₦airaland Forum

skyface00:
Sure!if you can take mine, Am moving to a bigger apartment in 2months, the house is nice, also depends on your budget, though I paid 270k, I don't know if the landlord given the place out, but I can link you up with him.

Cheer

Hi,

can you let me know if this is still available? I have a friend who is very interested.

Thanks

onatisi:
This is a very sensitive topic and subject but we must understand the necessities that makes a man leave his loved ones . If he stays behind and isn't able to cater for the wife and kids ,the situation will be worse

I will rather stay and hustle wherever i am than leave my kids behind.

Time is too precious to waste it on frivolities like the search for money - no one survives in the end anyway.

Most men forget that they need their kids more than their kids need them. What's the point growing old one day and not having a single memory of your kids growing up? No dinner time jokes, no holidays together - nothing! It's just a waste of a life.

Time is the only thing you have, and time is the only thing you don't have.

Chukzyfcb:
Book facee, although you made salient points about ones choice of investment to beat the 9% Inflation. I would likee to state some an irregularity in one of your posted comments;
It is false to say real estate in lagos & abuja yields 2-3% annually, according to the stats by 3investonline (a popular real-estate analyst coy)....lagos& abuja residential building yields between 8-9%, just as tthe land are overvalued, so is the rent skyrocketing due to high influx.....Nevertheless, the real gain in real estate lies not in the annual yield, but in the land appreciation. Every professional Investor & economist will tell you that real estate is always a good hedge Inflation!

I doubt those figures

Prime houses in Ikoyi are renting for 7million per annum - these houses are worth well over 200 million. Which makes the rental yield equal 3.5% per annum.

Any asset will protect you against inflation as long as the expected return on that asset is greater than expected inflation. The real returns on real estate in Nigeria is negative. Anyone that is smart enough would stay clear of these.

Onegai:
I approached the bank and they refused selling Treasury bills (that rates are bad) and tried talking me into Fixed Deposits (so I walked away). Some of my shares have been cashed out but I've been thinking Dangote Cement won't be a bad idea. I believe I already have NBC or Coca-Cola.

Can I pm you please?

Call your broker and ask them instead. Ask for Treasury bonds and not bills. Bills are short term maturity instrument. You can also ask for corporate bonds. Some bonds may have a minimum investment amount, but they should be able to tell you this.

It could be the case that the banks themseleves are engaged in some sort of arbitrage - i.e they are buying the government bonds with higher rates and selling to you at lower rates (Naija, i hail o)

You can easily check out the rates here on the Nigerian Stock exchange website.

http://www.nse.com.ng/Issuers-section/listed-securities/listed-bonds

I would caution against buying stocks just because you think it's a big company. Some of them are big company with poor corporate governance. E.g Oando.

For stocks, i like the following companies.

Nigerian Breweries
Unilever Nigeria
Guinness Nigeria
Nestle Nigeria.

These are good companies with good management and strong cashflows. But i would caution you not to take this as an investment advice. This is just my opinion, based on studying some of these companies.

Yes, it's okay to PM me, but unless you think it's something very confidential, i think many other people can benefit from these sorts of public domain exchange.

echelons:
It's better for some ppl to go out of business because they don't have valid documentation to enable them source forex directly from banks at interbank rates than a whole lot of Nigerians (including you) to lose the value of the hard earned money that we suffer to get in this country.
What is the minimum wage in Nigeria? 18k. Money that cannot even buy anything meaningful these days and that is what a lot of Nigerians manage to survive on. Now you want it devalued further? So that the 18k (and indeed all our salaries and incomes) to become mere tissue papers?
I'm sorry but I don't think you understand the impact of devaluation in an import based economy. The IMF, World Bank and some very powerful foreign and Nigerian investors are the one pushing for this devaluation because of the huge margins they'll make if the Naira is devalued now.
It's unfortunate that ordinary Nigerians who do not have anything to gain from devaluation (and in fact have all to lose) are the once buying this crap devaluation push.

You simply don't understand.

First - Companies going out of business is more harmful to the Nigerian economy than the Naira losing its value. Medium scale businesses are truly the main backbones of any economy. Think about what happens when a small company of 20 workers decides to close shop - if fires all its workers, who in turn get home and fire their own domestic workers. The result is a dramatic rise in unemployment rate and poverty.

