Who would win in a hypothetical war between Russia and the EU?

Let's assume that there will be no nuclear weapons involved in this conflict for reasons I am to lazy to come up with. Tensions between the two entities have caused both of them to declare war upon eachother. The US has decided to sit back and watch what happens (and maybe if the EU is close to victory join the fight at the last moment and claim they won all by themselves(jk)). China doesn't get involved in the war either, but does still trade with both of them. The EU has formed a counsel of high ranking military personnel from all the EU countries to make the decisions, and Putin and the russian generals will make the decisions for Russia.

Who would win in this war?

I'd guess the EU. Russia's military strength is predicated almost entirely on nukes.

NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfullamericanphile

[QUOTE="americanphile"]NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfulldeeliman

[QUOTE="americanphile"]NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfulldeeliman

Mother Russia!

[QUOTE="deeliman"][QUOTE="americanphile"]NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfullBossPerson

[QUOTE="deeliman"][QUOTE="americanphile"]NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfullBossPerson

UK's military spending is pretty redonkulous, plus it's an island nation which is incredibly difficult to invade, with an elite branch of special forces. I'd guess it'd go down like every European war since napolean; they'd kick ass right across the continent, get stopped at Britain and gradually go down hill from there. The no nukes thing is what makes it decisive; Russia's military is big but old as ****. Their power is in numbers and nukes. Ninja-Hippo

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

[QUOTE="deeliman"][QUOTE="americanphile"]NATO by a long shot. it's much more powerfullamericanphile

The EU would win. The Eastern European countries of the former Soviet Union were the real threat to the West during the Cold War, and more than a few of those countries are in the EU.

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]UK's military spending is pretty redonkulous, plus it's an island nation which is incredibly difficult to invade, with an elite branch of special forces. I'd guess it'd go down like every European war since napolean; they'd kick ass right across the continent, get stopped at Britain and gradually go down hill from there. The no nukes thing is what makes it decisive; Russia's military is big but old as ****. Their power is in numbers and nukes. deeliman

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

[QUOTE="deeliman"]

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]UK's military spending is pretty redonkulous, plus it's an island nation which is incredibly difficult to invade, with an elite branch of special forces. I'd guess it'd go down like every European war since napolean; they'd kick ass right across the continent, get stopped at Britain and gradually go down hill from there. The no nukes thing is what makes it decisive; Russia's military is big but old as ****. Their power is in numbers and nukes. GazaAli

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]UK's military spending is pretty redonkulous, plus it's an island nation which is incredibly difficult to invade, with an elite branch of special forces. I'd guess it'd go down like every European war since napolean; they'd kick ass right across the continent, get stopped at Britain and gradually go down hill from there. The no nukes thing is what makes it decisive; Russia's military is big but old as ****. Their power is in numbers and nukes. deeliman

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

[QUOTE="deeliman"]

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]UK's military spending is pretty redonkulous, plus it's an island nation which is incredibly difficult to invade, with an elite branch of special forces. I'd guess it'd go down like every European war since napolean; they'd kick ass right across the continent, get stopped at Britain and gradually go down hill from there. The no nukes thing is what makes it decisive; Russia's military is big but old as ****. Their power is in numbers and nukes. Ninja-Hippo

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

[QUOTE="GazaAli"][QUOTE="deeliman"]

Do I need to remind you of ww1?

deeliman

As of right now the vast majority of the Russian conventional military is decommissioned and sitting in warehouses. Russia also used to rely heavily on PACT nations for conventional forces. Also before 1991 the Soviet union included much more area and people than it does today. 

Russia is a shell of its former self. That's what happens when a nation bankrupts itself on military spending. It was even worse that they had a very inflexible economy. This is, of course, a really broad statement. It was much more complicated than that. Please don't bite my head off.

As of right now the vast majority of the Russian conventional military is decommissioned and sitting in warehouses. Russia also used to rely heavily on PACT nations for conventional forces. Also before 1991 the Soviet union included much more area and people than it does today. 

Russia is a shell of its former self. That's what happens when a nation bankrupts itself on military spending. It was even worse that they had a very inflexible economy. This is, of course, a really broad statement. It was much more complicated than that. Please don't bite my head off.

