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Do you now consider Russia an enemy of the UK?

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"Is Putin that insane?"
In his quest to return Russia to its past glories (imagined or real), if Putin is serious, he has only two trump cards: ageing nuclear weapons and oil and gas. The latter just lost half its power. He can't afford to let the nuclear weapons get too old, since he can't replace enough of them.
Russians don't seem to view the use of nuclear weapons with the same horror we do. Recent polls suggest significant numbers of Russians think they could win a nuclear war, and state media there has been broadcasting on the topic. You have to wonder why. Russia's nuclear stockpile is an enormous source of prestige to Russians, many of them don't really understand the effects of them, as a society they are entirely accustomed to horrific slaughter on an industrial scale, and the bloodshed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima is a drop in the ocean to Russians.
From a Russian perspective, World War 2 was such a national trauma that it is taken for granted that it is completely unacceptable for Russia to be invaded again. Since 1945, the basic concept of Russian defence has been that Russia's defence is to destroy their enemies' forces by advancing into other countries and either annihilating their forces, or at least holding them well out of reach of Russia. After the fall of Communism, it came to light that Warsaw Pact tactics included the pre-emptive use of small numbers of tactical nuclear weapons in middle Europe to prevent Western forces from deploying successfully. The assumption was that the Americans, French and British wouldn't launch strategic nuclear weapons against Russian soil (and end the world), if the Soviets didn't directly attack them with nuclear weapons. That assumption is probably correct. Further, Putin knows that Russia can't win an arms race, nor win a large-scale conventional war. So, if he's confident he'd get away with it, and given that he doesn't hold human life in much regard, it's not impossible that Putin might try that, if he thinks he can get to a stage where it'll protect the current political system in Russia.
The other major difference there is that in the West, when a president loses power, he can expect to survive afterwards; in Russia, no leader could afford to lose power because they won't survive their successor in a gangster state - either being assassinated as a political threat, prosecuted for their crimes and corruption, or just disappearing. In that situation, Putin has to do whatever it takes to remain in power. He presides over a failing economic system and therefore all he can do is to become more oppressive or more militaristic. Scary!

Reply 201

MatureStudent36

Looks like russia
Is starting another nuclear arms race.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5N0Z248620150616?irpc=932

Reply 202

The Warsmith

Original post by MatureStudent36

Looks like russia
Is starting another nuclear arms race.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5N0Z248620150616?irpc=932

So? Who cares? NATO is constantly upgrading its tech. Are Russians forbidden from doing so?

Reply 203

MatureStudent36

Original post by Ser Alex Toyne

So? Who cares? NATO is constantly upgrading its tech. Are Russians forbidden from doing so?

Not quite a case of 'routine' Russian upgrades though.

Poland and the baltics are in talks about hosting a NATO/US armoured brigade as well as they're feeling threatened by Russian expansionism.