Second - We cannot become an export oriented country overnight. Ignore the rubbish the media spews about diversification of the Nigerian economy. It's possible, but it won't happen for another decade or so. Currently our growth is mostly funded by crude sales, and productivity per worker is incredibly low. If we have the technical know how to substitute imports at a technological advantage over countries where we imported them from, we will already be doing so. Think about it this way, we can probably manufacture toothpicks in Nigeria, but if it cost 120 Naira to import toothpicks and 200 Naira to manufacture, then it is more efficient to import. In economics, its called comparative advantage.

Third - Most Nigerians can't get their forex needs at the official rate of 200 Naira , so most people get their forex at the black market rate of 270 dollars. It doesn't make any difference to the average Nigerian if the central bank devalues the naira to 270 or not. The only people benefiting from the central bank's policy are the rich and wealthy. The likes of Dangote can probably access their forex needs directly from the central bank at 200 naira, whereas the average Nigerian can only do so at the black market rate of 270. This is like taking from the poor and giving to the rich. The central bank is effectively subsidizing the big and rich companies at the expense of the middle tier and small scale companies.
The foreign exchange reserve is the property of ALL Nigerians and not just big companies alone.

Fourth - Devaluation is not the central bank's choice. Nigeria does not mint dollars, and our foreign exchange reserves is not unlimited. Foreign portfolio flows which tends to act as an alternative source to foreign income from exports has since dried up - especially since last September when JP Morgan removed Nigeria from the Emerging Markets index due to the CBN's policy. At some point, we will have very little dollars left to conduct foreign transactions and will have no choice but to devalue the Naira. It is not a matter of IF but when it happens.


Of course, there is pain in devaluing the Nigerian Naira, no doubt, but if Emefiele had done this several months ago, the impact of the oil price drop would not be so exacerbated. Additionally, the impact would have been that our foreign reserve is preserved.

You mentioned that the IMF, the World bank and some foreign investors are the biggest beneficiaries of devaluation - this is simply not true. The biggest beneficiary is the Federal government of Nigeria. The federal government earns the bulk of its revenue in dollars and pays the bulk of its expenses in Naira. In the scenario where Naira is devalued to 300 relative to dollars for instance, ordinary Nigerians would feel the pain, but the government could have mitigated against that by creating more jobs, boosting infrastructure spending, etc. simply because the government revenue is higher in real terms.

The world bank and the IMF by contrast are not profit making bodies. They exist to prevent systemic collapse of the economy. The IMF knows that Nigeria would have to resort to borrowing from it if things get really bad - as a creditor of last resort, the IMF exist to ensure that things don't get really bad. In the 1970s, when the british economy was going through big problems due to persistent inflation and a hike in oil prices, the IMF prescribed a similar dose. This is not a conspiracy stuff by some International organisations to destroy Nigeria.

Onegai:
What do you recommend investing in?

Government bonds for one - If you can ask your broker about this. If you can get rates closer to 12 or 13 %, this should help you beat inflation which is currently at 9% by about 3% per annum.

Properties, is probably still a good idea, although i don't like this idea very much because they are illiquid investments and would not return as much value as the first option in this case. Nigerian properties at the moment are overvalued. The best rental yield you would probably get from your investment is about 3-5% even in prime areas like Lagos and Abuja. Which is well below inflation rate at 9% and well below government bond yields at 13%.

Finally, if you are into stocks, you could consider a buy and hold strategy - but with a very long term view. In the short term (about 2 to 3 years) stocks will probably underperform, if current economic situation worsens. However, in the longer term, you would probably make a lot of money from holding some stocks in your portfolio. You should stay away from oil and gas stocks such as the likes of Oando - stay away from banks with bad corporate governance (especially banks with large un-collateralized loans to the oil and gas industry) - you can buy company stocks like 7Up, Coca Cola, Maggi, Cement etc.

The best approach is holding each of this items in your portfolio, and having a diversified portfolio holding

In either case, there is nothing worse than simply holding cash in your bank account. You lose 9% of the value of that cash every year.

You should be careful though, there are enough scammers out there, talk to your broker if you have one, and ask about each of the items i have listed above

gottliebglobal:
I don't see anything different here from what I said.
We are saying the same thing.

Yeah, true, we are.

I think the fair value of the Naira is probably around 310 dollars.

Smart Nigerians should invest money now in real assets - the dumbest thing anyone could do right now is letting his money rot away in a bank account somewhere.

