# Putin Reignites Cold war?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putin-reignites-cold-war/406042>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 30, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putin-reignites-cold-war/406042 "2007-05-30T11:16:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putin-reignites-cold-war/406042/21 "2007-05-30T21:22:36Z")

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[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]  
Most of them, in fact, [already have](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nato#Current_members) – including the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.  
[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I knew there were some that had joined, and some that want to, so I let my blanket statement err on the side of caution.

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putin-reignites-cold-war/406042/22 "2007-05-30T23:35:12Z")

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[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]  
Russia and China [formed an alliance two years ago.](http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/1627.asp)  
[/QUOTE]

So? China has 1.3 Bn people looking for room in which to live. Russia’s military is still imploding. The nukes make the difference; Russia and China have had armed conflicts post WW2 too.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putin-reignites-cold-war/406042/23 "2007-05-31T00:15:43Z")

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[QUOTE=Quartz]  
So? China has 1.3 Bn people looking for room in which to live. Russia’s military is still imploding. The nukes make the difference; Russia and China have had armed conflicts post WW2 too.  
[/QUOTE]

In those circumstances – why have they formed an alliance?

**Both** countries have nukes so there’s a MAD factor keeping them from war, and those “armed conflicts” were small-scale border skirmishes, AFAIK, and decades in the past.

The Chinese, BTW, do not need _lebensraum_ (and if they did they would not look for it in Siberia; even [Inner Mongolia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_mongolia) remains underpopulated for obvious reasons – 20.2 persons per square kilometer, compared to 140 for the country as a whole); they need [**women!**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=367617)

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