By Jim Cofer
Associate director (retired), Georgia Tech Research Institute
SNELLVILLE, Ga. | Many Americans are appalled to see Vladimir Putin’s home popularity reaching numbers as high as 80 percent while Ukrainians are being slaughtered daily. For 70 years after deposing the Czar, the Russian Communists provided the people with minimal but adequate food, housing, and jobs, but not representative government or a free press.
Cofer
In 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev instituted “Perestroika” (reform) and “Glasnost” (openness) in attempts to elevate the plight of the Russian people to western standards.
As the Soviet empire collapsed, it became clear that an emergency situation was dangerously close. A total of 30,000 nuclear weapons and a vast weapons production complex were spread over four sovereign states. Some 40,000 tons of chemical weapons and a large biological capability were also present. In response, the United States devised a program to consolidate, secure, and eliminate materials and infrastructure in the 15 states that evolved in the former Soviet territory.
In 1991, Senators Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Richard Lugar (R-In.) collaborated and gained passage of the Soviet Threat Reduction Act. The Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, was created for the purpose of securing and dismantling weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure in the former states of the Soviet Union. The June 1992 “Umbrella Agreement” signed by presidents George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin authorized CTR programs between the United States and Russia.
Some progress was made early on, but we Americans never fully appreciated the damage done to the Russian psyche by the loss of the Cold War with America or by our attempts to redirect them away from what they do best—missile system development. As a former analyst of these weapons, I found them to be highly effective and much cheaper than our own. I toured Russia in 1994 along with other U.S. defense contractors, and on more than one occasion, heard the complaint that “we used to be one of the two most powerful and respected nations on earth, but now we are a third world country begging for handouts.”
Jobs were scarce, salaries were low, officials were corrupt, and only the ruthless Russian Mafia offered any stability.
My wife and I visited Russia again in 2016 and found quite a difference in outlook, especially among the young. A thriving private sector had emerged, Russia was selling oil and advanced weapons systems to our enemies, and their military was regaining respect.
We are seeing a resurgence in Russian National Self Esteem in the ‘old school KGB’ Putin. Sadly, it is not likely to go away soon.
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