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Russian State TV Wants Moscow to Conquer Three US States (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/world

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In a recent appearance on Russia's state-run television, Russian political scientist Sergey Mikheyev suggested that the country's "empire" should grow to encompass three American states.

"I want the Russian empire with Alaska, Hawaii, California, Finland, and Poland," he said, as translated by Gerashchenko for the clip he shared. "Although Poland and Finland are so stinky, I'm not sure, to be honest. We'll clean them."

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Well, there's a remote island that belongs to Alaska that's about two miles away from a remote island that belongs to Russia. You can swim across that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diomede_Islands

I mean, I'm sure that Russia can get forces across that. They've got a military base on their little island, and we've got a small Native American village on our little island.

But then you've planted some number of forces on a strategically-irrelevant island in the Pacific. You've blown your largest advantage, surprise, and you've dumped however many people there, with a supply line that dictates that you need to support them by having ships sail up, while you just kicked off a war with a country with a much larger navy and air force.

And it's not much of a springboard to a beachhead that you can use for land-based logistics, because there's no infrastructure up there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing

The Russian side of the strait, in particular, is severely lacking in infrastructure. No railways exist for over 2,800 kilometers (1,700 mi) in any direction from the strait.[24]

The nearest major connecting highway is the M56 Kolyma Highway, which is currently unpaved and around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) from the strait.[25] However, by 2042, the Anadyr Highway is expected to be completed connecting Ola and Anadyr, which is only about 600 kilometers (370 mi) from the strait.[26]

On the U.S. side, an estimated 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) of highways or railroads would have to be built around Norton Sound, through a pass along the Unalakleet River, and along the Yukon River to connect to Manley Hot Springs Road – in other words, a route similar to that of the Iditarod Trail Race. A project to connect Nome, 100 miles (160 km) from the strait, to the rest of Alaska by a paved highway (part of Alaska Route 2) has been proposed by the Alaskan state government, although the very high cost ($2.3 to $2.7 billion, about $5 million per mile, or $3 million per kilometer) has so far prevented construction.[27]

In 2016, the Alaskan road network was extended westwards by 50 miles (80 km) to Tanana, 460 miles (740 km) from the strait, by building a fairly simple road. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities project was supported by local indigenous groups such as the Tanana Tribal Council.[28]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I hate the US's budget for defense. It's insane. 1% of that could do so much better as social programs.

But every time someone starts talking about a foreign country invading the us it's just.... Unthinkable..

Not like "oh it will never happen, nobody would ever attack US soil again" because that's just naive. We've stuck our noses in other people's business to too long starting before any of us were alive.

But when people try to argue their point, they simply do not understand the scale of the problem.

You sum it up quite well.

Assuming you HAVE the element of surprise, which is unlikely given intelligence networks inside foreign borders, modern radar technology, observation posts scattered around antagonistic nations, sattelite surveillance... The list just goes on.

You are never getting an invasion force and supporting logistics to the united states (or any of the Americas) without the entire world knowing. You would have to build the largest hidden fleet of silent submarines the world has ever seen to get close.

Even if you magically defeated THE LARGEST navy and second largest air force, as well as the ACTUAL largest air force, you still have to deal with army, marines, coast guard, national guard, and honestly I think my local police department has equivalent equipment to what Russia runs in Ukraine. So add police to that.

And the number one problem when they somehow defeat all those will be the "more than one gun for every citizen" part. I myself have several mostly inherited ones, I know how to use them, and I'm confident in my ability to teach others how to use them effectively. And would happily do so in a foreign invasion. I won't work for the military again but I'd be happy to defend my friends and family.

The hurdles for an invasion are high in most developed countries.

The us saw those hurdles, and decided "we need them at least 5x larger and made of titanium." and went to work on the largest military in the world.

I may hate the budget, but ho boy does it make for some fun thought exercises when someone brings up foreign invasions.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Honestly, I kinda of disagree with people making the military budget their main argument. Iirc we also spend a fuck ton of money on healthcare and it's not like we have free healthcare or anything, it goes to paying off people. We should focus more on getting rid of that corrupt system and using that money on education, infrastructure development, and research.