Food? Nyet. Nukes? You betcha’!

They’re armed.

They’re broke.

And–to put it bluntly, the only way it really can be put–they’re getting plenty pissed, as well.

I’m talking about the Russians.

Capitalism never got a fair shake there, and the crumbling of the Iron Curtain merely exposed the moral rust that corroded a backwards society for decades. While a lot of dingbats predicted that democracy would usher in free markets, any one with an understanding of economics realized that without a sound basis for the rule of law efficient markets could never exist, and the Russian bear was due for a bleak winter of economic hibernation.

Well, that bear is growling and when he emerges from his financial cave, he’s gonna be mighty hungry.

In the meantime, the world sure lost its appetite for the Russian ruble. This pariah of a currency fell from being worth a dollar per ruble in 1993 to–ready for this?–being worth less than a nickel nowadays. If you want to know the state of the Russian economy, this one fact will suffice as a measure of the overall situation.

For all the talk about China being the next anti-western menace, don’t lose sight of the fact that Russia, not China, is a nuclear superpower. That’s not to say that China won’t be putting on more layers of military muscle, but remember that Russia already has that muscle. An integrated–albeit rusty–fleet of ground, air, and submarine launched nukes is nothing to sneeze at.

In fact, I’m no hysterical type, but having served as a naval officer during the cold war, I can’t help but reflect that the situation shaping up is actually more dangerous than the steely eyed, toe- to-toe stance that we maintained in those nervous decades. The U.S.S.R. was presumably a rational foe back then, one that had the clarity of mind and soundness of structure to behave in predictable and nominally logical ways.

The Leviathan state was a ponderous, monolithic block that acted in measured and calculated steps. Evil? Certainly. Predictable? Yes.

Now, though, the block has collapsed into a heap of unruly rubble, and the smoldering social and economic ruins are going to become headline stuff someday.

When that day arrives, the Commonwealth will find its strategic location to be even more prime real estate than it is now. Uncle Sam’s prosperous hubris pitted against Ivan’s rag-tag desperation is going to be an interesting spectacle indeed.

The only way out may be a U.S. taxpayer bailout of the entire Russian society, a transcontinental welfare arrangement with a strong flavor of nuclear extortion.

We’re no strangers to China’s commie woes, as desperate boat people have washed onto our fair shores. But don’t lose sight of Russia’s role in the coming years. Russia is on the brink of a full blown societal freak-out, and those tend to be mighty bloody affairs over there. They may well decide to export the misery this time around.