The Russian military system continues to dominate patterns of international trade and finance |
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| Authors: | Nicholas F Bradshaw |
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| Institution: | (1) Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Royal Naval Engineering College Manadon, PL5 3AQ Plymouth, UK |
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| Abstract: | There is a mistaken perception of a growing trade with Russia and an increase in the amount of investment available for Western businessmen in the Federation. This article argues that in fact, there is no room for real investment in the Russian Federation, as defined in Western terms and that the nature of Russian industrial organisation is such that the military dictates the nature of all meaningful industrial production, as well as having the pick of the raw materials and the workforce. There is a growing disillusion with Western methods of management and also this has spread to treaty commitments (such as the Conventional Forces Europe (CFE)) and any attempt to exercise military restraint, because of the mockery of the Western press when such measures have been taken, as in Chechnia. Overall, the need the West has to make itself believe that the Russian Federation is rapidly becoming a new trading partner in a safer international system is fundamentally mistaken. Russia and America have the ability, should they wish or have to, to marginalise a newly united Europe. Furthermore, Russia has the ability to dominate such a European federation and to claim the status of a Regional Superpower. Without America there would be no security organisation that could resist such a claim. Russia is not as far along the road to democracy as hard-pressed Western governments need to claim, so that they may cut defence expenditure and it is dangerous to pretend that the Russian Federation is capable of exporting much more than aggression. The West may well be spending money which it claims is part of planned investment in Russia, to simply buy off the aggressor state Russia has rapidly become, for another few months. |
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