The Cold War Never Ended

If Russia didn't have plenty of oil and mineral wealth to spread around, it would still be a backwards shell of a country. As things stand, its military is composed of conscripts who are ill-paid and frequently brutalized; capable of invading a tiny country like Georgia, but barely able to handle a more insidious insurgency to its south. Its civil society is broken, pounded by Putin. On a diplomatic level, it finds itself siding with pariah states.

So, what is the priority for this nation often characterized as a colossus with feet of clay? Building more nuclear ICBMs to strike the USA, naturally.

This is apparently the result of all that nice goodwill generated by the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Vladimir Putin's Russia and the ratification of the New Start Arms Control Treaty. It should come as no surprise: nuclear weapons, along with oil and gas exports, are just about the only thing that still qualifies Russia as a "Great Power."

The Cold War is only over when we say it's over, Comrade.