HELSINKI — When Leonid Brezhnev was in charge of the Soviet Union, he did not see much need to threaten Europe with his country’s vast nuclear arsenal: The USSR’s overwhelming advantage in tanks, artillery and men meant that it was the U.S. which had to be ambiguous about the first use of its nuclear weapons to stop a potential Soviet juggernaut.
Russia under Vladimir Putin is in a very different situation. Although it is embarking on a massive 10-year rearmament campaign and is now spending 4.5 percent of its GDP on the military, more than any NATO country, Russia’s conventional forces …read more
Source: European Voice