Stagflation is coming, and it is coming big time.

gottliebglobal:
That is the problem with armchair Economists. The laws of supply and demand should take its course, but no, Government wants to put their hands in everything and control the exchange rate. Now they have seen that the CBN cannot continue to prop up the Naira against other world currencies. Next stop, devaluation.
It is now not a question of whether to devalue or not, it is WHEN?
I project within 28 days. Watch out for $1= Naira 350

Ironically, his goal of defending the Naira is actually causing it to depreciate.

The logic is simple, by restricting the amount of dollar transactions, you actually make the dollar more valuable. It is simple law of demand and supply. A currency with high demand and low supply will go up in value. No one in their right minds will give up their dollars in exchange for naira, knowing fully well how hard it is to source foreign exchange.

Emefiele policies will simply end up harming the Nigerian economy, more than it will help it. He should have listened to the advise of his two predecessors - Sanusi and Soludo - and allowed a moderate devaluation of the Nigerian Naira in other to absorb the shocks of the the low oil prices.

His approach of burning through the foreign reserves, and banning imports will simply harm economic growth in the medium and the longer term. Medium scale businesses that rely a lot on import will now have no choice but to simply go out of business.

rockiedink:
Bros I understand you.

But first you should realise that these billionaires don't do these things because "they should" but because "THEY CAN"!!!

We've seen pictures of a 'richie' who use a gold-plated flush bowl in his loo... does it make sense? NO! Can he do it? YES!

The average billionaire has multiple houses...even in the same locality. Does he need them? NO! Can he buy them? YES!

The big boy wey get one of the biggest telcos in Naija plus oil company join...you know how many houses he get for Banana Island? And VI? Many of them he no dey live inside and he no rent am out; I even heard that one day he was being driven along the road somewhere in VI and he saw a house he liked and he called his acquisitions team and said "Buy that house for me." when acquisitions started their findings to purchase the house, lo and behold, na him gan gan get house! Tell me, did he need the house? NO! Could he buy the house? YES! Times over!

So my dear brother, there's a level these people get to where they do things not because they should do them, but because they can do them. Rationality is alien to them because the 'substance' is there!

I know they do things because they can!

But again - you will have to understand my question properly. This is not an issue of who can or not.

Would you rather fix your car 10 times at the rate of 10 million naira each or would you simply buy a new one for 100 million?

I would suppose that even people who CAN would rather buy a new one for 100 million. It's just common sense.

Now, my question comes back to this - assuming a Nigerian who buys a buggati veryron know he would spend up to 20 million fixing the car each time it has an issue, and there is a chance that he would have to fix the car at least 10 times - if he knows this information already, would he rather buy a new car than fix an existing one? That's the crux of my question - Are the owners likely to buy a new car? Are they going to keep spending money fixing an exisiting car knowing fully well that they can simply buy a new one? Or are they most likely to simply dump the car in their garage and conclude that it is not worth fixing?

I am already assuming that those who buy these car have a lot of resources to throw around.

rockiedink:
It's implied bruv. If I can afford N100m to buy the car in the first place, N10-20m to fly in a specialist and ship necessary parts is chicken feed mehn!

The point I am trying to understand is not whether these guys have the money to fix their cars - that is granted - my point is to focus on the rationality of doing so.

Your estimate tells me that it doesn't make sense. Let's assume they would need to fix their cars - from full scale service to the simplest electrical fixes - at the cost of 10 million each time. Then by the 10th time, they would have spent 100 million and would have been better off buying a new car in the first place. This tells me that this behavior cannot be considered rational.

Except of course, there are specialist that can do these things effectively in Nigeria. Which brings me back to my original question - who are these specialist and where are they located.

rockiedink:
Person get N100m to buy moto, you dey ask how he wan take maintain or service am?

That my friend...according to Simi is 'JAMB Question'

Still doesn't answer the question. I am not asking how they will get the money to maintain/service the cars, I am asking where they will find the specialist to do so - different stuffs.

Two questions..

How do people effectively drive these cars in Lagos with the bad roads?

And how do they get them fixed when there aren't specialists who can do so around?

Dollyak:
There is always a catch with most daily traders. Nothing new. Unless you are a top quant analyst then I refuse to take you seriously.
This is just a dressed up gambling, which means you have more losers than gainers.
I strongly believe he makes his money from charging fees.