Wasdie

I guess it's time for me now to share my views on the topic. What everyone has missed so far is the economies and the industrial base of both countries. Right now the EU economy dwarfs the russian one, and the EU has a massive industrial base, and Russia does not. These are the reason why I think the EU will outrpoduce them in quality and quantity.

Russia. The EU lacks cohesion and would be too busy arguing among themselves to offer any kind organized resistance. No nation would want to send it's army to the front line to get pumbled while the other nations get to sit back. By the time they got their act together Russia would have steam rolled across a large part of Europe (whether or not they have to resorces to actually take and hold the entire continent is beyond me).

GazaAli is an official internet armchair warrior.

Which one has the power of Jesus?

Which one has the power of Jesus?

lostrib

USA duh

Any nations in the EU have mandatory conscription? If not, I'll go with Russia

Which one has the power of Jesus?

lostrib

Any nations in the EU have mandatory conscription? If not, I'll go with Russia

Jimn_tonic

I really dont think either side would have the logistics or even the manpower and equipment to support a war on that scale. Only the US has that type of power projection. For now, anyway.

As of right now the vast majority of the Russian conventional military is decommissioned and sitting in warehouses. Russia also used to rely heavily on PACT nations for conventional forces. Also before 1991 the Soviet union included much more area and people than it does today. 

Russia is a shell of its former self. That's what happens when a nation bankrupts itself on military spending. It was even worse that they had a very inflexible economy. This is, of course, a really broad statement. It was much more complicated than that. Please don't bite my head off.

Wasdie

The other problem Russia has had was that in the process of changing over to capitalism, they followed the neo-liberal agenda and privatized everthing, selling off many of their industries and state assets for a fraction of the true value.  All these people became oligarchs, insanely wealthy, and a lot of them took their money out of Russia and went to live in London.

There's a saying in Russia that goes something like this: "everything we were promised about Communism was a lie, but everything they warned us about Capitalism was true!".

The EU, from my understanding, has a better-funded, more modern military, a navy that has a small handful of aircraft carriers, an island nation that would prove quite difficult (well, probably impossible) for Russia to invade, etc. Russia has a ton of antiquated cold war-era hardware, and even then, not as much as it once did.

Russia has enough nukes to mop the continent with radiation, but that's about it, and I think the U.K. and France also have nukes, so the best they could do is make everyone lose, but I don't think that the Soviets could win. In a conventional war (i.e.- no nukes), the Russians get their asses handed to them even without the EU receiving American help. If the Americans jump in, then it's a lollercoaster.

The E.U.'s military budget is over triple what the Russian's is.

Arms manufacturers.Ace6301

good answer.

which side would be the invading force, Russia or the EU? I think the defending force usually has a bit of an advantage, unless they are grossly outmatched or are taken by surprise.

As of right now the vast majority of the Russian conventional military is decommissioned and sitting in warehouses. Russia also used to rely heavily on PACT nations for conventional forces. Also before 1991 the Soviet union included much more area and people than it does today.

Russia is a shell of its former self. That's what happens when a nation bankrupts itself on military spending. It was even worse that they had a very inflexible economy. This is, of course, a really broad statement. It was much more complicated than that. Please don't bite my head off.

Wasdie

Does Russia have good cyberwarfare capabilities or just a lot of computer criminals (doesn't it seem like a lot of computer viruses originate in Russia and eastern Europe?).

which side would be the invading force, Russia or the EU? I think the defending force usually has a bit of an advantage, unless they are grossly outmatched or are taken by surprise.

whipassmt

Russia would almost certainly lose. Russia has almost always had to rely on buffer states to survive any great war. That's the reason for the Iron Curtain. But they don't have that anymore. The EU would be forced to massively cut their welfare programs and remilitarize, but they have shown themselves very much capable of doing that during the Cold War. Example? 1980's Sweden. Small as hell military, but swelled to over 1 million during the 1980's to curb Soviet aggression. I highly doubt that after 200 years of forgetting to prepare for a Russian winter that the Europeans would forget the third time. It's as they say, "the third time's the charm."

Total war? Russia. They wouldn't gain much from it, though, as they'd just leave EU as a nuclear wasteland.