While the USSR collapsed in 1991, the Russian nuclear threat to the US did not. In a sense, the Cold War was restarted on December 31, 1999 by the ascension of Russian hardliner and former FSB (renamed KGB) director Vladimir Putin as President. US officials have since expressed great concern over Russia’s return to authoritarianism. In 2002, President Putin, known to US intelligence as "the Grey Fox" for his duplicity, announced his plans to retain Russia’s heavy SS-18 and SS-24 ‘monster’ missiles banned by the START II Treaty proving he cannot be trusted to honor Russia’s arms control treaties. Russian nukes, which have been estimated to number as many as 15,000 as opposed to a mere 2,700 for the US, continue to pose a major threat to the US, both actual and in terms of a growing potential for blackmail as the US disarms itself of 75% of its strategic nuclear deterrent under the terms of the Treaty of Moscow. Obama has since withdrawn nearly half of US strategic nuclear weapons from service during his first three weeks in office alone and his planned START III treaty will gut US nuclear might even further.

Since the Sino-Russian military alliance was formalized in July 2001, Russia and Communist China have joined with four Central Asian states in forming the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an offshoot of their newly established alliance. What’s more, Russia has recently held a number of joint mock nuclear war training exercises with the PRC, aimed against the United States making a joke of its vaunted ‘strategic partnership’ with the US. The misguided US invasion of Iraq has left our allies more vulnerable than ever to potential Communist aggression in East Asia by the PRC and its proxy, North Korea, whose nuclear-tipped Taepodong 2 ICBMs pose a far greater threat to the US than Iraq’s non-existent WMD arsenal ever did. This forum is dedicated to the discussion of the resurgent threat from Russia, the PRC and North Korea.