Finally, it is asked: "New Cold War?"

I've been saying for several years now that a new Cold War exists, if not between the U.S. and Russia, then between Russia and its neighbor states.

Quoting the BBC:

"The Russian military operation against Georgia and its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have led to concerns amounting at times to near panic about whether a new Cold War is under way."

Furthermore:

"The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that he does not want a new Cold War but is not afraid of one either."

While it's clear that Putin is still in charge, even as he boosted Russian nationalism and asserted some regained military might, Putin never so directly acknowledged the increased tensions as has Medvedyev.

Link: Testing for a new 'Cold War' in Crimea

Putin: Russia needs to go back to Cuba

A Reuters story states that Russian news agency Interfax reported that "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said it was time for Russia to rebuild links with former Cold War ally Cuba."

According to Reuters,

The Kremlin is angry at U.S. plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, and last month a news report suggested Russia might use Cuba, a thorn in America's side for half a century, as a refueling stop for nuclear-capable bombers.

Putin's remarks came after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin reported on a recent three-day visit to Cuba, where he discussed a raft of trade and investment issues and met with Raul Castro, Fidel's brother and now the island's leader.

"We agreed on a priority direction for cooperation, this being energy, the mining industry, agriculture, transport, health care and communications," news agency RIA quoted Sechin as saying.

The new Cold War is becoming more and more like the old Cold War all over again.

NPR: Kyrgyz Town Lives with Radioactive Soviet Legacy

NPR has a lengthy and detailed story dated Feburary 5, 2008 by its Russian field agent Ivan Watson on the heaps of radioactive waste that the Soviet Union left in the town of Mailuu-Suu in Kyrgyzstan. Its residents "are accustomed to living next to radioactive waste. Some locals even joke that they need radiation to survive."

Who knows; perhaps the old stories of the 1950s about exposure to radiation producing horrible mutants that terrorize villages at night and eat babies will be true. More likely it will result in huge groundwater contamination and dozens of slow deaths by cancer.

Still higher tensions between Georgia and Russia

What's behind this? Separatism is strong in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as previously discussed on this blog and Russia media sources. Georgia accused Russia of "sending fighter jets into its airspace to undermine a visit by American Secretary of State Rice" this past Wednesday, July 9, and then recalled its ambassador to Russia on July 10. Interesting times...Publish Post

NPR on Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

NPR's Ivan Watson had a story on today's (June 6, 2008) All Things Considered entitled "Experts: Lessons of Soviets in Afghanistan Ignored," in which some interviewees argue that America is now making many of the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made in their invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet attack lasted ten years; the American's is just seven years old, so far.

We are facing so many relics of the Cold War. Iraq was the American proxy against the Soviet proxy of Iran. Iran had been our plaything for a while, too. Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq still dominate the headlines today.

Zelenograd, the Soviet Union's Silicon Valley wanna-be

The Register: How a pair of American spies created the Soviet Silicon Valley

"Few stories in computing history come close to matching the tale of Zelenograd – the Soviet Union's attempt at creating something along the lines of Silicon Valley."

This ties together two of my life's passions, computers and Soviet Russia.

Part 1 • Part 2

Tanks and troops and ICBMs, oh my!

It seems just like old times! The Guardian has a very good take on the renewed display of military might in Red Square. The BBC also has a spot on this. Most amusing in that article was a quote from V. Putin, who "said earlier that the display of heavy weapons in this year's Victory Day parade was 'not sabre-rattling', but 'a demonstration of our growing defence capability'."

•       •       •
Previously undiscussed here: Georgia accuses Russia of shooting down drone.

Questions from this: How did Georgia have or get a drone? Who sold it to them, or did they make it themselves?

Second, the shoot-down happened on 21 April, and occurred over the separatist region of Abkhazia. It seems likely that Russia would not want Abkhazia to break off from Georgia — we don't want to give the Chechens any ideas, eh?