The Russian Economy and Russian Power

Posted by Matt in July 27th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, American Forces, American States, Analytic Framework, Banking Sector, Barack Obama, Countries Of The Former Soviet Union, Former Soviet Union, George Friedman, High Risk, Joe Biden, Population Base, President Joe, Russian Economy, Russian Power, Russian Talks, Sensitive Countries, Shrinking Population, Sphere Of Influence, Stratfor, Wall Street Journal

By George Friedman at Stratfor.Com
The Russian Resurgence
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Georgia and Ukraine partly answered questions over how U.S.-Russian talks went during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Russia in early July. That Biden’s visit took place at all reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the principle that Russia does not have the [...]

Forecast 2009

Posted by Matt in April 6th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Geopolitical, Black Death, centrifuges, Chemical Warheads, Cities Of Israel, Commodity Production, Educational System, Fight To The Death, Forecast, Great Depression, Hamas, hezbollah, Iran Iran, Knock Down, Missiles, Never Again, Nuclear Warhead, Nuclear Warheads, Population One, Rapprochement, Russian Power, Stratfor, Subprime Mortgage Crisis

Stratfor gave itself an F for completely missing the subprime mortgage crisis. The biggest economic story since the great depression, and Stratfor completely missed it. Ouch!
I think Stratfor’s analysis of Russia is correct in that Russia is in a long-term decline. Short-term, however, anything goes. By short-term I mean the next 15 to 20 years.
Strafor’s [...]

Global Trend: The Russian Resurgence

Posted by Matt in February 5th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, Adversarial Relationship, Baltics, Buffer Zone, Central Asia, Central Europe, Commodity Production, Currency Reserves, Debt Default, Economic Capability, Economic Challenges, Financial Edge, Global Recession, Global Trend, Myriad Tools, Population One, Relative Terms, Reserve Funds, Ruble Crash, Russian Power, Term Prognosis

Russian power is in long-term decline. Compared to the Soviet Union in 1989, the Russian Federation has less than half the population, one-third the economic bulk, lower commodity production and vastly decreased industrial output. Demographically, Russia is both shrinking and aging at rates that have not been seen outside of wartime since the time of [...]

Blunder: A New Age for Russia

Posted by Matt in December 26th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Economy, Russia, Appearance, Borders, Caucasus, Central Asia, Decade, Europe, gazprom, Natural Gas Pipelines, New Age, New Era, Pipeline, putin, Retrenchment, rivalry, Russia, Russian Power, South Stream, Soviet Collapse, Sweat

In August, Putin’s Russia seemed unstoppable, specifically after its five-day war with Georgia punctured the appearance of a new era of U.S. power in the former Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia. Georgia seemed the crowning achievement of a several-year-campaign of projecting Russian power over its borders after a decade of retrenchment following the Soviet collapse. [...]

Militant Possibilities on the New-Old Front

Posted by Matt in September 17th, 2008 | no comment

Published in New Cold War, Russia, Confrontation, Espionage, Fred Burton, FSB, Hallmark, Intelligence Agencies, Islamist Rebels, KGB, Military Action, North Koreans, North Vietnamese, Propaganda Campaigns, Proxies, Rebels In Afghanistan, Resurgence, Russia And The United States, Russian Power, Russian Strategic Bombers, Soviet Support, Sphere Of Influence

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
Over the past several months we have written quite a bit about the Russian resurgence. This discussion predates Russia’s military action in Georgia. Indeed, we have discussed the revival of Russian power since at least 2005, the implications of the FSB’s return since April and the potential return of the [...]