The collapse of its manufacturing economy was one of the main reasons that the Soviet Union itself collapsed -- the consequences of a military-industrial complex run amok -- and I'm not sure, but I suspect that the manufacturing base hasn't been put together again.  Therefore, unlike China and to a lesser extent India, Russia only gets standing as a "Great Power" because of the leftover effects of its nuclear weapons.  Otherwise, it's just another fossil-fuel economy.

What it's doing now is typical Russian behavior for, oh,maybe the last 500 years?  Always probing and pushing to see if there are any weaknesses. They don't have enough wealth to keep this up for very long.

Their debts are paid, they have a surplus.  They are feeding off of our oil addiction.

Their corruption is infinite.  No human values exist in their power structure.  It is a neoconservative paradise.  With nuclear weapons.

It is like the exxonmob with their own country, unopposed by any legal structure, even the flimsy remnants of a constitution like we have is nonexistent there.

There is only one way to stop this hell on earth from spreading.  Oil prices must fall.  Only demand reduction can acomplish that.  In short.

The security of the US and the free world depends upon reduucing the demand for oil.  It's a cold war again, but it can't be won with bluster and an arms race this time.  

Bankruptcy stopped the Bear in the former cold war, only bankruptcy will stop them this time.  If OPEC and the exxonmob and the Saudis need to be bankrupted too, well that's a shame.  It's the fortunes of war.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

If population decline is considered an economic problem, then we need to say screw economics.

Wolverine.  Another great point.  Got to remember that and incorporate it in the whole symbiotic strategy for this renewable/conservation energy and agriculture re-evolution.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

...their new reign in the oil world will likely reek havoc on some of their local ecosystems...

...on the other hand, it's also helped to drive up oil prices on the world stage.

Actually, it's the other way around...when you get a whole lot of people making a whole lot of money, they are less likely to coalesce around a single dictator.   Right now, Moscow is trying to hold it together.   I don't think those troops in Georgia even know whose orders they are taking...even if they are taking any orders!  They seem like the equivalent of a Hell's Angels troupe that rolled into town doing whatever they please.

The U.S.S.R. was powerful because its people had no wealth of their own and became dependent wards of the state...this is Al Gore's vision of a Green Dictatorship...everyone enslaved to Light Rail systems.

The new Hydrogen economy allows independence of generation and a loosely coupled grid.  It lets us build homes far away from the dying inner urb and spread into the hinterland yet enjoying the benefits of electricity and water.

when you get a whole lot of people making a whole lot of money, they are less likely to coalesce around a single dictator.

While this is true, it should be pointed out that Russia has a nationalized oil industry.

In other words, not so much many rich people as just a few very rich people.

And because the oil resources belong to the government, the government controls it.  And the very rich people are likely to support a government that will keep the oil in their very few hands and thus continue to make 'em very rich.

...Not that it's that much different than private oil companies, they just cut out some middle men.

You two are a bunch of quacks, completely unfamiliar with the story, and spouting purely preconceived notions without educating yourselves about the issue and the general state of global politics.

Please refrain from posting about issues until you decide to leave the country and see for yourselves what is going on in other parts of the world.

Thank you.

"You two are a bunch of quacks.....Please refrain from posting about issues until you decide to leave the country and see for yourselves what is going on in other parts of the world."

That hurts, being "bunched" in with Bailo.

So "pooty poot" is really a pretty nice feller?  That whole Pollonium thing was just a hoax? Chernobyl and the aftermath, just a tabloid story.

Russian troops are very respectful of civilian populations and POWs.  I stand corrected, your world traveling wisdom has made me see the light.

That's very different then, nevermind.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

I've read about Lake Victoria.  Imperialism at its finest, of both the economic and environmental kind (environmental imperialism? hmmm...)  Anyway, the point about Russia is that their currency was sort of floating on air for a few years after the Soviet Union collapsed, until the international economy figured out (it took them that long?) that the Russians couldn't exchange anything for the stuff that they were importing because their manufacturing economy had collapsed, and thus the ruble plummetted.  Much of the population there stuffs rolls of hundred dollar bills in their mattresses and gets worried when the US treasury changes the bill.  

Unfortunately, I can't answer Pangolin's question about the state of their non-fossil fuel economy, but it's a good question.

AFAIK, Norway defies the thesis that petro riches corrupt absolutely.  I think it's likely a contributing factor, but not the only one.

The relative roles played by the multinational oil companies also should be examined in this context.

What one does with the petro riches is more of a long term factor in whether destruction or sustainability is seeded.  If a nation were to invest in sustainable energy sources with the short-term profits of the fossil fuelishness, they may just escape the reaper's call when the oil wells run dry.  

Gore's "inconvenient" hopeful effort was based on the well founded assumption that most oil-rich folk (T Boone Pickens recent conversion notwithstanding) prefer the status quo and would rather buy metals, furs and diamonds (or real estate) than invest in sustainable energy on a crash course.

Moving toward sustainability with hopefulness, one revolution at a time.