval version of
the Topol-M ICBM, which has finally entered mass production. Topol-M
uses solid fuel, and is similar to the American Minuteman.
June 26, 2007: Russia does not believe Iran would be stupid enough
to fire missiles at Europe. Therefore, the Russians cannot believe
the American anti-missile system being installed in Eastern Europe
can be anything but a sneaky way to begin construction of a missile
defense against Russian rockets. After all, Russia knows it is hated
and feared in Eastern Europe, which is why those nations offered to
host parts of the anti-missile system. Russians love a good conspiracy,
and this missile defense situation fits the bill.
June 24, 2007: Russia is pouring billions of dollars into research,
reviving the vast research organization that existed throughout
the Soviet period. Most of the Soviet research institutes were
inefficient, and only 3,500 of them, containing about 600,000
researchers, survive. But many of these are operations that adapted,
and found work in a market economy. Modeling their government research
efforts on programs used successfully in Western nations, Russia sees
the possibility of finally taking the lead in many key areas, like
nanotechnology. Any technology edge can be translated into a military
edge, because Russia has managed to keep key defense industries
intact. New weapons are being produced, and future ones developed.