Andrey Nizamutdinov — on the reaction to Vladimir Putin's words about the US plans to deploy long-range missiles in Germany
Russian President Vladimir Putin, while hosting the Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg, drew attention to the US plans to deploy high-precision long-range missiles in Germany. These actions, the Russian leader warned, will not go unanswered. If the American plans are implemented, Moscow will take mirror measures, including refusing to comply with the moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons.
Western media and experts reacted in the standard way: they tried to present the case as if it was Russia trying to organize an arms race. They also predicted that the final would be the same for our country as it was more than three decades ago for the USSR.
They hope in vain.
Not only in Europe
The White House press service announced its intention to begin deploying missiles in Germany in 2026 on July 10. The fact that such steps are precisely an American decision was pointed out by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who in confirmation cited the statement of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "He again innocently, when such news appeared, said: "I welcome the US decision to deploy appropriate missiles in Germany. It's a good decision." That is, he did not hide that the decision was American."
According to Lavrov, "information has already gone out" about the US plans to deploy missiles not only in Europe, but also in the Asia-Pacific region. Confirmation of these plans was the deployment of the American Typhon anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) in the Philippines. Then the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China Wu Qian stressed that this step — taken, by the way, for the first time since the end of the Cold War — creates huge military risks in the region. Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said that we are talking about defensive weapons, the deployment of which should not lead to an arms race.
Mirror Response
If the deployment of American missiles in the Philippines has alarmed China, the US plans to deploy missiles in Germany could not concern to Russia. Moreover, as Putin noted, "important Russian state and military administration facilities, administrative and industrial centers and defense infrastructure will be in the reach of such weapons." "And the flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes," the president added.
The Russian leader compared the actions of the current American administration to the events of the Cold War, when the United States deployed medium-range Pershing missiles in Europe. And he warned that Russia is completing the development of medium- and shorter-range strike weapons and will "take mirror measures to deploy them, taking into account the actions of the United States and its satellites in Europe and other regions of the world."
They reacted in different ways
The Russian president's statement turned out to be really resonant, the news was picked up by almost all the world's media - from Japan and the Philippines in the Eastern Hemisphere to Cuba and Brazil in the Western Hemisphere. However, the tone of the publications turned out to be different. If in the countries of the global South the emphasis was placed on the fact that we are talking about Russia's response to the actions of the United States, then the mainstream Western media tried to turn the situation upside down — in their interpretation, it is Moscow that threatens the West with missiles, and the West, they say, is forced to defend itself.
But the official reaction to the warning issued by the head of the Russian state turned out to be very stingy. This, however, is understandable. In the United States, everyone is busy campaigning, which is probably why neither the White House nor the State Department and the Pentagon made comments, nor did they respond to TASS requests. In Europe, the holiday season probably affects, in addition, the Olympics in Paris, heavily seasoned with various scandals, attracts general attention. There's no time for rockets. Except that the official representative of the German government, Christiane Hoffman, said that Berlin "took note" of the statement of the President of the Russian Federation. Along the way, she said that it was "Russia that has changed the strategic balance in Europe and threatens Europe and Germany with cruise missiles," while the actions of Germany and the United States are "exclusively deterrence." That is, the argument is about the same as that of the Philippine Foreign Minister.
Similar statements are heard in the speeches of experts commenting on the situation on television and from the pages of newspapers in Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic and other European countries: NATO is engaged in deterrence, the actions of the United States and Germany do not threaten escalation, Russia is leading the arms race... While some observers express doubts that the Russian Federation is really capable of quickly creating and deploy missile weapons. Others consider the "Russian threat" to be serious, but believe that the Russian Federation will not withstand the severity of the arms race imposed on it and will eventually collapse, as happened with the Soviet Union.
Dreams, dreams…
There is, of course, a deep historical truth in the arguments about the fate that befell the USSR, but their authors lose sight of the fact that today's Russia is a qualitatively different country. This is a society that has rallied around common values; the army and navy, which are significantly superior in terms of equipment and training to the armed forces of most NATO states; but most importantly, a completely different economy. From the total shortage and food stamps of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Russia stepped up to the position of one of the world's largest food exporters. The country has withstood the onslaught of "infernal sanctions" and is showing strong economic growth. According to the World Bank, Russia has risen to fourth place in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, surpassing Japan and Germany. In terms of industrial production, our country ranks eighth, ahead of Italy, France and the United Kingdom.
And how are things at this time in the western "blooming garden"? Let's take only the most recent data. For the first time in history, the US national debt exceeded the $35 trillion mark — this is more than $6 trillion higher than the country's GDP. According to forecasts, in 2034 the debt will grow to $50 trillion, or 122% of GDP.
Another example: the bipartisan Congressional Commission on National Defense has just published a report recognizing that the United States "alone will not be able to resist either Russia or China and will not be able to win the war against them." The release of the report coincided with a publication in the British The Telegraph, which said that the United States and the West as a whole are losing to Russia and China in the air because the only fifth—generation fighter, the American F-35, "does not work, in particular, the software does not work."
The Europeans are doing no better. I mentioned Britain's departure from the TOP 10 industrialized countries above, but let's take the main European economy - Germany. According to the results of the second quarter, the country's GDP decreased by 0.1%, and inflation increased by 2.3% in July. Experts interviewed by the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper state: the German economy is in a state of stagnation and is inferior to France and Italy. And their figures, let's face it, are also not inspiring: GDP growth is 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. And most importantly, the forecasts are also not too comforting — we cannot expect rapid and noticeable growth.
In general, wherever you throw, there is a wedge everywhere. In such circumstances, the West should think carefully before starting a new arms race in the hope that it will break the backbone of Russia. If you can't wait, we'll catch a cold at your funeral.
