[Thor]

Not sure why, but maybe its because as a kid I feared the USSR and nuclear war. Then when the wall came down and Russia started on a path to an open society it was for me such a momentous time.

Then to see the corruption take over the country, its been so sad because Russians are great people, Iceland has lots of them and its just infuriating to see the criminal Putin gain power and turn Russia back to its USSR days.

Now we see the rise of Russia's sabre rattling, aggressive movement to update their war machine, the invasion of Georgia and Ukraine, all the while so many in the west, usually fellow liberals blame NATO and the West for this, that poor Putin has to respond to free nations choosing to side with the west, because they especially know the Russian Bear and what its capable of.

I fear we are heading in to a cold war again, and even a limited war that Russia seizes many of the baltic states back, people assume this is impossible since we have nukes, but Putin is well aware we would never go that far to protect former Soviet republics, he would take them within days and then the cold war would start anew.

Which is something Putin is fully capable of, his economy is in the crapper and he's still incredibly popular (thanks to controlling the media) and he has not that much to lose.

Not to mention China is building up their military as well and tensions with the US are rising with the dispute over those stupid man made islands.

I don't have a optimistic view on the next 50 years with China, Russia and the west, especially if China and the Russians become closer allies. That would be a really bad situation for the world.