Russia's military going into 2015

They have at least $400bn in reserves (the reserves they officially acknowledge - experts say they are probably much bigger in reality) and Putin has already said he won't be spending them propping up the Rouble (after all, that would involve being nice to his own people and not allowing their living standards to plummet ), so it's reasonable to assume that much of this is ring fenced for arms spending.

Putin appears to be fully committed to a modern Russian Empire with a bizarre ideology based on ridiculously rich plutocratic oligarchs who mainly operate outside the country, manufactured fake-hate of the West whilst most of its oligarchical rulers prefer London and a 100% total disinterest in the sort of serious internal growth and economic development programmes that a country would undertake if it cared about its people.

Against this background, it's reasonable to be nervous that the former KGB stooge has a plan to intimidate us with renewed armed might. That nicely coincides with the wishes of NATO and western arms industries to renew the cold war. How happy the ruling groups must be with the way things are developing! Putin is the darling of the military industrial complex in both hemispheres.

Have you ever met Mr Putin? He's very nice when you get to know him.

Hitlers irrationality and irrational orders resulted in disasters like Kursk and Stalingrad, and in the end, the ruin and fall of Germany.

weren't the plans to hold stalingrad mostly reliant on supplies and goring claimed that the luftwaffe had the capability to supply the army? do you not think stalingrad could have been held with adequate supplies?

weren't the plans to hold stalingrad mostly reliant on supplies and goring claimed that the luftwaffe had the capability to supply the army? do you not think stalingrad could have been held with adequate supplies?

Personally I think that it was another of Hitler's poor decisions that led German forces to concentrated on Stalingrad in the first place. Moscow was the centre of gravity as far as the Soviet Union was concerned, all railways led to Moscow, if that had been captured before winter, which was entirely possible, then Russia would have been knocked out of the war. As it was, the Germans were held at Stalingrad and an entire Army destroyed because Hitler refused to let them retreat and draw the enemy into one of Mansteins traps. While holding the Germans the Soviets used their railway network to, not only ferry troops and materiel to the northern flanks of the Germans, but also to dismantle and ship entire factories to the safety of the Russian interior.

Stalingrad was symbolic because it was named after the leader of the Soviet Union.

Had the roles been reversed, Stalin would've thrown everything he had at hitler burg

The Germans made many mistakes on the eastern front, but there biggest was believing that blitzkrieg tactics would overcome the expanse of the Russian steps

No, but I'm sure he's lovely. He likes wrestling bears, going around naked, Communist East Germany and Judo. What's not to like?

Exactly. The sort of person you might take to meet your Grandma!

Just like Tariq Aziz! Splendid chap. His wife cooked Tony Benn a meal...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30587924

Ukraine has voted to drop non-aligned status.

Good luck to them, however if they think E.Ukraine or even Crimea (which they keep claiming as theirs) will be part of NATO one day, they're in for a surprise.
Besides NATO has much higher military standards which Ukraine's military is no where near meeting. They would need to put in a lot of money (which they don't have due to being essentially bankrupt) so The US will probably fund their entry into NATO.

I don't think I would take him to meet my Grandma. He would be cheeky and probably not very good company, all those lectures about why Crimea is rightfully Russian and how the saddest day in human history was the collapse of the glorious Soviet Union.

Well I won't bore you with why Kaliningrad is rightfully German... or why Hong Kong is rightfully British...

I thought he wants to rebuild the Russian Empire rather than the Soviet one.

Allegedly he has told friends in the past that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the cause of all current problems. Clearly he has morphed into a sort of latter-day Tsar but without the fashionable moustache, haemophiliac relatives and European wife.

Is his wife from Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica or America?

Allegedly he has told friends in the past that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the cause of all current problems. Clearly he has morphed into a sort of latter-day Tsar but without the fashionable moustache, haemophiliac relatives and European wife.

He just needs to hijack air force one and start ranting about the west being trampled under the boots of Mother Russia.