Russia
On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, officially ending the Cold War. The United States believed that the new Russian Federation was not the nuclear powerhouse it had been before as the Soviet Union, as much of the nuclear arsenal have decreased. However, much to the shock of the United States and the World, Russia still exerted its nuclear superiority after the end of the Cold War. Today, Russia is still a threat to the United States because of its development of nuclear weapons.
​With Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, Russia was once again eager to increase its military strength and arsenal to regain its power over other neighboring countries. Putin himself was also interested in rebuilding some of Russia’s nuclear bombs, and Russia was testing its ICBMs. "Russian enterprises are working on a new ICBM, in addition to the ongoing production and deployment of the RS-24 Yars, for the Strategic Rocket Forces. The new missile, called the RS-28 Sarmat, is a liquid-fueled, silo-based heavy ICBM intended to replace the R-36M2 (SS-18 Satan)" ("Russia"). These ambitious projects Putin's Russia aims are quite threatening to the U.S. Military that strives for both the weapons superiority and homeland security. For example, Putin recently announced on December 26, 2018 his plan on developing a hypersonic missile that can target the United States. If these projects are to be completed, the United States would have to match these weapons or else would be fallen behind.
While much of Russia's nuclear arsenal decreased with the collapse of the Soviet Union, there are still substantial amounts of nuclear weapons left. "According to the most recent New START data exchange (22 February 2018), Russia deploys 1,444 strategic warheads on 527 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers ... One open-source estimate from April 2018 put the actual number of operational Russian warheads at 1,600, with a further 920 strategic warheads in storage" ("Russia"). While much of the nuclear weapons were disposed by past and recent treaties, Russia still has an impressive amounts of weapons available.
While Russia's nuclear weapon arsenal seems to be the most immediate danger to the United States, Russia's influence on its allied or neighboring countries is the most dangerous part of Russia's nuclear threat. Russia has continually provided the necessary information and materials to its allied countries, especially Iran. Towards the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was focused on helping its allies rather than spending its diminishing money on development of Nuclear arsenal. Some of these helps included providing the information and necessary materials to build a nuclear reactor. "The nuclear contract added strategic value to the relations between Russia and Iran and contributed to further improvements in bilateral relations. Russia has been Iran's sole partner in the nuclear field since 1995... More recently, on February 28, 2002, Russia signed an agreement to provide nuclear fuel to Iran and take back used fuel to Russia" (Aras 133-134). These helps however became the stepping stones of for these allied countries to become a nuclear threat to the United States.
​
While Russia is not in the Cold War anymore and the nuclear arms race is over, there are reasons to believe that Russia will exert its nuclear technology over the world, and with the emergence of the globalization age, it is important to continually oversee how Russia would exert influence over other countries and to review any weapon development Russia plans.
Links to Russia News Articles
​
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/01/europe/putin-nuclear-missile-video-florida/index.html
Video