[Aramike]

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback, everyone. I'm going to try to put some more stuff up from my paper tomorrow or Monday, once I get some of the kinks worked out.

A couple things in specific...

Aramike,
If I may make a suggestion or two..

I would use a couple books as source that are on this topic.
Even, though highly ficticious there are atleast two that come to mind and can give some insight.
a.) Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
and
b.) Team Yankee, by Harold Coyle.

Good suggestions. Actually, Red Storm Rising is one of my favorites. Clancy co-wrote it with Larry Bond who authored a book called Red Pheonix regarding a limited conflict in North Korea. I'll have to look into Team Yankee and the other title you suggested.

I don't see the current russian resurgence as anything communist, though.
It might be called somewhat more totalitarian but it is not based on Marx or the idea of a dictatorship of the working class.

I agree and probably should have been more clear about it. I was more referencing the fact that the Russians are attempting to rekindle relations with the old communist bloc. They are indeed taking some serious steps in the wrong direction (repealing speech/press freedoms are a recent example), and I believe that this will be a major cause of the conflict I predict.

I think it would seem that the Russians are embracing the communist era more for a personal pride, nostagia, than re-embracing communism itself. I wonder if Russia is dumb enough to re-introduce a command economy?

I think you have a good point there as well.