Russia's Closest Ally

coolieno99 wrote:Since 2005, Russia and China have been conducting joint military exercises (on land) on a regular basis. And since 2011, the 2 countries have been conducting joint naval exercises.

Russia also conducts Naval exercises with Bulgaria, Romania. Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_05/Russian-ship-joins-international-Black-Sea-naval-games/

Russia conducts Naval exercise with the US

http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20111013/167641543.html

EU and US are the countries with which Russia should build a relation and not 3rd world states like India & China whose only intention is to take over Russian territory by hook or by crook .

NickM wrote:

coolieno99 wrote:Since 2005, Russia and China have been conducting joint military exercises (on land) on a regular basis. And since 2011, the 2 countries have been conducting joint naval exercises.

Russia also conducts Naval exercises with Bulgaria, Romania. Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_05/Russian-ship-joins-international-Black-Sea-naval-games/

Russia conducts Naval exercise with the US

http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20111013/167641543.html

EU and US are the countries with which Russia should build a relation and not 3rd world states like India & China whose only intention is to take over Russian territory by hook or by crook .

That is dumb. China has no ambitions of going north, and up until some disputes over small plot of land in 1969, that was last when they fought. Since Russia gave back that land, China has grown in more trade with Russia. You are aware that any point of a land grab would end up with that specific territory radiating, right? Making it both equally useless.

Actually, in all aspects, besides maybe some copywrite disagreements, China has been a much better partner to Russia than any other country has. China has invested lots of money in development of infrastructure as well as resources in Russia, and no, it isn't Chinese that are running said companies but it is Russian's There is indeed joint development on many fields.

India is only a partner in aspects of obtaining equipment/gear, and some sources of joint development funds (although, India lacked in that field until Russia already showcased working units (PAK FA as an example)), but politically, even though the west supports their enemy (pakistan), they still want to suck the US tit.

All of China's grandouis plans of land grab has always been either south or east, with the small amounts of west. If we still try to think of the past though, then we can theoretically say that Mongolia is more of a threat to Russia than China is. But reality will dictate that China needs Russia and Russia needs China. It is how these two countries will be politicaly strong on the international show.

Russia supports Syria like it did no other country in the world, ever.

Russia allowed Nato to dominate and occupy and secessede part of Serbia.
China is a part good trade neighbour and part a rival. Its a mix.
India is more and more buying american and european stuff, that is not what good friends do.

NickM wrote:

coolieno99 wrote:Since 2005, Russia and China have been conducting joint military exercises (on land) on a regular basis. And since 2011, the 2 countries have been conducting joint naval exercises.

Russia also conducts Naval exercises with Bulgaria, Romania. Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_05/Russian-ship-joins-international-Black-Sea-naval-games/

Russia conducts Naval exercise with the US

http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20111013/167641543.html

EU and US are the countries with which Russia should build a relation and not 3rd world states like India & China whose only intention is to take over Russian territory by hook or by crook .

Compare bilateral trade between Russia and China, and Russia and any of the other countries you listed.

The relationship has a critical and essential economic underpinning. Military cooperation on a level not seen for decades before is just the cherry on top.

Regular wrote:Belorussians are same people as Russians? Care to elaborate?

they were always russian only spent more time under occupation of great lithuania and poland during middle ages...same christian ortodox faith , language mostly spoken in belarus is russian by far. pavel sukhoi is belarus born but always considered himself a russian.

NickM wrote:Russia conducts Naval exercise with the US

But not land exercises.
The following quote is taken from Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (members are Kazakhstan, China, Kyrghyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; observers are Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan; dialogue partners are Belarus, Sri Lanka, and Turkey).

There have been a number of SCO joint military exercises. The first of these was held in 2003, with the first phase taking place in Kazakhstan and the second in China. Since then China and Russia have teamed up for large-scale war games in 2005 (Peace Mission 2005), 2007 and 2009, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. At the joint military exercises in 2007 (known as "Peace Mission 2007") which took place in Chelyabinsk Russia, near the Ural Mountains and close to Central Asia, as was agreed upon in April 2006 at a meeting of SCO Defence Ministers, more than 4,000 Chinese soldiers participated. Air forces and precision-guided weapons were also likely to be used. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said that the exercises would be transparent and open to media and the public. Following the war games' successful completion, Russian officials began speaking of India joining such exercises in the future and the SCO taking on a military role. Peace Mission 2010, conducted September 9–25 at Kazakhstan's Matybulak training area, saw over 5,000 personnel from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan conduct joint planning and operational maneuvers.

