And at the same time that Obama is reducing the U.S. navy to its smallest size in a century - or below half its size under President Reagan, if you prefer. And please, spare me the "advanced technology gives us more bang for the buck" argument, because Obama has scrapped those capabilities as well.
It has the feel of a "changing of the guard," doesn't it?:
Russia's naval forces are being restored and modernized under President Vladimir Putin, with advanced submarines and several new warships with the goal of restoring the navy to the power it has not had since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new Office of Naval Intelligence report reveals.
The buildup "will provide a flexible platform for Russia to demonstrate offensive capability, threaten neighbors, project power [globally], and advance President Putin's stated goal of returning Russia to clear great power status," the analysis reveals, reports the Washington Free Beacon.
The goal is to restore the navy's power by 2020. After the Soviet Union collapsed, its once-powerful navy was reduced and orders for new weapons systems were canceled.
But under Putin, the navy is once again receiving advanced funding, and Russia is apparently supplying advanced weapons to other countries as well, said the report.
Oh, it's about more than restoring Russia to great power status - A LOT more:
Vladimir Putin's imperialist ambitions were laid bare [two months ago] with an announcement that the secretive Russian war machine is planning to build three new military bases in the Arctic - just three hundred miles from the U.S. mainland....
[I]n a significant ramping up of Russia's military reach, Mr. Putin hopes to taunt U.S. and Japanese officials with outposts in the Arctic and Pacific.
The plans mean Moscow will have troops, warplanes and military vehicles stationed in all four corners of the Asian continent.
It will be seen by both Washington and Beijing as a direct challenge to military supremacy in the region.
In the Pacific, a new Russian base on the Kurile islands is likely to worsen already frayed relations with Tokyo which lays claim to the Southern Kuriles, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
In the Arctic, Russia is building or plans to build a series of new military bases on Wrangel Island, Kotelny Island and at Cape Schmidt, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed.
He said Russia planned to "completely finish the creation and arming of the entire Arctic grouping" by 2018.
Mr Shoigu added: "We're not hiding this from anyone, we have practically finished creating the base in the Novosibirsk Archipelago, on the island of Kotelny.
Indeed, why would they need to hide anything? It's not like Obama has any objection to any of this.
"This is a really large base that was never seen during the Soviet times, and it has modern equipment, all of the needed equipment for these boundaries."...
Cape Schmidt, or Mys Shmidta as the nearest town is known in Russian, boasts a population of just a few hundred.
But crucially, it is just 320 miles from Point Hope in Alaska.
Moscow hopes placing a military base so close to American shores would give Russia the edge in any conflict with the U.S. [emphasis added]
It's more like enhancing the Russian edge, because they already have the advantage of having Barack Hussein Obama in the White House, which is arguably Moscow's greatest strategic asset over and above building upon their naval superiority, ground force superiority, and strategic nuclear superiority.
And that doesn't include the force-multiplier of Putin's real-as-roast-beef bona fide military alliance, which he is arming to the teeth:
"The quantity and quality of the ships, submarines, and armaments sold will transform the current capabilities of recipient states and, in some cases, potentially enable them to improve the quality of indigenous arms production," the report states.
Kilo-class submarines have been sold to Algeria and Vietnam, a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier went to India and Vietnam has also received Gepard-class frigates. Further, high-performance Club missiles have been going on for more than ten years.
Remember how President Bush made cultivating a U.S.-India alliance a pillar of his foreign policy? You can scrap that accomplishment, too.
We have gone from being the unquestioned, unchallengeable global hegemon when Barack Obama seized power seven years ago to a third-rate power in a world dominated by Russia, Red China, and the Global Islamic Caliphate with no economic or material means of regaining that lost status or saving the world from the self-destruction that is rapidly coming upon it.
And The One sits back, rubs his chin, calmly smirks, and nods his head in satisfaction at another "fundamental transformation" "mission accomplished".
Or as Charles Krauthammer reported back in October, when asked if he was concerned about yielding global leadership to Czar Vlad, Obama dismissively replied, "Propping up a weak ally is not leadership. I'm leading the world on climate change."
And straight to fiery hell.
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