Thank you!

Even Top quant analysts are unable to make money in the market as consistently as he claims. Anyone that is remotely familiar with the markets know this. It is just not possible. The top quant trading shops i know have algos that are designed to work by the nanoseconds and they spend a LOT of money coming up with such proprietary software.

I believe this guy makes his money by showing off a lavish lifestyle and attracting a lot of mules who in turn are happy to pay him to learn how to trade. It is like that "Rich Dad poor dad" kinda stuff - he made more money from selling his books to mules, but i haven't yet heard of anyone that became wealthy by simply following his ideas.

I saw your thread and i thought i may be interested in what you've got to offer. It's really simple, if you put pictures that are not representative of your actual work and without clearly stating that this is the case, then what you are doing is out-rightly lying to prospective customers.

Anyone who visits the thread will automatically go away with the thinking that these are pictures from some of your previous work. That is a lie! That is what i am trying to point out! Why would i give a shit about bringing you down? I don't know you and don't have any business to do with you - but i am strongly for transparency. Those who will eventually patronize you should have a true understanding for what you can actually do.

My point comes down to this - show us exactly your previous works, not internet pictures. and if you must show internet pictures (which is understandable), you should clearly state that "these pictures are copied from the internet, but I can offer something like these"--- How difficult could that be?

1) Some of the pictures you have uploaded are not yours. They were simply stock pictures copied and pasted from somewhere else, a quick google image check proves this. You need to be completely honest with prospective customers. Putting up stock pictures that has been copied from the internet to advertise your services is misrepresentation at best.

for example, your second picture was copied and pasted from here

http://www.clarkekoi.com/construction-fundamentals.html

your fourth picture from here

http://www.bionova.de/saunatauchbecken_naturpool_schwimmteich_badeteich.htm

I could go on and on


2) You can sell porkies all you like, but i aint buying. Even someone who is legally blind can see that most of the before and after pictures aren't the same.

EfemenaXY:
Abeg don't start that line again...
Re: the bolded - you haven't taken into consideration the alarming rate at which the Naira devalues against the £ Sterling.
Okay, I tried to do a search of the historical exchange rate trend of NGN / GBP from 1960 but the best I could find was a 10 year historical trend provided by XE.com - an online foreign exchange currency converter tool which uses highly accurate, live mid market rates.
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=NGN&view=10Y
So let's play with some numbers here:
Exchange rate as at 2^nd Jan 2006 by COB (Close of Business) was roughly 224pts (i.e: £1 = N224)
Exchange rate as at COB 20^th Dec 2015 was roughly 296pts
% increase over the 10 year period: ((296 - 224)/296)*100 = 24.32% or let's say 25%
Or better still if we calculate the percentage increase between the highest (315pts) and the lowest (175pts) within that 10 year span = 80% (I like to be optimistic)
So if my £4 Abuja property increases by 80% in 10 years, I'll be looking at an increase of £3.2 which brings the new value of my Naija pad to £7.2m ==> almost double the value in 10 years time. Not 150 years as you postulated... and yes, I think I should have all my dentures intact 10 years from now.
And going by the real life example provided by Phoenix480, I think it's safe to assume the figures I've provided are a moderate - conservative even, increase.

I think you have got your numbers mixed up.

A depreciation of the Naira is a net loss for the UK investor in Nigerian property. It makes no difference for the Nigerian Investor in Nigerian property

The economic policy of the central bank is poor and inadequate. Emefieke should have taken to Sanusi's advice and let the Naira absorb the shock of the oil price drop via devaluation instead of stupidly restricting imports, and mindlessly burning the foreign reserves just to keep the naira artificially propped. The result of this policy is that import sensitive industries will no longer be able to run their operations effectively and they will have to lay off workers to cut down their fixed running costs.
Eventually, the CBN governor will either burn all our foreign reserves in other to prop up the naira, or he will stack up massive amounts of foreign debts at higher interest rates.....but eventually, the markets will still force him to devalue the naira, which is what he should have done a long time ago. The only difference is that by the time he does it this time, the economy would be in a really bad shape already.

CBN Governors should never have to make policies that are "politically" convenient. Of course, devaluation would hurt Nigerians, but the truth is, the alternative is much worse

NaijaTalkTown:
Actually, America is in a $16trillion debt and the only way it has been coping since 2013 is by printing more dollars. Stop forming to be an analyst when you are not.