The SCO has served as a platform for larger military announcements by members. During the 2007 war games in Russia, with leaders of SCO member states in attendance including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russia's President Vladimir Putin used the occasion to take advantage of a "captive" audience: Russian strategic bombers, he said, would resume regular long-range patrols for the first time since the Cold War. "Starting today, such tours of duty will be conducted regularly and on the strategic scale", Putin said. "Our pilots have been grounded for too long. They are happy to start a new life".

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation

Alexander Yakovenko - Russia's Ambassador to the UK

Relations with the Asia Pacific states are among Russia’s foreign policy priorities.


The shift in the global economy’s center of gravity towards the Asia Pacific region is accompanied by growing interaction in the area and a proliferation of multilateral structures and initiatives.
The United States has launched a strategic rebalancing of its attitude toward the region, which is also increasingly becoming a focus for the European Union and the UK.

It is clear that all actors are primarily pursuing their national interests. In this regard we face the task of managing a growing volume and scope of political traffic in the region, getting the right approach, and making sure it is coherent and systemic. We believe that the first step should be creating an atmosphere of cooperation, trust and mutual understanding, preventing rivalry and confrontation. We should move towards this aim by enhancing and deepening the political dialogue and join forces in our efforts to seek solutions for the future.

Russia is part of this activity in the region. Our relations with China are characterized by a high level of mutual trust and understanding, and our economic ties are expanding rapidly. Last year trade grew 5.2 percent to reach 87.5 billion dollars. We are confident that, in the near future, it will rise to over 100 billion dollars. Russia-China cooperation on international affairs is both global and strategic, and is becoming a major factor in world politics.
Our ties with India are developing as a preferential strategic partnership. Bilateral trade exceeds 11 billion dollars. Relations with Vietnam are also a priority. Our mutually-beneficial cooperation with Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Australia and the ASEAN states is also evolving dynamically.

Russia is considering joining the region’s preferential trade system. We are negotiating free trade agreements with New Zealand and Vietnam.

We believe it is necessary to establish a network of multilateral interconnected dialogue. The East Asian summits function as a leading regional mechanism for this kind of work.

At the East Asian summit in November 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed launching a multilateral dialogue on building stable and reliable security and cooperation architecture in the Asia Pacific. We now need to define the basic principles underlying interstate relations. This will, presumably, include the peaceful solution of disputes, a ban on the use or threat of force, and a rejection of any confrontation and cooperation aimed against third parties. It also means forging partnerships among multilateral frameworks in the Asia Pacific region and agreeing on the indivisibility of security, which means declaring the strengthening of one’s own security at the expense of others unacceptable.

Our main goal is to launch a broad dialogue on shaping the future regional architecture.

http://en.ria.ru/blogs/20130703/182033419/Ambassadors-Notebook-Russia-and-the-Asia-Pacific-Region.html

Here's a list of Russia's allies that I compiled:

Actually I would say Iran is in the top 6 geo-strategic allies of Russia.

Russia's Top 6 allies for geo-strategic reasons:

1.) China (soon to be the worlds largest economy, will eventually be the worlds largest military). Powerful military with the wolds most powerful hacking and electronic warfare divisions and in industrial espionage, China has successfully hacked and obtained the most vital secrets of U.S. military industrial complex, and has a massive economy and world political influence making isolating Russia virtually impossible.

2.) India (large economic and military power), much of the same reason why China is a geo-strategic ally, but to a lesser (but still significant) extent.

3.) Anti-Wahhabi Axis of the Middle East, Algeria, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt under President Sisi is pro-Russian govt., and Hezbollah which holds more power in Lebanon than the pro-American partisans. From secular-socialist countries like Algeria, Egypt, Syria, and Shiite militants from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran have effectively stifled the movement of Sunni extremists, and if their movement wasn't stifled than they'd be making their way to Chechnya and Dagestan. Also as I mentioned before Algeria has prime real-estate to counter European NATO with nuclear deterrence, and Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, have enough oil and gas to challenge the Gulf Monarchies. Egypt also has the Suez Canal. The now president of Afghanistan that's leaving office, Karzai has stated that he considers Russia as big brother state and Afghanistan is leaning more-and-more towards Russia, a complete reversal of the outcome and ending of the Afghan war, and Afghanistan has at least a trillion dollars worth of minerals in their mountain ranges that both Soviet and American geologists have confirmed and that America failed to obtain and exploit for themselves. China, Russia, and India will get access to Afghan mineral deposits, while America will be left holding the bag.

