Is the world heading toward another Cold War? Or should we call it “Cold War 2.0”? Some scholars have used this term to mark the rise of Russia or rather the resurgence of the former Soviet Republic under the shrewd leadership of Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s rise to the top once more has been remarkable considering the fact that the country was torn to shreds following its heavy defeat in the Afghan war and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. The poor economy, broken alliances and the rude awakening to the fact that the United States was then the sole super power of the world mean things have not been easy.
Russia has reached the military level of the U.S.
Under Putin, Russia has once against leapt to a position that the country dearly craves: at the pinnacle of world politics. Russia wants to be involved in global politics once more, and its recent moves have indicated what course of action Moscow is taking. The annexation of Crimea and ongoing revolt against the Ukrainian government was just the start. Russia has now entered the Middle East to help out its ally, Bashar al Assad, in Syria.
The Russian Air Force has been carrying out attacks against the infamous terrorist group ISIS in Syria, and that has put Moscow in direct confrontation with the United States to some extent. Washington wants Assad gone for good and has been aiding the rebel group in Syria in order to oust the monarch from his position. Russia, however, has other plans and has backed Assad, and Moscow has remained true to its words, to a great extent, until now.
The question that arises now is whether the Russian army is strong enough to challenge the United States. And can Russian forces defeat the U.S. Army? There was a general consensus among the leading nations of the world that Russia is past its best times. The disintegration of the Soviet Union has broken the back of the Russian military, and the country cannot achieve the status of having one of the best military forces in the world. But the events in recent months have proven that wrong.
U.S. predictions proven wrong by Russia
Scholars were of the view that the failing economy, coupled with the high level of corruption in the government, will lead to Russia’s collapse in the 21st Century. Not only that, Russia’s over-reliance on its oil resources will not help it in the long term as oil resources will dry out at some point and Russia will come crushing down as a result. However, the reality is contrary to what was being predicted.
Recent military reforms made by the Putin administration have seen Russia rise to a level which otherwise was considered impossible by the West. Russia can now openly boast of having a military force that, if not better than that of the United States, can rival it in terms of modernization and its lethal attributes. Not so long ago, such claims of Russians having an army as good as that of the United States would have been laughed off. But things have changed now. Expert opinions have changed regarding Moscow’s military capabilities. As things stand, only Russia has increased its military capability to a record high, Moscow is now on par with the United States’ army, and what more, the Russian army can very well defeat the U.S. army in combat if the two nations ever come to blows, according to some experts.
Politico magazine, one of the most respected and authentic military magazines in the world, recently reported that if there comes a head-to-head confrontation between the U.S. military and Russian forces, there are huge chances that the Russian army will inflict heavy losses on the U.S.
The word is out in the open. Even Pentagon officials are now admitting that Russian forces have achieved a level where they can now challenge and even defeat the U.S. army in the battlefield. The Russian force is now a major threat to U.S. hegemony in the world as no other force in the world can boast to be on par with the capabilities of NATO.
The surprising factor in this scenario is that Russian military spending is nowhere near to what Washington spends on its military. In the last decade or so, for every $10 the United States has spent on a soldier, Russia, in contrast, has spent just $1 in that time frame.
Russia ready to challenge U.S. military might?
This is not a small gap, and Russia has only started to increase its military spending a little more than it used to do in the last two or three years. How on Earth Russia managed to achieve that feat is surprising and incredible. One answer to that question could be that Putin, who was once again named the most powerful individual in the world by Forbes, has a tight grip on Russian authorities and has cut down the corruption that has been infesting the country for years. If that is true, Russia will only go higher from here, and there is no looking back for the former Soviet Union.
To sum it up, it would not be wrong to assume that Russia has reached a level where it can not only challenge the U.S. army but defeat it as well. Is America still the sole super power in the world? Yes, it is, but for how long remains to be seen.
