Russia’s desire for a multipolar world is predicated on persuading the United States to stop acting as though the world were a unipolar one with the U.S. on top. Moving past the strategic nuclear comparison, both sides genuinely seek to avoid a nuclear war.
Russian military thinkers assess the Russians would come off second best against the Americans in a conventional war. The preferred strategic approach the Russians are forced to rely on is to dissolve the NATO military alliance to address the threat perceived from Europe. There are many references supporting this strategy going back several years, including in the English version of Military Thought:
A Russian Journal of Military Theory and Strategy (Voennaya Mysl), as early as 2009, (See Colonel Marx Felixovich Vakkaus, Military Thought, 18.2 (April-June 2009), “On the military-political basis of the methodology for building up and employing Russia’s Armed Forces,” and Dr. Alexei Yurevich Maruyev, Military Thought. 18.3 (July-September 2009) “Russia and the U.S.A. in confrontation: military and political aspects”).
“The only way of influencing the internal political situation [in the U.S.] is, I believe, through military strength, i.e. fear of annihilation should the United States unleash a war against Russia.”
“another method of waging war, though it is less effective … is the destruction of the enemy’s alliances.”
“If we fail to frustrate U.S. designs and break up the alliances of the US and its NATO allies, we will have to address the problem of defeating their armed forces.”
– COL Marx Felixovich Vakkaus, Senior lecturer in the Department of Operational Art at the Military Academy of the General Staff
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
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