4.) ALBA member states (Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua ) and non-members that are not part of ALBA but are in the same camp such as Peru, Argentina, and Brazil. Venezuela and Brazil have immense natural resources, Argentina has prime real-estate to launch oil exploration in to Antarctica, Nicaragua with the help of China is creating a canal to rival he US puppet state of Panama's canal, and Cuba has prime real-estate to counter the Pentagon with nuclear deterrence.

5.) CSTO states such as Kazakhstan and others have immense natural resources and also a corridor to halt the movement Wahhabi extremists, and are close military allies of Russia.

6.) Anti-colonial states in Africa. Russia and Cuba played the biggest role ending colonialism in Africa and played the biggest role in defeating the South African Apartheid regime (while CIA was propping up the Apartheid regime in South Africa), so it was no surprise that the Africa Union unanimously supported Russia's actions in Crimea. As you guys already now Sub-Saharan Africa is dense in Natural resources.

My list.
1.Cuba
2.China
3.Belarus
4.Syria
5.Finland

[quote="NickM"]Russia's closest allies should be Ukraine and Belarus since both these countries were part of the Soviet Union.

China is more of a competitor so not sure why someone puts China's name in a list of allies .

The UK too is a good candidate to be an ally of Russia .

India & Vietnam , basically third world with very little to contribute meaningfully in any relationship with Russia. Not to mention that if Russia faces any external aggression , these two countries would be the first to bail out.[/quote]

You have Annalise  it very nicely.True said.No body fight for others.Every one have to fight his own war.

To the contrary, his analysis is terribly flawed and largely meaningless... lets look at what he said and analyse it:

Russia's closest allies should be Ukraine and Belarus since both these countries were part of the Soviet Union.

If they were truly allies why did they break away from Russia and stop being part of the Soviet Union?

Both countries are neighbours to Russia and have/had a lot of trade ties.

the difference is that the Ukraine... led by the western districts have tried to break ties with Russia and turn to the west, while Belarus has largely been shunned by the west so has not really turned away from Russia as they have no viable option other than Russia to turn.

China is more of a competitor so not sure why someone puts China's name in a list of allies .

China is a commercial competitor in some aspects but both countries share a lot of common enemies and common friends and can work together when needed. Most of the time they compete commercially in different markets so are not often in direct competition.

Both have the problem that the west will work against them to stop them rising in power... something that cooperation will help them with and conflict will break them both... so clearly the west wants them to be at each others throats.... another reason to be allies.

The UK too is a good candidate to be an ally of Russia .

The UK is the US's keen lap dog that barks at Russia every chance it gets. No matter what the average UK citizen things their government is no friend of Russia.

India & Vietnam , basically third world with very little to contribute meaningfully in any relationship with Russia. Not to mention that if Russia faces any external aggression , these two countries would be the first to bail out.

The first world has rejected Russia... there are few first world options for friends and allies. What you describe as third world is just the majority of the planets population... why would Russia reject good relations with the majority of the worlds population?

The first world lacks resources and will look to the second world and third world to satisfy its needs... but why should the second world deal with a hostile first world... the second world and the third world can develop all on their own without the first world to "lead the way".

Who is to say Russia wants to become the US anyway?

I think they can be better but they wont be better just by following the same path... they need to find their own way forward and they need to travel with friends rather than those that will try to rob them at every chance they get.

NickM wrote:The UK too is a good candidate to be an ally of Russia .

The UK has been an adversary of Russia even before the US existed. So no, no way this could happen.

flamming_python wrote:As crazy as the idea might sound, the UK is a natural ally for Russia.