America is in 16 trillion dollar debt, but all that debt is denominated in US dollars, and most of that debt is owed to the US Federal reserve.


America can afford to print money because its economy is big and diversified. The GDP of California alone is more than that of Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt combined. Stop spewing nonsense.

Printing more money and allowing the Naira to devalue will have the same effect on the Naira.

But printing more money is worse, because that will naturally cause inflation to rise.

The best approach right now is fiscal consolidation - The government should reduce its size - and simultaneously increase infrastructure spending so as to offset the loss of jobs.


E.g. The government can transfer public schools into private hands to reduce the burden from paying monthly salaries to teachers - while at the same time, increase infrastructure projects like railways - this should create thousands of engineering jobs.

Where possible, the government should transfer labour into private hands. This is the best approach to cutting the incredible high recurrent expenditure, while allowing for room for infrastructure spending which the country badly needs.

The central bank should not be making policies like this. This should be the job of the economic/finance minister.

The current policy is not sustainable in the long run. It appears that Emefiele is only playing short term and hoping that oil prices revert back to the good ol days of $105 per barrel. That's not going to happen.

You went for an interview for a job you don't know and a bank you have know clue about

Seriously?

One the one hand, your interviewers are not professionals... On the other hand, you seriously need a rethink of your own career objectives

ibedun:
Deterioration of which fundamentals? I like to be sure you know what you are talking about.

Deterioration in foreign investments, upward pressure on local yields, deterioration in real household savings.

To name just 3

The current CBN policy is short sighted and will only lead to further deterioration of fundamentals. The CBN should let the naira trade closer to its true value, the current levels are indefensible.Fiscal adjustment is also needed to reduce the strain on government expenditures. A good start will be cutting down the budget of the national assembly, cutting down on subsidies and moving a huge part of recurrent expenditures to private hands.... Why the hell should the federal government be paying salaries of teachers, doctors etc?

My advise for you is to break up with her now!

Staying on to see if things will eventually work out is a dead end route . The truth is, if any of her other relationships had worked out, she will have ditched you long ago. Additionally, in my opinion, any girl who can consciously cheat on you ( either sexually involved or not)..has no respect for you. If she can tell you to your face, then you should realize that you...not she, is the victim her. You are being emotionally blackmailed

You wouldn't feel truly free until you end your relationship with her, trust me, I was in something similar until just months ago.

I would never advise paying her off, that's just nonsense! She is not the only one whose time is wasted, yours is wasted as well, the fact that you are a man does not mean you can wait till 50 before you get married

DeRay98:
From your profile you look like a senior teenager and your comment typifies that assertion. Teenagers or teenagers at heart always assume that they know all. The moment they start to hear about an idea or issue or topic they assume it's new and they are well informed on it.
Your insufficient comprehension of the advice is evidenced when you overlook the fact that the mother said she dared her husband and that brought out the monster in him and it happened just once. Who knows how your mum treated your father regularly? You can come here to say she did heavy and earth for him but you won't say the things she did wrongly.
You had better learn the right lessons now otherwise, when your heart starts to pant after a guy you think is prince-sharming(whatever your criteria) you might end up with the wrong guy and your parents history repeats itself.
Be forget your teenage mentality and learn those who have experience to share.

She dared me
She annoyed me
She didn't cook my food
She didn't run when I called her
She ran too fast when I called her

...there are millions more lame excuses why weak men beat their partners.

It is particularly lame to say "She dared me to do it"... Let's hope next time she dares him to do something more outrageous like throw himself off a bridge.

Real men think of their own mums when they see their wives, the last thing they will do is beat her....not for million reasons. In the worst case scenario, you walk out of the marriage, beating a woman is only the preserve of the lame and the cowards

deniike:
Pls who would be attending Robert Gordon Uni Aberdeen this September?

That's a pretty decent school, 3 of our current interns came from Robert Gordon

PweedyB:
Pls what's the average price of a winter Jacket in the UK?

You could get something for as low as 20pounds or as high as 750pounds...your choice

zerray:
Please how good is University of reading? And university of glasgow? if you are in these schools pls drop your email pls I need your help. Thnks @justwise

I attended Reading. Happy to help with any questions

Appleyard:
The thing about you that always interest me is that you always pride your self in your arrogance, while others before you are shallow minded, only in your arrogant mind and bias opinions! It is only a kid that starts a debate with insult.
But its accepted, we all are entitled to our views.

