Russian to Judgment

by Lance Thompson

Our military is proving ever more proficient at engaging, defeating, and killing the enemy at hand–the jihadists who have taken the pledge to destroy our culture and murder us. However, even as we gain the upper hand in this struggle, other enemies are rearming and aggressively asserting their power throughout the globe. Some we know all too well.

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, it was evident to every freedom loving person that the Soviet Union had lost the Cold War. President Reagan reversed the decade-long decline of American influence and refused to accept inferiority or even parity with Soviet military power. Reagan challenged the Soviets, built up a military they could not afford to match, outmaneuvered them diplomatically, all without the long-feared clash of armies or nuclear war.

But the Russians aren’t the type who gracefully accept a loss, bound over the net and shake hands with the winner. When Russia was invaded by Napoleon in the 19^th Century and Hitler in the 20^th--two of the most powerful armies the world has seen--the Russians suffered terrible losses. They withdrew, regrouped, and came back stronger than ever to prevail.

While we see the fall of the Wall as a moment of triumph that ended Communist domination of Eastern Europe, the Russians see it as a temporary, if severe, setback from which they will eventually recover.

The Russian defeat has not converted them to democracy, although their nation has adopted its trappings and nomenclature for the consumption of the gullible. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin arranged to resign his office after the end of his second term, secure himself the even more powerful position of prime minister, and replace himself with a president who is sure to do his bidding–Dmitry Mevedev. Prior to the election, on Kremlin orders, Russian police violently harassed potential rival candidates such as former chess champion Gary Kasparov and Mikhail Kayanov. The Kremlin also closely controlled televised campaign coverage, and put up a straw man opposition group, A Just Russia, to maintain the appearance of an open election.

Putin spent the cold war in the KGB, the Soviet Union’s ruthless and brutal state security and intelligence service, charged with devising ways to attack, engage, mystify, discredit and steal from the United States. The old KGB is now the new FSB, the same cutthroat outfit with new initials. Putin is a cold warrior who has not accepted defeat, and the resurgent Communist nation he leads will follow his directives. According to Sir Paul Lever, a former member of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, Russian espionage activity in Britain is as active today as it was during the height of the Cold War.

The Russians have not given up their brutal methods of suppressing protest, resistance or rebellion. In 2006, the Duma, Russia’s state parliament, voted to authorize FSB hunter-killer groups to execute enemies of the state anywhere in the world, using methods from poisoning to car bombing. In Novemer 2006, such a group murdered former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who had chronicled FSB atrocities, including staging deadly apartment bombings that were blamed on Chechen rebels. Dissidents inside Russia are still violently suppressed (as at last summer’s G-8 Summit in Moscow), confined to mental hospitals, arrested, brutalized, imprisoned, or simply abducted and never heard from again.

The Russians have not given up their support of rogue states and regimes. Russia openly supplies nuclear technology, nuclear fuel, and advanced air defense systems to Iran--a nation whose belligerence meter seems permanently pegged at 11. Iran openly seeks nuclear weapons, advocates the elimination of Israel, and sends troops to Iraq and other areas in the Middle East to kill Americans. Iran’s leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is Putin’s most important ally in the Middle East–he is a buyer for weapons technology, a partner in petroleum export, and a guarantee that Russia will play a strong role in the region for the forseeable future. That role will always be to challenge, frustrate and confound American efforts to stabilize the region by any means available.

Russia has not abandoned its development of offensive strategic weapons, or their challenges to free nations throughout the globe. Despite recent Russian claims that it has withdrawn its troops from the former Soviet republic of Georgia (sixteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union), Russian warplanes continue to invade Georgian airspace, Russian troops are still in Georgia as "peacekeepers," and the intimidation of the independent state by Russia continues unabated.

Last summer, when Americans offered to place ten defensive missiles in Poland, the Russians protested vociferously. This defensive move, the Russians warned, could spark a nuclear confrontation. The American missiles, which would not contain explosives or munitions, could not be used to target anything but incoming aircraft or missiles, thus the nuclear confrontation the Russians warned of could only be initiated by the Russians themselves. We should take the warning seriously–no one would know better the imminence of war than those who are planning to start one.

In 2007, the Russians tested new land-based and submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiple warheads. They continue to develop and export sophisticated new fighter aircraft and their long-range bombers ever more aggressively probe the air frontiers of Europe, Canada and the United States. They have laid claim to vast stretches of the Arctic sea floor, in direct contravention of international law and custom.

Russia is not a trustworthy trading partner, does not engage in diplomatic fair play, and openly pursues policies inimical to the United States. Vladimir Putin is a dangerous, resourceful foe whose political power grows as his country’s oil and gas revenues rise. Russia is rearming, recharging, and readying itself to resume the role of superpower nemesis. Russia has the means, resources and determination to kindle the fires of upheaval throughout the world. They know that the United States, as the world’s first responder, will expend blood and treasure to put out those fires. They believe any such conflagration serves their cause, since it necessarily consumes American resources and erodes American resolve to defend freedom in the world.

We should regard Russia as a fireman regards an arsonist buying matches. The arsonist’s intentions are clear. He is not to be trusted, must always be kept under surveillance, and will ever remain a potentially deadly enemy.

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Lance Thompson lives in Idaho.