The Global Network recently reported that Russia's "wheel war" negotiations with the United States, NATO and the OSCE on security-related issues have ended, but unfortunately, the three dialogues have not made substantive progress. Since the escalation of the armed confrontation between Russia and Ukraine last year, relations between Russia and Western countries have been quite tense, with Western countries led by the United States frequently sending warships and aircraft into the Waters of the Black Sea and close to the Russian-controlled Crimean Peninsula, while Russia has repeatedly dispatched fighter jets to monitor and drive away NATO aircraft.
(Russia strengthens troop deployment on the Russian-Ukrainian border)
For the current strategic relationship between Russia and the West, Russian military analyst Konstantin Sivkov believes that security negotiations between Russia and the US-led NATO "have not produced any results" and that NATO countries "only know how to exert violence" economically and militarily. In this regard, Sivkov believes that Russia must accelerate the modernization of military weapons and equipment, and deploy "giant weapons" to "show strength" to the West, forcing the West's attitude towards Russia to return to rationality.
(Russian Su-30SM fighters patrolling Crimea)
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's comprehensive national strength has plummeted, and now Russia's total GDP is only equivalent to 7% of the United States, and the total annual military expenditure is about 60 billion US dollars, even less than one-tenth of the more than 700 billion US military expenditure. Russia is facing a 29-member "North Atlantic Treaty Organization", referred to as "NATO", you know, Russia's military spending is less than one-tenth of the United States, and compared with the 29-nation NATO, the gap is even larger than desperate. So at the strategic level, Russia has always pursued a defensive strategy, and even in the 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it acquiesced to the dual eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union.
(NATO now has a total of 29 members, making it the world's largest military bloc.)
However, NATO did not give up the "squeeze" on Russia because of its weakening national strength. Russia's strategic thinking has been a "strategic buffer zone" since the Tsarist era, that is, to turn the countries around Russia's territory into a "strategic buffer zone" with NATO, so as to defend Russia's national security, such as Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states. But with NATO's five eastward expansions, NATO has now absorbed the former Soviet republics, including the three Baltic states, as NATO members. In this way, not only is NATO directly bordered by Russia, but there is no buffer zone in between, and after absorbing the three Baltic countries, NATO has posed a strategic threat to Russia's hinterland.
(The current security situation in Europe is extremely unfavorable to Russia, and NATO's military front has penetrated deep into Russia's hinterland))
At present, the only "buffer" between Russia and the West is Belarus and Ukraine, and recently the West has hyped up the inclusion of Ukraine into the NATO system, which makes Russia very nervous, once Ukraine joins NATO, then the southwest of Russia will be in no danger, and NATO countries can also directly threaten Russia's strategic rear through the Sea through the Black Sea, so that Russia will fall into complete strategic passivity.
But at present, whether it is comprehensive national strength, military strength or scientific and technological level, Russia cannot compete with NATO. Don't forget that Russia still has a huge nuclear arsenal that can compete with the entire West, so Russia can only pin its hopes on the so-called "giant weapons", which we often refer to as "asymmetric weapons".
(Although Russia still has more armed forces than any single European country, it is unable to effectively counter the 29-nation NATO.)
Sivkov specifically mentioned that Russia should speed up the production and deployment of advanced anti-aircraft missiles such as S-500 and S-550, Su-57 stealth fighter jets, the new "Armata" main battle tank and hypersonic missiles and a series of new weapons, he also emphasized weapons such as the "Poseidon" strategic nuclear torpedo and the "Salmat" super-heavy intercontinental missile. There is no doubt that the Poseidon torpedo and the Sarmat ICB Are what he calls "giant weapons".
(Schematic diagram of the Large Belgorod submarine carrying the Poseidon nuclear torpedo)
The Poseidon nuclear torpedo is a unique weapon, a "unmanned submersible" that carries a nuclear warhead and uses nuclear-powered propulsion, an unmanned submersible vehicle that can sail on its own from a Russian port (or launched by a large submarine) to the position of the North Atlantic ridge, and choose the precise position to locate and ambush, once the command is received, it can be detonated immediately, triggering a huge tsunami of up to 500 meters in length of more than 1000 kilometers. According to estimates, only a few Poseidons are enough to destroy all the cities on the east coast of the United States, and their combat effectiveness is much higher than that of ordinary nuclear warheads.
(A nuclear-powered torpedo with theoretically unlimited range)
The Sarmat missile is a brand new weapon used to replace the famous SS-18 Satan heavy intercontinental missile, and it is also the largest strategic missile launched at present. The Sarmat missile has a launch weight of more than 200 tons and can carry a thermonuclear warhead with a TNT equivalent of 20 million tons or 10 sub-guided nuclear warheads with a TNT equivalent of 7.5 million tons, which is far more powerful than the "Trident II-D5" submarine-launched strategic missile currently in service in the US military. It can be said that the combination of the Poseidon torpedo and the Sarmat missile is enough to allow Russia to gain a certain lead in the overall inferior situation, thus strategically balancing NATO's security threat to Russia.
(At present, the world's largest "Salmat" intercontinental strategic missile is better than the famous "Satan"; in addition, the "Vanguard" strategic missile among the three hypersonic weapons of the Russian army is also a giant weapon))
All in all, although Russia's current comprehensive national strength cannot be compared with the United States and NATO, and the military is also in a complete defensive posture, the West also understands that if NATO insists on crossing Russia's red line on the Ukraine issue, the Russian military still has enough capabilities to make the United States and NATO pay an extremely heavy price, and even break the net and die together! If Russia is pushed into a hurry, the consequences will be something that the United States and Europe simply cannot bear.