Now, regarding your numerical assertments; it is true that:

First,- the US would always outspend Russia 10 to 1 on military projects, but what difference does it make? If i spend 1000 dollar in research on a rifle, and you spent just 100 dollar on that same rifle research, but at the end you came out with the same result, or one even better, or its equivalent, then what is the difference in the amount spent? You should know that there is a difference between military technological know how and excessive military spending.
Military spending doesn't dictate capabilities. For instance, The Chinese outspend the Russians but they dont have the capability to even face them, rather they overwhelmingly depends on Russia for theirs. The Saudis outspend the Germans, France and the British, but can't compete with them or other key players; not even with Iran.

Thus, the usual excuse for the US outspending Russia makes no technological difference in the conventional sense in terms of results, since both have the same effect and level in capability, the only real difference being in NUMBERS. And where this becomes the case, Russia then counters with an opposite opposing capability.
That is why your uncle sam is always crying foul to high heavens whenever the Russians put up something that matches or out performed theirs!

Secondly, it is not true that Russia, aside the nuclear option, is a second rated military power. Rather, it is a nation whose advanced technology exports present a major strategic risk for the US, whether operated by China, or smaller players like Iran or Venezuela. These systems will deny access to most US ISR and combat aircraft. Russian high technology weapons are transforming the strategic landscape in Asia, as the defence industries of the former Soviet Republics export some of the most advanced weapons designed and built to date. This strategic has important long term implications for US policy makers, and from the uptick in the cries upon cries of alarm, it shows that the matter is well understood or indeed widely understood in Washington circles.

On this note, you are dead wrong! Russia has always, and will always be an indispensible player, whether conventional or nuclear.

And it does not need a litany of allies to defend itself when threatened, for she is big enough and strategically positioned to defend it self. The US and NATO can have as many allies as they want around Russia, with whatever battery missile they may want to station there; they would only end up being the perfect targets for Russian Iskander and defense penetrating missiles. Just As one Russian General aptly put it: " we will take care of them with one missile".

Believe it or not, whatever game the US will put up in Europe, the Russians will always come up with something that will beat it or atleast deny its aim.

I will take you up on the rest tomorow. Stay well.

"Military spending does not dictate capabilities"

This is just rubbish ignorance - as i would dare say, a huge part of the points you've made.

First, the US spends only 30% of its military budgets on research and procurement - and a bigger part on maintaining existing capabilities. It doesn't matter if Russia spends 20,000 rubles producing a ship and the US spends 1 million - the difference is who has the spending capability to maintain that ship in the Mediterranean every day for the next 20 years?

The US maintains an incredible fleet of carrier battle groups and global "blue water" capabilities - that several countries can only dream of. Maintaining such a capability is directly proportional to military spending. - Even Britain & France had to scrap most of their maritime forces - since the costs are virtually prohibitive.

So yes, when US outspends Russia - it makes a difference on a technical level - because it dictates who has the staying power - The US navy alone has enough capabilities to fight both in Europe and Asia - simultaneously.


On your second point - No one denies that Russia has advanced technology that can do a lot of damage - but this does not change its position as a second rate military power without the nuclear option. Being a first rate military power is more than having advanced Iskanders and the like - You need what is called "reach". Like the case of the US going across the Atlantic into Iraq. On advanced technology alone, Russia is no better that the likes of UK, France and Germany really.

On your third point - I would dare say this also proves how little you know of military matters. According to Master Sun Tzu in the Art of War, the five critical factors to succeed in any war- Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army and Cities.-

Russia is actually not strategically positioned- quite the contrary - Even though it is the largest country in the world, it has an indefensible territory. The core of Russia which runs from the volga green belts up to Moscow proper is without any natural geographic barrier. The biggest flaw with its geographic location is the Northern European plain - which has a gap between the Carpathian Mountains and the Baltic sea. Russia has faced three major invasions through this gap - from Napoleon, from Willhelm and from Hitler. May i also remind you that despite it's large Soviet army at that time, Hitler was only miles away from taking Moscow, if it hadn't been for his (Hitler) own strategic errors and the cruel Russian winter?

Appleyard:
How are the Russians stupid and getting a high when they aren't the ones wailing? In Russia's interpretation? It wasn't the Russians that are complaining: thus, it is the US that is actually doing the interpretation.

