Russia and America have been almost to the brink of nuclear war for about 45 years. After World War two America and the very active Soviet Union never actually had full military campaigns against each other but were constantly in a chess match to see who could keep the upper hand. Two of the worlds largest super powers were head to head about to end everything in a nuclear fall out. Nuclear war was avoided and the Soviet Union fell in December of 1991. Russia has slowly become stronger over the passed 25 years and America is again running into more issues as who is the worlds number one super power. With Vladimir Putin becoming president in 2012, Russia has been making large scale military and police reforms. Russia is on the rise again.

Most believe that Russia is going to do more than just take over Crimea. Many are afraid of how powerful he is becoming and they might be looking at a "Hitler" like complex.  Regarding the recent issues with Russia and Ukraine, in an interview with President Putin claims, "I would like to say  --  there's no need to be afraid of Russia". According to Putin he has better things to do, "The world has changed so much that people in their right and cannot imagine such a large-scale military conflict today." "We have other things to do, I can assure you" (abc.net.au). With these words, Putin is attempting to calm the world and get off the radar. He wants people to care less about what he is doing and focus on their own conflicts. He is trying to get people to forget about the Ukraine crisis as it were not a big deal. In reality he has much larger plans than just taking Ukraine. Political cartoons portray Putin as forcing Crimea to join Russia by force, which is exactly what happened. NATO and other forces are completely against these actions but not a single country is willing to do something about it. 

Americas own military is afraid of Russia becoming too strong. The United States is sending more troops to "Stuttgart, Germany to counter a more aggressive Russia" (Stripes.com). Just recently the United States has decided to inactivate two of four European brigades, a recent review has recommended that the United States Military should return an armored brigade and an aviation headquarters to ensure a better defense against Russian military theatrics. Even though Vladimir Putin claims that there is nothing they want to do with the old Soviet Union territory the United States is not wanting to take any chances. The army has brought back two hundred and fifty tanks and other heavy vehicles, positioned in Europe. "The United States has bolstered its presence in eastern Europe, with new missions across the Baltics as part of an effort to reassure allies and deter Russia" (Stripes.com). The United States is also very afraid to stand up to Russia and cause conflict, fortunately they are the only ones attempting to reassure allies and make attempts to no loose military strength and command.

This recent close encounter with one of the United States reconnaissance planes and a Russian fighter over the black sea has brought speculation that Russia has something to hide or does not want to be watched so closely. This is one of several incidents occurring because of how Russia is becoming increasingly more aggressive with its military power. The Russian fighter never fired upon the US aircraft, they "buzzed" the aircraft while it was in international airspace on a routine flight. This is seen as unsafe and unprofessional to United States military officials. According to this article Russia is not afraid of the U.S. and they were just toying with the aircraft. This kind of behavior is looked at as hostile and life-threatening. The idea being put out from this article is that the current Russian air force is making their presence known. Russia and the United States are currently working to improve airspace safety over Syria. This type of behavior observed over the Black Sea is in ignorance of the discussion about airspace safety over Syria and are making trust between the two countries much more difficult to keep.

"Russia defeats NATO in Baltic war game" another article that is convincing readers that Russia wants a war and is doing very well. If Russia were to mount an assault on the Baltics, they would be able to take it with little to no struggle. In the war games that NATO and the United States ran, the Russian forces were able to take their objective between 36 and 60 hours from the start of hostilities. Actions are being taken by NATO to reinforce this area to avoid any future affairs in the Baltics. "I think it's highly unlikely that Putin would contemplate an invasion of the Baltics" Robert Person claims to help ease the idea that Russia is going to take over. With all of this freedom for Russia to move and no one confronting these actions, Russia is more likely to take larger steps towards possible conflicts with NATO or The United States alone.

Even though Russia has all of this power they are not willing to use it to start any huge wars. Vladimir Putin is a capable and intelligent leader for his people. The issues in Crimea are over looked, the American media is portraying Russia as horrible dictators taking countries against their will. The actions in the Crimean Peninsula were part of a larger strategy to federate Ukraine and maintaining a Russian "droit de regard" over Kiev. "One day after a referendum in Crimea on 16 March, with an overwhelming majority voting to break away from Ukraine and join Russia, Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as 'a sovereign and independent state'. On 18 March, Putin signed documents formally annexing Crimea to Russia and took a victory lap before Russia's political elite assembled in the Grand Kremlin Palace, declaring that 'Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia in the hearts and minds of people'" (Stephen J. Cimbala). 