The results of a new social poll conducted by the Levada Center polling agency in Moscow revealed the countries Russians see as the friendliest and most hostile. The results can be seen in the link below, however for the benefit of those forum members who cannot read Russian I am translating the results of this poll in English.

http://www.levada.ru/2016/06/02/13400/

According to this poll, the countries that Russians consider to be the friendly towards Russia are as follows:


Belarus 50
Kazakhstan 39
China 34
India 18
Armenia 13
Cuba 10
Syria 10
Uzbekistan 9
Azerbaijan 7
Kyrgyzstan 7
Venezuela 6
Serbia 6
Tajikistan 6
Japan 5
Brazil 5
Bulgaria 4
Greece 4
Vietnam 4
Bulgaria 4
Mongolia 3
Egypt 3
North Korea 3
Israel 3
Italy 3
Georgia 2
Germany 2
Iran 2
Moldavia 2
Spain 2
Turkmenistan 2
Czech Republic 2
France 2
Ukraine 2
Finland 1
South Korea 1

By & large I agree with the poll, however there were a few surprises. China, India and Armenia are in the top 5 but not Serbia or Macedonia, countries with which Russia have a lot in common. Similarly despite the problems that immigrants from Tajakistan & Uzbekistan have caused these countries are perceived to be more friendly that France, Italy and Germany, countries that have a decent Russian expat population.

flamming_python wrote:

Svyatoslavich wrote:

NickM wrote:The UK too is a good candidate to be an ally of Russia .

The UK has been an adversary of Russia even before the US existed. So no, no way this could happen.

As crazy as the idea might sound, the UK is a natural ally for Russia.

More than the UK is Russophobic, it's paranoid about European encroachment and unification.
A strong united Europe, historically speaking, in post-Roman times only occurred under Napoleon and the Nazis; neither of whom did any favours for Russia either.
Not a co-incidence that both those times, Britain and Russia allied up.

Britain's antagonism with Russia was mainly related not to European affairs, but competition between their empires in other parts of the globe.
These days Britain is no longer an empire, so that's no longer on the cards.
It is however a stooge of American foreign policy, while that continues the case it can only be an adversary.

not true of Scotland we have a more European view of the world ... we don't like Nazis and communist symbols are popular


then is is the fact that Scotland is more socialist than any other part of the UK ... their will be another referendum soon especially if the rest of the UK tries to drag Scotland out the EU

Which ex soviet country A) you think is Russia best ally, B) if one ex soviet country had to become apart of Russia which one? C) which other countries should Russia seek to ally with possibly one that they currently don’t have greatest ties with?

Will Russia ever have an actual ally instead of "partners", fair weather friends, and leeches?  Countries that recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Countries that speak against US and EU actions? Countries that take Russia's side in conflicts concerning it instead of condemning it or calling for a "diplomatic solution"?

So far, except Syria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia every so called Russian ally or friendly state is full of shit.

India's Modi threatens to cancel  Rosatom's contracts in India if Russia doesn't convince china to allow india to enter the nuclear  suppliers group yet doesn't blackmail the US  with such  ridiculous demands.
[url=http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/india-goes-passive-aggressive-russia-its-china-ties/ri19893]

China refuses to militarily assist Syria even though its in its interest to destroy US hegemony and take down uygur terrorists who are crawling in Idlibistan in the thousands. it also abstains from voting on UNSC resolutions regarding syria instead of voting against NATO decisions when Russia needs it most. China has never  supported Russia's decisions in the Ukraine conflict, only parroting the EU bullshit that there "must be a ceasefire".

Serbia is sucking the EU's dick.

Iran is trying to cozy up to the west.

Kazakhstan is extorting Russia regarding baikonur and even wants to stop using the cyrillic alphabet and use the latin  to "westernize"

Belarus is on the brink of a color revolution  and lukashenko keeps blackmailing Russia, allows retarded neonazi "WE WUZ LITVINS" organisations to take hold and cozies up to the EU.

The same situation is everywhere(except maybe Bolivia). Empty promises, blackmail, betrayal, and blind neutrality in the midst of the evil of western imperialism.


Maybe Alexander III's words "Russia has only two allies, its army and navy" is true.

There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine. The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

It is very hard to determine wich country is closest ally of Russia, because global geopolitics is very complex today. But Eurasian Economic Union (Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tadjikistan) must stay central to Russian foreign policy interest (because EEU members are Russia`s closest trading partners that are united in Customs Union with Russia) and also China and India are very important markets and trading partners in this equation.

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

You are smart and you understand how this game works. Russia must help to intergrate former Soviet republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzistan, Tadjikistan) into economic and political union (the same as European Union is doing in Europe). Eurasian Economic Union is 5`th largest economy on this planet and Union of allmost 190 million people. Race, culture, religion and language must NOT be the problem but multicultural enrichment of Eurasian Union (the same as it is in European Union). All the languages should be the official languages of EEU. And EEU must work in the interests of ALL of it`s members (not like the EU that works only in the interest of Germany). Plus EEU should allso have it`s own security and defence policy that fights against terrorism, extremism and separatism.

