Is Russia’s Military Ready for Middle East Conquest Now?

In my last article I posted several questions that I believe are important to consider when assessing where we are in relation to the End Times. One of the questions I posted related to whether Russia’s military is ready for Middle East conquest now.

• There are some people who believe that the Antichrist is likely going to emerge from Russia. If the Antichrist emerges from Russia he would most likely need the Russian military prepared for Middle East conquest at some point in time.
• The extent that the Russian military is currently prepared or unprepared for Middle East conquest is likely a good indicator of how soon a leader from Russia could engage in Middle East conquest.

Today I share an article which provides some insight into the current state of the Russian military.

Earlier this year the Jamestown Foundation published an article about a report on the current state of the Russian military from a Russian think tank that reportedly has close ties with Russian officials. The report outlined several serious problems and challenges that the Russian military currently faces including:

• Lack of Modern Weapons
• No Significant Allies
• Low Combat Readiness
• Low Recruitment Standards

The most eye-opening detail from the article/report is that Russia only has a small number of quality, expeditionary-capable units, which are military units that can fight in foreign countries:

According to the “New Russian Army” authors, if the Russian military becomes involved in an armed conflict that requires more than five battalions, it will be in trouble.

Five Russian battalions equates to only a few thousand troops so it means that Russia only has a small number of quality units/troops that are capable of fighting in a foreign country at the moment. The article summarized the current state of Russia’s military in the following passage:

“Today, Russia is in a precarious situation, when as a result of a combination of several factors its effective offensive military capability is at a historically low ebb”.

Russian officials know that its military has numerous problems and have recently made a major commitment to modernize its military. Russia recently announced that it will spend more than $600 billion to modernize its military between 2011 and 2020.

At the moment, Russia’s military does not appear ready for Middle East conquest let alone a large-scale war since it has so many major problems. Russia is working to upgrade its military, but it may be awhile before it is ready for Middle East conquest…

• Again, the Jamestown Foundation article can be found at this link