Russian analyst proposes detonating nukes over Yellowstone, fault lines, causing massive volcanic explosion, tsunami and radioactive rain over US

(NaturalNews) In the 20th century, the world experienced a pair of "hot" world wars -- and one gigantic Cold War. In the second decade of the 21st century, it looks as if Cold War II may be underway.

Tensions and animosity between the West and Russia have reached levels not seen since the 1980s, as evidenced by a failed diplomatic "reset" with Moscow, Russia's "annexation" of the Crimea in Ukraine and the Bear's increased haranguing of Western nations.

But is Russia truly the same threat to the United States today as it was before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991? In many ways, no -- but in one way, most definitely.

Russia's military is just now regaining some of its capability, thanks in large part to increased defense budgets driven by high oil prices in recent years (Russia is the third-leading producer of oil, behind the United States [1] and Saudi Arabia [2]). But it still lags in terms of conventional power projection.

"Complete destruction of the enemy"

Nuclear power projection, however, is a different matter. Russia still retains a potent nuclear force; at latest count, the Russian armed forces possesses 8,000 nuclear warheads, a little more than the 7,315 retained by the United States. Each country keeps about 1,800 warheads "on alert."

And it is this massive nuclear arsenal that Russia relies on for self-preservation -- even to the point of threatening to use it in an offensive first strike.

In recent weeks, one Russian geopolitical analyst opined that the best way to launch an attack against the U.S. is to detonate nuclear weapons in the skies over Yellowstone National Park, in order to trigger a supervolcano eruption, or along the San Andreas fault line along the coast of California.

As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), that strategy was laid out in an article for the Russian trade paper VPK News by Konstantin Sivkov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems in Moscow, a think tank. He further opined that Russia should increase its conventional and nuclear capabilities and alter its strategies against the "West," which he said was "moving... to the borders of Russia."

Sivkov theorized that the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) -- the world's enduring military and political alliance of Western nations led by the U.S. -- was building strength to confront Russia, perhaps over Moscow's involvement in the war in Ukraine, and that the best way to do that was to attack any U.S. vulnerabilities, to ensure "complete destruction of the enemy."

"Geologists believe that the Yellowstone supervolcano could explode at any moment. There are signs of growing activity there," he said as reported by SMH. "Therefore it suffices to push the relatively small, for example the impact of the munition megaton class to initiate an eruption. The consequences will be catastrophic for the United States - a country just disappears."

Russia is dying

Continuing, Sivkov noted:

Another vulnerable area of the United States from the geophysical point of view, is the San Andreas fault - 1300 kilometers between the Pacific and North American plates ... a detonation of a nuclear weapon there can trigger catastrophic events like a coast-scale tsunami which can completely destroy the infrastructure of the United States.

By comparison, he said, Russian geography did not lend itself well to such attacks, since few Russians live on the east and west coasts of the gigantic country. He also said that, in the 2020-2025 time frame, Russia will have amassed the asymmetric weaponry to pull off such an attack.

For now, however, Moscow can only sit on the sidelines and wait.

"The weakened economic potential in Russia, the loss of the 'spiritual core of what was the communist idea', and the lack of large-scale community allies in Europe such as the Warsaw Pact, Russia simply cannot compete against the NATO and its allies," he said, as reported by SMH.

Of course, this "strategy" does not take into account advances in NATO -- and especially U.S. -- capabilities between now and 2025. And it also assumes that Russia, whose population is shrinking, would be able to reverse declining economic and demographic trends.

Still, nations in decline can behave in dangerous ways.

Sources:

http://www.smh.com.au

http://www.speaker.gov

http://news.yahoo.com

http://instituteforenergyresearch.org

http://www.icanw.org

http://vpk-news.ru [via Google Translate]