The Militarization Of Russia

This was formerly posted as "Made In Russia".

This is my view of how the west manipulates Russia, and how this is the most important factor in Russian relations with the west. We do not want war with Russia, but yet we don't want peace either. The reason is that the policy of the west toward Russia is based on economics.

The primary objective of the west toward Russia is not to have war with it, but to keep it out of the consumer goods market so that we can keep that market for ourselves, and Russia has gone along with it.

Russia has some great accomplishments. But those accomplishments do not get translated into global consumer goods, and that is the way the west wants it. The real goal of the west in dealing with Russia is to keep it so that Russia does not produce consumer goods that will compete with those from the west, and it has succeeded at that goal.

Russia produced the world's assault rifle, the legendary AK-47 which is in use all over the world. It detonated the largest bomb ever, the Tsar Bomba. It was the first to put an object in orbit, Sputnik, and the first to put a man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Russia was the first nation to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first to land a spacecraft on the moon (unmanned), and the first to send spacecraft to other planets.

Russia is capable of great things and is clearly not a nation to take lightly, and the west is well-aware of this.

What if Russia put it's technical capabilities into producing consumer goods? Those consumer goods might have given formidable competition to the consumer goods of the west, and the west did not want that to happen. The west wanted to keep the world consumer goods market for itself, because that was what really counted in bringing about prosperity.

So what the west did was find a way to manipulate Russia into not putting it's capabilities into consumer goods. The way that the west did this was not to have war but to make Russia, with it's long history of being invaded, feel threatened enough so that it put the best of it's productive capacity into military hardware, instead of consumer goods.

When considering the policy of the west toward Russia, remember the following sentence. This single sentence describes where the west would like Russia to direct the best of it's productive capacity.

The sentence to remember is: "Awesome tanks that will never be used for anything".

By making it feel threatened, but stopping short of actual war, that is where the west would like Russia to direct the best of it's productive capacity. Instead of producing consumer goods that will compete with ours, the west wants Russia to produce awesome tanks that, other then a parade through Red Square, will likely never be used for anything.

That is one reason why the Cold War is back. The west cannot let relations with Russia get too friendly, because then it might turn it's productive capacity to making consumer goods that compete with those of the west. What the west wants is not to have actual war, but to keep Russia focused on producing those "awesome tanks that will never be used for anything".

The way to win the world is not by producing tanks and missiles. It is to get the world driving our cars, riding our bikes, wearing our clothes, flying in our planes, and talking on our phones.

The T-34 was the Russian "wonder tank" of the Second World War. Russia, then as the Soviet Union, was victorious in Kursk, the greatest tank battle of all time. Before that, an earlier Soviet tank had been decisive in the victory against Japan at Khalkin Gol.

But yet after the war it was German and Japanese cars that swept the world. How did Russia's tanks not get translated into consumer cars? Where was the Russian version of Volkswagen and Toyota?

I live near a main road and the warm weather is filled with the buzz of Japanese bikes, Yamaha, Suzuki and, Kawasaki. But if Russia can make the world's assault rifle, the AK-47, then why can't it make the world's bike?

Russia's Alexander Popov probably contributed as much as anyone to the development of radio. But where is Russia's counterpart to companies like Phillips, Sony, Siemens and, Panasonic? Where is the Russian version of the iPhone? That would give the world even more choice in consumer electronics.

A Russian, Igor Sikorsky, is regarded as the inventor of the helicopter. So couldn't Russia market planes to the world to compete with Boeing and Airbus, instead of specializing in warplanes?

A Russian, then Soviet, spacecraft was the first to photograph the far side of the moon. This had never been seen before because the same side of the moon always faces earth, and was a great achievement. So where are the Russian cameras on the market and the Russian competitors to Fuji and Xerox?

The business interests of the west, of course, do not want Russia to make any of these things and export them to the world. That would be competing against western goods. What is wanted is for Russia to keep on putting the best of it's productive capacity into those "awesome tanks that, hopefully, will never be used for anything".

That was also part of America's strategy during the Cold War. For America to be known to the world as specializing in producing consumer goods that enhance life, while the Soviet Union specialized in producing weapons systems that kill people. Which nation do you think would be more popular?

If Russia would really like to advance on the west the way to do it is with the new Russian sports car that all the world is talking about.