Der Spiegel: "exército russo está hoje mais poderoso do que todos os exércitos da Europa reunidos".
Der Spiegel também destacou as preocupações dos militares dos EUA, que acreditam que a Rússia seria capaz de interferir ou criar áreas de comunicações digitais que nenhum outro exército teria acesso, como também é feito no Mar Cáspio, estabelecendo as plataformas para o lançamento de mísseis. A edição alemã também ressaltou a modernização das forças nucleares, forças especiais, as unidades aéreas e a infantaria da marinha, o que vem sendo interpretado pelos analistas de defesa ocidentais como um aumento na capacidade russa de executar ações rápidas e pegar um potencial inimigo de surpresa em caso de uma intervenção na Europa Oriental e na Ásia Central. Segundo o especialista em defesa do Centro de Análise de Estratégias e Tecnologias da Rússia (CAST), Vasily Kashin, as Forças Armadas da Rússia são hoje "provavelmente mais fortes do que todos os exércitos da União Europeia em conjunto", mas seriam incapazes de lidar com um conflito com os militares dos EUA, por isso tem fortalecido sua dissuasão nuclear.
Best feature: the nuclear forces: Russia's military has been reformed but not uniformly. Some troops are still heavily dependent on old technology, another highly modern. This allows conclusions to Moscow's strategic calculation. The nuclear forces have priority. For "external threats defenses Moscow values its nuclear unchanged priority" when, according to astudy by the German Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. The nuclear forces are fully equipped. The degree of modernization has there exceeded the mark of 70 percent. Similarly, well equipped: units of the air defense. Special Forces, Airborne units, Marine Infantry: Russia - built mobile units of light infantry - after the model of Western armies.They can be partially moved within 24 hours. "Spetsnaz" said special units were secretly transferred to the Crimea before the annexation, marines in autumn covered to Syria. Your equipment is "close to the NATO standards," said Mark Galeotti, a security expert at New York University.
The Gros of fleet and army will also be better equipped, are in parts but still far from the 30 percent threshold. In it she reflects the threat, as seen by the Kremlin. Nuclear forces and air defenses are aimed at NATO. Russia's army was now "probably stronger than all EU armies together," said military expert Kashin. With the US clout but Russia can not compete and therefore sit on nuclear deterrence. Kashin keeps fears about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania therefore unfounded: "Russia has no forces for a permanent offensive against Nato Everyone knows that.. Such a conflict would quickly pass into the nuclear phase" .The slight reaction forces on the other hand to strengthen Moscow's dominance in the post-Soviet space. Russia sees the region as its sphere of influence. That's one of the reasons for Moscow's constant protest against NATO expansion: Each new member eludes a potential access to the Kremlin.
