[bert]

——these steel monsters remain the most common tanks in the world-—

-—Factories in the USSR built an estimated 50,000 vehicles and that’s a conservative estimate.——

These statements speak of the capability of the USSR. The only things the USSR could manufacture that was exportable was weapons. There is strong reason to believe that the tanks were sold in droves and Soviet economy existed because of the jobs, but they were never paid. The customers lacked the resources to pay. The soviet bean counters did not distinguish between a paid account and an account receivable.

Today Putin is flying air planes all over. They are weapons. The flights are not saber rattling. The flights are live commercials for Russian weaponry. Russia still lacks the capability to make anything worth a damn besides weapons

[Bluewater2015]

Today Putin is flying air planes all over. They are weapons. The flights are not saber rattling. The flights are live commercials for Russian weaponry. Russia still lacks the capability to make anything worth a damn besides weapons

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Yup. If not for weapons—and those nations with any real spending money buy weapon systems from the US or Western Europe—Russia is just another country that survives from exporting raw materials like oil, gas and timber. Third World economy. And I don’t think $60/bbl oil is helping Russia, either. Just not expensive enough.