(Natural News) It's strange, but for some reason, millions of Americans, including many members of the Republican Party, seem to have developed a bizarre infatuation for Russia and Vladimir Putin. This is odd, considering the fact that Putin has a long dark history of corruption, theft and murder. Not surprisingly, it has recently been revealed that the Russians may have known in advance that the Syrian chemical attack was in progress. According to a senior U.S. official, a drone that was being operated by the Russians was sighted flying over a hospital as Syrians were rushing to get treatment. The official said that there is no possible way that the presence of the drone was a coincidence, and that the Russians must have known that the chemical attacks were forthcoming.

Following the U.S. airstrikes launched at a Syrian airfield late last week, Iran and Russia threatened a "lethal response" to further military action in the region. A statement issued from the Syria-Iran-Russia Joint Operations Room warned, "We will respond to any aggression powerfully, as Russia and Iran would never allow the U.S. to dominate the world." Even though world domination is not and never will be the goal of the United States, a threat from one of the world's strongest nations is something that should be taken very seriously.

As reported by CNN last May, Russia's military's is arguably the strongest it has been since the Cold War. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russia's active military personnel totals about 798,000 – 240,000 fighting in the Army, 148,000 fighting in the Navy, 145,000 fighting in the Air Force, and 265,000 fighting in various other branches. Furthermore, according to IHS Jane's, Russia spent $44.6 billion on defense in 2014, $54.5 billion in 2015, and $49.2 billion in 2016. Although these figures are significantly less than the amount the United States spends on defense each year, Russia's defense budget is still among the highest in the world.

In October, The Telegraph reported on one of Russia's newly developed weapons, which has the ability to wipe out nearly all of the United Kingdom, France, or the entire state of Texas. Images of the missile, called "Satan 2," have been declassified for quite some time but have just recently been published and made available to the public. (RELATED: Read about Russia's new nuke deployment strategy that could destroy the entire east coast of the U.S.)

Obviously, a missile that is capable of creating such widespread destruction must be massive both in size and in carrying capacity. Russian media reports that Satan 2 is expected to weigh an estimated 10 tons once complete, and will be able to carry 10 tons of nuclear cargo.