It's Happening | |
Yes, what is happening exactly? Russia sends some bombers on patrol. So what? | |
That's pretty much my thought on it too. | |
What Hardcore_gamer said. This is just Russia doing some muscle-flexing to show the world that it still (once again, maybe) is an international player of magnitude. If nothing else a Swedish journalist pointed out something very obvious the other week: Russia is run by a bunch of oligarchs, these oligarchs have invested heavily in real estate, companies etc. in western Europe and America. For them to try and pursue any form of war with "the west" would amount to them destroying billions of their own assets. When the Russian oligarchs start selling off their western holdings en-masse, then I'll be worried. | |
Russia is doing what it has been doing since the cold war, shit like this, the bear puffing itself up trying to increase its weight in diplomatic discussions with the US. They are saying 'look at us, we matter'. If they are going to go to war, it will not start with a lone patrol of bombers to an outlying US base. Always ask how it looks from the other party's point of view before making statements. | |
OT: This is just minor posturing. To think that Putin would threaten the US just to threaten the US is giving him far to little credit. My guess is that he did this to make his government look better in the eyes of Russians. | |
The Russians love doing that, they've been poking into NATO airspace with Tu-95s since the beginning of the Cold War. Damn things are about as stealthy as their NATO reporting name so they get intercepted every time. Look back at the reports, it happens every few months, there's no real malice behind it, just posturing. | |
Oh please don't start with the Cold War fear mongering.
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This must be in response to the meteor strike. Perhaps it was really a mass driver test by the USA provoking a Russian response?! EDIT: Blablahb's right. The Reuters source is from 2007, the other source is from WND. Also: | |
This is years old news. There've been occasional Russian bomber flights over the North Sea for years. | |
Everyone who DOES have nukes, is constantly having bombers fly all over the world, all the time. This is old, old, old, old news, and you should be ashamed for being so fear mongering about it. | |
posturing and pretty friendly posturing at that. ive seen lots of photos of the crews taking snap shots of each other and waving even when the cold war was still a thing | |
Well, it's not true that all nuclear nations constantly have bomber flights going (if you've got SSBNs, those are much better), but yeah, nothing new here. | |
The TU-95 is a relic if nothing else im surprised that the 70 yr old turboprops managed to reach Guam... Russia's bomber fleet, and their ICMB's for that matter are old, were not maintained properly, and for the pass 30 years or so were scavenged to keep their fleet flight worthy and to be sold as scrap metal... | |
Well, looks like Putin is considering his legacy... Did they patrol with Kirovs? No? Then there's nothing to worry about. :) | |
No, not any more. Russia is run by Siloviki (ex military and security services) or else this would never have happened: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323511804578299830743968270.html The oligarchs don't have nearly as much power as in the Yeltsin years, any remaining oligarchs are puppets of Putin. | |
Well, the Russians DO seem to think that the meteor that exploded over Siberia was a US weapons test... | |
Doesn't matter, it showed how poor the soviet AWS and air defense systems are... | |
http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/russian-nuclear-armed-bombers-over-guam/?cat_orig=world
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/09/russia.sorties.reut/index.html
Do I need to say more?