JRL NEWSWATCH: “Specter of new arms race has Russia recalling Soviets’ fate” – Christian Science Monitor/ Fred Weir

“Most Russian schoolchildren hold as true that the Soviet Union collapsed in part because it was foolish enough to engage in a vast global competition with the United States. … [including] a ruinous arms race that diverted resources from the civilian economy and ultimately bankrupted the country. … Despite a decade-long crash program to reform and reequip Russia’s moribund Soviet-era armed forces, Russian military budgets are actually declining once again. The Kremlin’s financial priorities today, it insists, are to modernize national infrastructure and apply resources to meet public needs. … [L]ately there has been a change in the rhetoric of US-Russia rivalry suggesting old dynamics may be reasserting themselves. The imminent demise of arms control agreements … is … threatening a return to unrestrained competition. … spurring Russian experts to review the lessons of the Soviet era to ensure Russia doesn’t fall into the same traps that brought its predecessor low. …”

Click here for: “Specter of new arms race has Russia recalling Soviets’ fate; With new weapons development and the end of the INF treaty, a new nuclear arms race seems all too possible to Russians. Lessons from the last one, which ended in the USSR’s collapse, may prove critical.” – Christian Science Monitor/ Fred Weir