Even if you leave nuclear weapons in the equation, it doesnt take 8k nukes to cleanse the entirety of Russia of human life. The UK alone could probably destroy every major town and city in Russia with it's pitiful (relative) number of nukes, any more than that is a waste of resources. It was Kruschev himself who said the following:
''I remember President Kennedy once stated... that the United States had the nuclear missile capacity to wipe out the Soviet Union two times over, while the Soviet Union had enough atomic weapons to wipe out the United States only once... When journalists asked me to comment... I said jokingly, "Yes, I know what Kennedy claims, and he's quite right. But I'm not complaining... We're satisfied to be able to finish off the United States first time round. Once is quite enough. What good does it do to annihilate a country twice? We're not a bloodthirsty people."
As quoted in Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament (1974)
Are you French or Russian? If you are French and live in France, would you like to go and live in Russia? You do realize that in this delusion of yours where mighty Russia righteously overthrows the evil western empire with nukes (cos the rest of their military is a joke) France will be just as much nuked as the rest of the world. You might like to talk tough on Russia's behalf, there is no form of warfare that Russia would win at present, their military is shit and full of so much cannon-fodder, and the moment Russia fires a nuke because it realises they stand no chance in the field, they get assfucked by every non-russian nuke on the planet. That's not a victory, it's assisted suicide. Some might call that a victory for the rest of the world.
Thanks, but I know what nuclear dissuasion is. I've grown in this period. The question is that you can't consider Russia like Iraq or Afghanistan. It's a bit more complicated.
It wouldn't be a problem to live in Russia (Depardieu did
), I think you can buy a big house and field for nothing. And it's a beautiful country. But I don't speak Russian and I prefer tropical countries (Cuba, for exemple ;) )
PArtnership between Russia and China is not a joke. There is a huge program of mutual development between them : Russia will furnish gas and oil across central Asia, weapons (SU24 etc.) and building of railroads for goods. And they won't use the $ currency. We talk about billions of investments during the next 20 years.
And this is the worst scenario for the empire : end of naval domination, end of $$$ domination, end of political domination. A huge Asian Power Russia-China-Iran that continental Europe and India could join.
This is the main question for the world actually. Not all these "terrorism" bullshits that you can see in your favorite media.