China and India are allso very important allies of Russia, becouse Russia needs them to counter US and EU sanctions and to fight terrorism, extremism, separatism and to develop trade.

Sochi_Olympic_Park wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

You are smart and you understand how this game works. Russia must help to intergrate former Soviet republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzistan, Tadjikistan) into economic and political union (the same as European Union is doing in Europe). Eurasian Economic Union is 5`th largest economy on this planet and Union of allmost 190 million people. Race, culture, religion and language must NOT be the problem but multicultural enrichment of Eurasian Union (the same as it is in European Union). All the languages should be the official languages of EEU. And EEU must work in the interests of ALL of it`s members (not like the EU that works only in the interest of Germany). Plus EEU should allso have it`s own security and defence policy that fights against terrorism, extremism and separatism.

China and India are allso very important allies of Russia, becouse Russia needs them to counter US and EU sanctions and to fight terrorism, extremism, separatism and to develop trade.

None of the countries you mentioned back Russia up in its foreign policy, and some, like belarus and India, act against it. They're trade partners at most, and some, again like belarus and kazakhstan, are nothing more than leeches which sell out to US foreign policy.

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

Russia can't expand itself without capable allies. It will always be blocked and condemned by the entire west.

KomissarBojanchev wrote:

Sochi_Olympic_Park wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

You are smart and you understand how this game works. Russia must help to intergrate former Soviet republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzistan, Tadjikistan) into economic and political union (the same as European Union is doing in Europe). Eurasian Economic Union is 5`th largest economy on this planet and Union of allmost 190 million people. Race, culture, religion and language must NOT be the problem but multicultural enrichment of Eurasian Union (the same as it is in European Union). All the languages should be the official languages of EEU. And EEU must work in the interests of ALL of it`s members (not like the EU that works only in the interest of Germany). Plus EEU should allso have it`s own security and defence policy that fights against terrorism, extremism and separatism.

China and India are allso very important allies of Russia, becouse Russia needs them to counter US and EU sanctions and to fight terrorism, extremism, separatism and to develop trade.

None of the countries you mentioned back Russia up in its foreign policy, and some, like belarus and India, act against it. They're trade partners at most, and some, again like belarus and kazakhstan, are nothing more than leeches which sell out to US foreign policy.

It is normal to have disagreements and minor problems inside the allied camp. Even EU and NATO countries have disagreements between eachothers. But the most important thing is to have long lasting cooperation and common goal to build even better strategic alliance. Belarus and Russians relations are normal. Kazakhstan and Russian relations are also normal (and many ethnic Russians live in Kazakhstan). Allso the Indo-Russians and Sino-Russians relations are normal.

If you want to know what relations are abnormal and openly hostile toward Russia. Ask country of Ukraine. Or United States that has hostile and abnormal relations with Russia since 1945 up to this day.

KomissarBojanchev wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

Russia can't expand itself without capable allies. It will always be blocked and condemned by the entire west.

Alright, first off, why would Russia want to "expand" itself? Especially through third party nations like Belarus or Kazakhstan?

Second, besides basic squabbling, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc are part of EEU, CSTO and alike (which was pushed by Kazakhstan btw). This gives Russia a lot of influence and power in the region.

Wanting to expand itself isn't what you may be thinking. Expanding itself is within its own territory. Due to the vastness of Russia, they don't need much for anything outside. And once they start to really develop themselves and become more independent from outside influence, most will pursue better relations with them because they want the same thing too. Once Russia no longer has this bullshit mentality of "being part of the international community" and "Getting closer to the west or being accepted by the west" then Russia will really shine as they will create their own world within their nation and to hell with everyone else. Having these trade partnerships is good for Russia and those nations. In the end, Russia will get what they want and they get what they want and these other nations wont try to cause harm to Russia because they know how important Russia is to their economy and even social structure. All they can do is look at Ukraine as an example of how they screwed themselves over royally.

The west looks like it is friendly with each other on paper. Have you noticed the general splinter in the relations though? No one trusts each other and everyone is out for themselves. Only reason they are part of some organizations is because some want a sugar daddy (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, etc) and others want to have their own little quasi empire (France, Germany, Italy, etc). In the end, no one will be at each others backs if the shit hits the fan.

miketheterrible wrote:

KomissarBojanchev wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:There are no such things as allies.  Recall what Polish minister said about relations with the US?  Amounts to nothing.

