Posted on 01/09/2024 5:20:40 PM PST by dennisw
Russia's military sector is overshadowing civilian industries, a former Russian central bank official wrote in Foreign Policy.
Moscow has allocated more of its 2024 budget to defense than social spending. Russia's sanctions-hit economy appears resilient as it's driven by wartime spending.
Russia is spending so much on its war in Ukraine that the effort is draining resources from the rest of the economy, according to Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official.
"Russian industry has been transformed, with defense sectors now overshadowing civilian industries," Prokopenko wrote in Foreign Affairs on Monday.
Moscow's current military spending has overshadowed social spending for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, wrote Prokopenko, who is a scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and a researcher at the Center of Eastern European and International Studies.
Russia has allocated nearly one-third of its 2024 budget to defense spending. Social spending including salaries, pensions, and benefits will make up for about one-fifth of the budget, according to Russia's federal budget.
"This pivot toward a militarized economy threatens social and developmental needs," wrote Prokopenko.
But it's not just about money. The military sector is also "siphoning off" labor from the civilian workforce, leading to an "abnormally low" unemployment rate of 2.9% — down from around 4% to 5% before the war, Prokopenko wrote in Foreign Policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Give the Russkies credit for not allowing an illegal alien invasion. Or maybe it’s too dang cold there and the average Russian is a xenophobe.
We are blowing half a trillion a year on the 6-8 million invaders that Joe Biden has let in.
Putin is so hellbent on securing some kind of legacy about Russia’s greatness under his rule that he is destroying the country to achieve it.
Now THAT is some serious irony.
Was the US economy after WW2 stronger than in December 1941?
I believe Russia has quite a mix of people as a legacy of the Soviet Union, but since I’ve never been in Russia I can’t say for sure.
“Russia has allocated nearly one-third of its 2024 budget to defense spending.”
During much of the Cold War, defense spending was HALF of total government spending in the US.
In any case, once Ukraine is liberated, Russia should be able to cut back a bit on defense spending.
We had better hope that China doesn’t call for the loan monies that we have borrowed from them!🤔
“Give the Russkies credit for not allowing an illegal alien invasion. Or maybe it’s too dang cold there and the average Russian is a xenophobe.
We are blowing half a trillion a year on the 6-8 million invaders that Joe Biden has let in.”
At the end of the day Russia will have something to show for it...Well, we will also :(
No, it was not.
My parents told me about constant shortages of various consumer goods which lasted into the early 50's. There was also quite a bit of unemployment as 12 million people came out of the military forces and back into the civilian job market.
It took a while to adjust. Things changed in the mid-50's and America had a roaring economic boom going by then. Good times kept coming until the early 70's.
Russia will probably recover slowly from their wartime expenditures once the Ukraine has been conquered. It is unlikely that victory will be worth what they are paying for it. And China is likely to take a huge chunk out of their backsides to the east if they are not careful.
Russia is bashing their way through Ukraine by spending men at a greater rate than the Ukraine can match. China may be able to do the same to Russia when it comes time for them to take the eastern provinces.
You mean America untouched and with a manufacturing powerhouse at full production surrounded by a world that was destroyed with the destruction focused on destroying all of the competition’s manufacturing ability and supply lines, and leaving them desperate for what we could sell them?
Do you think that is where Russia will find itself when the results are in on their Ukraine invasion?
The article quotes this Alexandra Prokopenko person as apparently the source du jour for more or less everything semi economic in Moscow. She is a graduate of Moscow State University (subject not mentioned) and has an MA in Sociology from Manchester. I have seen nothing academic regarding finance or economics.
I did find an article again with her as the go to source in December celebrating Russia’s economic strength.
That is simply a BS lie, Russia is thriving.
That’s because there is no international trade. It has nothing to do with fiscal prowess.
They’re doing so poorly, Ukraine has to conscript 50,000 women to fight
? a couple nukes would end it and cost next to nothing to deploy.
In addition, the Russian state's financial stress and military weakness and the demographic decline of its core Russian population make its future in current form questionable. Putin's invasion of Ukraine is both an imperial bid for territory and an effort to counter Russian demographic decline by annexing an ethnically similar populace that can be gradually "Russified."
Many American conservatives do not seem willing to understand that Putin's and Russia's objectives in the invasion of Ukraine are not amenable to a compromise peace based on territorial concessions and security guarantees to Russia by NATO and the US. The Ukrainians know otherwise -- which is why they are fighting instead of suing for peace.
Yes indeed! When the Russians vacate Ukrainian territory they can return to a peacetime economy.
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