this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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It’s apparent the Frankenstein’s monster of a combat vehicle is even less than the sum of its crude components.

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[–] matchphoenix@feddit.uk 113 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Crazy that two years ago we thought this was the second best military in the world. They’ve currently got the second best military in Ukraine.

[–] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 62 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Nah, not second best. That's probably just Americans that still haven't registered that the Soviet Union is gone. Generally there was an awareness that the glory days of the USSR was gone and that Russia's small economy could only maintain a crude army.

However, people didn't think that it was THIS bad. This is bad even for Russia's military budget, where one can only assume that there was a lot of corruption on all levels to produce the state of the army at the start of the war. And of course, with things like this, it just got worse by the day.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 27 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i mean the budget is not the determining factor here. The russian economy is able to support a strong military, since they have a lot of resources and can produce a lot of shit by themselves. So even if the budget is low nominally it should suffice. Also Russia had a fairly good GDP per capita, far exceeding that of Ukraine and on par with many EU countries.

The issues are corruption, nepotism, lack of career chances for dedicated people and so on.

[–] zhunk@beehaw.org 10 points 2 years ago

And the brain drain since the start of this war has been massive

[–] rayyyy@kbin.social 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Russia ditched communism for capitalism, and yachts, and stuff.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

One might even say corporatism, given their direct rulers are the billionaires who came out on top in the rush to scavenge the corpse of the USSR.

[–] Dee@lemmings.world 14 points 2 years ago

given their direct rulers are the billionaires

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Stalinism is not communism but yeah basically true.

[–] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

meanwhile, the massive warheads that supposedly still function still sit in their silos, waiting for Putin to have an off day.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

If I were as morally bankrupt as Putin I would be selling them left and right to the highest bidder

I would have said Putin knows better than to sell a weapon that might be used against you, but Wagner...

[–] DeathWearsANecktie@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago

Did we? I think most people have known for quite some time now that China is significantly more capable than Russia.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Russia spent a lot of advertising and propaganda money to seem that way. T14 and SU57 were essentially just ads trying to say 'we're still relevant and modern!' It benefited their arms sales, as well as some diplomatic advantages. But that all falls away when it's actually put to the test.

[–] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago

I mean, most countries do that in various ways. There are two differences for Russia in that matter.

  1. They actually had a lot of Soviet weapons still around. Like, in quantity Russia was playing in the big leagues. The issue was just, of course, that a lot of it was unusable and got worse over the years with lacking maintenance and with technology getting more and more obsolete. Nevertheless, Russia had certainly a lot of arms and vehicles.

  2. The Soviet Union was quite powerful and the image has still stuck with people and Russia did its best with parades and all to pretend that the glory is still with Russia. I put a bit of that blame also on American media repeating the image of the powerful Soviet Union as a dangerous adversary.

The war in Ukraine made it clearer than ever that Russia is only a shadow of what the Soviet Union once was in power projection.