India under Modi is playing a dangerous game.  Not for Russia, but for India.  Indian businesses have already made their investments into Russia and cooperation.  This deal? Nothing more than a very childish move by India.  But as the article says, the amount in terms of actual possible income for Rosatom from India in its current outlook is very small compared to Rosatom's overall backlog.  Russia still has Turkey, China and others.  Possibility in the future for other nations.  And if India decides against it, guess who will more than likely see an opportunity to gain from it? Pakistan.

Then again, who knows how real the article is.  It could very well be fake news for all we know.

But in reality, Russia doesn't have allies.  Belarus isn't on a verge of a revolution.  If a protest that was being funded from outside, which was quickly dismantled is a near revolution, then same can be said about every country in the world who has protests.  But Belarus and Kazakhstan are far bigger allies to Russia than anyone else.  Hell, Kazakhstan is pushing the latin language because prior to Russian rule, Kazakh was written in Latin.  They are trying to push the "Kazakh Nationality" concept.  Nothing wrong with that.  Cyrillic is still used in various NATO countries and non-Russian friendly states.  Who cares?

But the other question should be asked "Does Russia need allies? Does it care?" Answer to both is no.  Allies put you in a bad position a lot of times.  Instead, Russia needs to expand itself.  It has the land mass.  Now it needs the population growth and diversified and domestic based economy, and it will be nearly impenetrable.  Instead, they can just obtain more from mutual trade, and this is what is happening.  As for China case, it is only because US put China in a bad position that it forced itself to move closer to Russia and vise versa.  China is as much as a ally to Russia as India is.  Both will turn its back on Russia as soon as it benefits them.  Russia knows this and will calculate it best.  But China requires Russia like Russia requires China for future growth and contact to Europe and what not.  In turn, China will back Russia in most things.

The Ukraine conflict benefits China as they can obtain assets for dirt cheap and know they can thrive by bribing who they want in Ukraine.  The whole "Ceasefire" bullshit in Ukraine is also promoted by Russia too, so don't blame China for it.

Russia can't expand itself without capable allies. It will always be blocked and condemned by the entire west.

Alright, first off, why would Russia want to "expand" itself?  Especially through third party nations like Belarus or Kazakhstan?

Second, besides basic squabbling, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc are part of EEU, CSTO and alike (which was pushed by Kazakhstan btw).  This gives Russia a lot of influence and power in the region.

Wanting to expand itself isn't what you may be thinking.  Expanding itself is within its own territory.  Due to the vastness of Russia, they don't need much for anything outside.  And once they start to really develop themselves and become more independent from outside influence, most will pursue better relations with them because they want the same thing too.  Once Russia no longer has this bullshit mentality of "being part of the international community" and "Getting closer to the west or being accepted by the west" then Russia will really shine as they will create their own world within their nation and to hell with everyone else.  Having these trade partnerships is good for Russia and those nations.  In the end, Russia will get what they want and they get what they want and these other nations wont try to cause harm to Russia because they know how important Russia is to their economy and even social structure.  All they can do is look at Ukraine as an example of how they screwed themselves over royally.

The west looks like it is friendly with each other on paper.  Have you noticed the general splinter in the relations though? No one trusts each other and everyone is out for themselves.  Only reason they are part of some organizations is because some want a sugar daddy (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, etc) and others want to have their own little quasi empire (France, Germany, Italy, etc).  In the end, no one will be at each others backs if the shit hits the fan.

Russia doesn`t need to occupy or expand like Napoleon or Hitler did in the past. This would be stupid and dangerous. Russia needs to arm itself and completely modernize its army. Russia needs economic development (modernization, industrial production, stimulating domestic consumption and growing exports) and population growght (increasing taxes on childless people, low taxes, new houses and apartments and financial benefits to families with many children, genetics and medicine research, cloning technology...).

All of this processes are undergoing in Russia, and that is very positive !

Russia allso needs to protect it`s people living outside the Russia. For example Russians living in Ukraine. If needed, Kremlin should wait until situation in Ukraine will become critical and than conduct the force regime change in Kiev (by conducting massive areal bombardment with smart bombs, cruise missile, tactical missiles against Ukraine military and government infrastructure). The same way as NATO did against Yugoslavia in 1999 when owerthrowing Milosevich regime in Belgrade.