The buildup reflects President Vladimir Putin’s apparent readiness to raise the ante in a showdown with the West over Ukraine — but it is unclear whether Russia can afford the modernization drive amid slumping oil prices and Western sanctions.
In the Ukraine crisis, Moscow for the first time demonstrated its new capacity for what experts call “hybrid” warfare, a combination of military force with a degree of deniability, sleek propaganda and political and economic pressure.
The U.S. and its NATO allies were caught off guard when waves of Russian heavy-lift military transport planes landed on the Black Sea peninsula days after the …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle