lukeamerica2020.wordpress.com — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has completed a four-nation tour of South America (2008-11-30) aimed at boosting trade and Russian influence in the region. He ended his trip with the words: ?we are back in South America? ? a region the U.S. has traditionally considered its backyard.
Dec 1, 2008 View in Crawl 4
emfkDec 1, 2008
Damn---where are those Somali pirates when you need them? :-)Russia better keep a check on its own backyard.
lukeamerica2020Dec 3, 2008Submitter
It seems to me that in light of America's economic woes and our low political approval by other nations, Russia is now working diligently to position itself as a superior political and military power. Russia was crippled financially years ago partly due to their costly battles against radical muslims; now similar battles have taken their toll on our country. Perhaps, the Russians hope to emerge from these current maneuverings with economic superiority as well.If this were a huge, multi-year chess game, Russia sacrificed a knight and a bishop in 1989 (giving up their satellites in Eastern Europe) so that they could promote pawns to queens and rooks in 2009 (regaining their political, economic, and military power).