Vladimir Putin is a very inspirational leader to the people of Russia, he served in the KGB and is a decorated and highly educated human being. He is a great military leader for his people and has lots of plans and even a "Secret Army" that Vladimir had at his disposal for years. "In 2000, the first year of Putin's presidency, Chechnya was Russia's most rebellious province, ruled by Islamist warlords who surrendered to Moscow only after Putin sent the air force to flatten its cities that year. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the process, while the heavily bombarded Chechen capital of Grozny was described in a U.N. report in 2003 as "the most destroyed city on earth." Yet today Chechnya is the only place in Russia where Putin is so openly and publicly worshipped. The central drag in Grozny bears his name -- the Avenue of V.V. Putin -- and the local security forces, staffed mostly with former rebel fighters, now pledge to carry out his every command or martyr themselves in the attempt" (Simon Shuster). This was not a huge topic of discussion in the United States. Any information known about the issue was forgotten or lost because of the worry the Americans had for the strength of a known enemy. "Since the conflict in Ukraine began in the spring of 2014, the U.S. has deemed the threat from Chechnya great enough to warrant imposing sanctions against Kadyrov and his top lieutenants. The E.U., in explaining its own travel bans and asset freezes against Kadyrov, noted his threat last summer to send 74,000 of his fighters to wage war in Ukraine. For its part, the Ukrainian government launched a criminal probe against Kadyrov in December for ordering his troops to kidnap several Ukrainian lawmakers and bring them back to Chechnya. Those orders, according to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, "demonstrate a real threat of murder or other harm to the members of parliament of Ukraine." While mostly laughing off the sanctions against him, Kadyrov responded last summer by banning President Barack Obama and several top E.U. officials from entering Chechnya" (Simon Shuster). This Militia force is dangerous and seems to even be out of Putin's control. They have become very aggressive and people are worried that Vladimir will not be able to take control of his own army. Russia may have a once great leader but his inability to take control of a militia group in his own country shows that he is not a strong enough and that his control and leadership skills are in question.

Putin has decided to intervene militarily in Syria and it has brought back similar concerns about Russian power and influences on other countries. They have justified their involvement in Syrian issues as an act to reduce terrorism. Russia is attempting to revive the official authorities. With the collapse of government officials, the terrorists will mobilize and this will reek even more havoc. "Putin's decision to intervene militarily in Syria is rooted in similar concerns about Russian power and influence. Russia has justified its foray into Syria as part of an effort to reduce terrorism by shoring up the Assad regime, which by the summer of 2015 was facing military setbacks. As Putin said in October, "The collapse of Syria's official authorities will only mobilize terrorists. Right now, instead of undermining them, we must revive them, strengthening state institutions in the conflict zone" (Angela Stent). 

Russia does not admit to being hostile to the United States but has in fact threatened several American ships while patrolling in the black sea and a couple of United States Air Force ships. The Russians act as if they are up to something and do not want the United Nations to know what it is. From the public view Russia is friendly and siding with the UN on issues such as terrorism and the conflicts in Syria. Militarily the Russians are more advanced than had originally anticipated. The United States Navy sent an intelligence ship into the black sea equipped with new radar and other reconnaissance computers to help acquire information about the Russians. The Russians used some sort of remote device on one of their airplanes to completely shut down the naval ship and force it to return home for repairs. It was never any act of force and the Russians do not take responsibility for this occurrence, the United States does not believe they are innocent. 

America is only afraid of no longer having control over something. Putin may not want war but he does enjoy the power. He has the fear of the rest of the world because of his actions in Crimea but to ease peoples comforts he comes forth and states that he does not want war. He understands that the cost of war would be too great and would not dream of attacking all of the UN and NATO forces. With a possible world war on the horizon of what is done in the middle east and if the world can stay together and focused on one enemy then it is possible to avoid war with each other. The war against terror is holding this world together at the same time it is tearing it apart. If it were not for the terrorist's groups attacking worldwide, there may be more conflicts with Russia and other surrounding countries.

