Good Evening everyone…

I have not been on much lately. I have been enjoying the time pursuing other activities. Contrary to popular belief I have not been reflecting on my Christianity nor have I been thinking much about the Biblical end of the world.

            But the end of the world as we know it has been on my mind. To be more precise a return to the world we used to live in…

            I have written a few articles on this site about the pending reassertion of Russia’s power over the eastern part of the globe, and today many of my thoughts were vindicated to one degree or another. There has been an ongoing silent dance with Vladimir Putin over the last several months which has grown with quiet intensity. Not that we are doing a full foxtrot yet or anything like that, but we are indeed starting to up the tempo.

            SSN, perhaps you have heard the term, refers to the latest class of Russian submarine. The Russian Navy has recently given the go ahead to finish construction of several of these units which were abandoned soon after the fall of the Soviet Union due to a lack of funding.  Started in the 1970’s the first of these was deployed in 1984 with the last seeing service in 1996. Thirteen are known to exist but the thought of these smaller multipurpose attack submarines is something that should be watched carefully.

Kilo class Russian submarines have been deployed as recently as 2000, but the newest was to deploy in 2005 but has been on hold for funding issues. We will return to Russia’s funding issues again later. Keep in mind, according to the Russian Navy, no less than 4 new Nuclear Submarines are scheduled to be commissioned between now and late 2009.

            Then there are the Bears. Bear refer to the class of Russian airplane with a particular purpose; they are bombers in every sense of the word.  For the first time since the break up of the Soviet Union these massive TU-95 bombers are again airborne and restarting the cat and mouse or more like cat and cat game in the skies just outside of U.S. and Canadian airspace. No less than seven such exercises have been carried out this year, each being met by American and Canadian F-15’s in the air. While they have the right to run these “training” missions and have been very good about alerting the U.S. and NATO through the Russian Press prior to initiating them, it lends credibility to the idea that the Great Russian Bear is again rising from the ashes.

            But it was this week’s visit to Iran by Vladimir Putin that cemented in my mind that Cold War II is starting. While actions speak louder than words most times, when it comes to Russian leaders they tend to be somewhat direct in their words. Who can forget Khrushchev saying they would “bury” us. Putin has the luxury of history to be a little more careful in his choice of words, but this line, "We are saying that no (Caspian) nations should offer their territory to outside powers for aggression or any military action against any of the Caspian states," should not be taken lightly by anyone.

            Many will undoubtedly lay claim to this as Bush’s fault. If we were not in Iraq and making threatening overtones towards Iran, Putin would have had no reason to go there. I can’t say that this is an entirely lame argument. It may well have some merit as far as Russia doing this at this time. There is little doubt that our presences in the area, along with the Iranian Presidents harsh rhetoric are driving oil prices into the stratosphere.

            But I would put forth the argument that Russia was destine to do what they do, they have always regrouped within a generation into a new conglomerate of some kind or another, be it Russian, Soviet or some other power base. We are only a catalyst for the timing, nothing more.

            Vladimir Putin is an old school Soviet, make no mistake, and he intends to secure for himself and his powerbase the foundation he needs to continue to act in his current position as both Russian President and more ominously, Party Chairman. While the name of the party may have changed, it is the same communists running the show; they’ve simply embraced a bit of capitalism along the way.

            This is where we return to the Russian funding problems. Surprise, it’s over. Russia today sits on billions of dollars in liquid assets along with a tremendous amount of gold, black gold that is, OIL. This is where the money to re-commission the Russian military is coming from. And Russia’s biggest fear, we might get our hands on it.

            Several Caspian states are entering into or are in negotiations with American companies to help them bring this magical elixir to the modern market place, and those negotiating the contracts are doing it without running it through Russian land. This removes the current middle man out of the equation, thus reducing the amount of oil revenue the Russians can get their hands on.

            As much as the left has decried our involvement in Iraq as a war for oil, a war with Iran would be just that, but not necessarily on our side. Moscow will fight to keep that oil revenue, and those independent countries who want to work with the west may well discover one morning that they are no longer free countries at all.

            All in all this works out well for liberals who have for the last decade complained of the U.S. as a Hyper-Power, no longer matched on the north Asian continent by another power. They had their hopes that perhaps the E.U. would provide some bit of equilibrium to the world and stand more independent of the U.S. but they have proven that they have too much in-fighting to be at all effective in such a role.

            So it is again to the former Soviet Union that they pin their hopes of stability in the world, a world they see as lopsided and usury. Just as in the 80’s when they felt sure Reagan and Thatcher would bring about the end of civilization through a massive exchange of technology, nuclear technology that is, they again turn to the east in search of salvation. Perhaps in the end they are right. Perhaps it is the Russian President, Vladimir Putin who can return things to their rightful place, providing the much needed stability of Cold War II.

 
But what would I know; I’m just an Average American.