Putin’s new arms race is all about his need to be taken seriously | Mark Galeotti
It may all have been bluff and braggadocio, but Russia’s president has little else left to motivate voters
from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2FcT27F
Vladimir Putin gave his annual state of the nation address on Thursday. It began with promises of a bright future, in which life expectancy has risen, poverty levels are halved and GDP grows by 50% by 2025. Two-thirds of the way through, though, Putin turned it into a belligerent ode to Russian military technology and a challenge to the US. Putin was not so much seeking to start a new arms race abroad, as trying to keep alive an old myth at home about a Russia whose firepower was its only source of international traction and security.
Related: Putin threatens US arms race with new missiles declaration
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2FcT27F
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