cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59867996
German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR, and NDR also cite the report, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears intent on testing NATO’s Article 5 guarantees. The alliance’s mutual defence clause obliges member states to come to one another’s aid if attacked. The assessment suggests Putin may seek to challenge how seriously that commitment would be honoured.
Taking how successful Russia was on the battlefield of Ukraine, I’m going to go ahead and say “try us”
I know that Europe is a bit behind on military spending but that is rapidly changing and in the meantime Russia lost nearly a million soldiers on the frontline. That alone is enough to cripple the nation for the next two decades.
It’s hard to see how Russia is going to do anything of that. The only “strength” it currently has is misinformation which works well for the US right now but that will have its limits soon enough
Nuclear exchange. Yeah it’s possible they nukes were maintained about as well as their tanks. It’s also possible that we’re entirely fucked.
It’s not just whether or not the missiles were maintained, they probably weren’t, but due to the amount of corruption it’s also possible they are lacking critical components that Russia thinks they still have.
Every bad guy in every movie gets his nuclear material from some corrupt Russian military official. Maybe it’s true.
Yeah? And if you’re wrong we’re fucked. To be clear it’s not that you or I could do anything about it. We’re just either fucked or going to have the world’s biggest laugh at the Russians.
What’s the alternative alternative? Roll over and let Russia invade? Then we’re all fucked anyway. Might as well take the chance of standing up instead of dying lying down.
Yeah. I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m just mad.