In the US interpretation, they are alarmed, and is rightly so, given the upsurge in Russia's military and strategic upgrades in recent times; something the Pentagon is not finding funny at all!

A prelude my foot! The US has been spemding billions upon billions in defence against a fictional so-called axis of evil, and has over the years, been engage in such act of military spending to realise its quest for global hegemony.

The alarm it has been raising since 2O11, is purely out of fear and concern regarding Russia's rapid growing military capability re-emerging as a key and indispensable player, especially in the wake of the Crimea lightning military show piece! And that is a fact on the part of the US, not a prelude!

You are either a lazy thinker or just someone who speaks borne out of emotive biases.

First, US will always outspend Russia 10 to 1 on military, that's a fact

Second , Russia's military parity with the US is only on nuclear terms - taking out the nuclear option, then you will quickly find that Russia is just another second rate power. It's ability to project extraordinary power well beyond its shores is limited and it doesn't have a litany of extremely loyal allies or the economic strength to wage a prolonged campaign

Third, Pentagon's concern with Russia is NOT in its upgrade to its military, but its tendencies to "strategically" expand its borders, like in Crimea and Georgia.

Fourth - You really have to admit, but Russia is a dying power that is longing to hold on to the reins. It's strategic planners realized a little too late that you cannot achieve dominance without economic rigour. So now, they will rather play a second fiddle to China than be left completely isolated. It's interesting to see how much the Russian press sing of the Russian-Chinese alliance, but the Chinese press doesn't give that much of a damn. Russia needs China now - and China can take advantage as much as it wants.

Who cares if the US has 2OOO bases world wide? Having bases in Europe did not stop Russia from Liberating Abkezia and Osseta from Georgia after bombing the devil out of them. Neither was it and its military cronie bloc, NATO, able to stop the Red army from annexing the Crimea from Ukraine. Nor has it deter Russia's vow to directly engage in military action if Syria is attacked directly by the US and NATO: a fact that has ensured the survival of the Assad regime.
It is one thing to talk of bases and the movement of missile batteries here and there, but when ever the reality sets in, the results begs for answers to the questions of achievement: as Russia is seen countering every move with a better or equivalent moves.

The bases are there to project power - US military strategy is always forward deployment. If you had any military intuition, you will care. According to Mr Putin himself, American subs are on permanent alert off the Norwegian coast equipped with missiles that can reach Moscow in 17 minutes.

Additionally - I should point out that your post is a bit reckless, as it posits that the US should have directly challenged Russia on these occasions. Of course, the US will be irresponsible to do so, since it will lead to an outbreak of war that will result in the death of millions. - Economic sanctions and isolation are the best recipes in these cases.

Can you also point to one technology posessed by the US or the West that is not known to Russia, or it equivalent in purpose or in deterent?
It is laughable to hear insinuations that Russia has very little or nothing to offer in terms of military technology. Yet, Uncle Sam sees it as the greatest threat to its security! It has nothing to offer, but its missile programs and capabolity is causing ripples among its haters? Maybe just another prelude, right? I dey laf oo.

It is just plain insane to compare Russia with US or the collective NATO in terms of technological advantage. No one denies that Russia is a nuclear power - but beyond that - it's mostly just huffs and buffs.

For one, most of Russia's defence structure is still based on old soviet technology - even though its rapidly trying to modernise, it's purely insane to expect to revert decades of stagnancy over four or five years.

For another - a large part of Russia's defense framework is actually based technology from countries like Germany, Italy and France. Here's an extract from a Russian source

The Russian military is failing to meet its plans for this year on re-equipping its armed forces with modernized weapons because of Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine and a decline of domestic industries, a deputy defense minister told President Vladimir Putin.

Government defense contracts that have fallen behind schedule include production of Navy guard ships, Beriyev Be-200 amphibious aircraft, Vikhr anti-tank missiles, remote control and radio monitoring equipment for Igla surface-to-air missiles, and weapon launch systems for Tupolev-160 strategic bomber planes, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told the president during a video conference, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Thursday.

"The objective reasons for the failure to meet state defense procurement orders include restrictions on the supply of imported parts and materials in connection with sanctions, discontinuation of production and the loss of an array of technologies, insufficient production facilities," Borisov said.


The West is not hungry for a military confrontation with Russia, that's for sure - but it will definitely give a bloody nose if the bear out steps its line