[ralucagymnast]

Great website; I have the book by the guy who runs the site, Pavel Podvig; gives up to date news of missile test launches, and upcoming events. It seems that every autumn (fall, as you USA peeps call it) is a very busy time for the Russian Strategic Forces, so all the activity with the Russian military is most definitely nothing new, its just with the Ukraine situation, it seems the timing is a bit unfortunate, thats all. The two, it seems, are not related at all. Also the coming month is the beginning of the fiscal year for the USA, so any elements which are no longer required, are phased out, and newer updated stuff is added. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, just, as I said, with the Ukraine stuff it might be seen that Russia is being "belligerant"; theyre not, but it obviously can be construed that way. Its a question of context, thats all. So you see its very easy to see things which arent there, and to take things totally out of context; in other words, CALM YOUR TITS lol
Heres the link to Pavels website, read it, its very interesting;lots of info which wouldnt normally be available through "ordinary" (censored) mediahttp://russianforces.org/

[ralucagymnast]

From the site which Ive posted a link to; just what I said about level of activity at this time of year;
Busy time for Russian strategic forces

Quite a few people have noticed the relatively high level of activity of the Russian strategic forces - in the past few days Russia tested a Bulava SLBM from Yury Dolgorukiy submarine, a Topol-M missile from Plesetsk, and a Sineva missile from the Tula submarine. Its strategic bombers have also been very active recently. And this is probably not the end of it yet - the word is that Russia will launch an SS-18 ICBM (most likely R-36M2) from Dombarovskiy/Yasnyy in the coming days.

Given that all this is happening against the backdrop of the continuing crisis around Ukraine, it is perfectly legitimate to ask if all these launches and bomber patrols are supposed to send a message of some sort. My best guess is that they are not - what we see is the regular burst of activity that now happens every fall. In October 2013 Russia staged a major exercise of strategic forces, with two ICBM and two SLBM launches, a test of an ABM interceptor, cruise missile launches, and Tu-160 bombers visiting South America. In October 2012 we saw launches of an ABM interceptor, R-29R SLBM, Topol ICBM, cruise missiles from strategic bombers, and a new ICBM (R-26 Rubezh).

So, the launches of the fall of 2014 don't look unusual at all. Of course, the circumstances have changed, so now they may be perceived differently, but that is probably an unintended effect of the regular activity.

Source:
http://russianforces.org/blog/2014/1...strategi.shtml

[niknik]

That's one way to spin it.