Posted on 03/08/2022 11:05:06 PM PST by dennisw
He says Putin overestimated Russia's military, not realizing its budget had been embezzled. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled amid tough Ukrainian resistance. A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption is among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine.
Andrey Kozyrev, who served as foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments made by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion.
In the thread, he claims Putin overestimated the Russian military, which he dedicated billions of dollars to modernizing. But this money, Kozyrev claimed, may have been lost to Russia's endemic corruption. "The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead," wrote Kozyrev.
Cyprus has long been a favored destination for Russian officials seeking to launder money, and was infamous for its long-running "golden passport" scheme that until 2020 allowed rich foreigners to effectively EU buy citizenship.
Transparency International ranks Russia as one of the world's most corrupt countries, putting it 130th of 176, with a particular problem in its defense sector.
Polina Beliakova, an expert at Tufts University, wrote in Politico, that rampant corruption meant Russian troops were going into battle in Ukraine with out-of-date rations, faulty equipment, and inadequate fuel supplies.
Kozyrev appeared to be reacting to speculation about Putin's state of mind before launching the invasion.
Some officials and commentators claimed there was no rational explanation for the invasion, and that Putin's judgment may have been hampered by his long self-imposed isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
And the BS goes on. Didn’t Sonny and Cher do a song about that?
Oh, please. Poontang might be an evil dictator, but he's not stupid.
Also, the Ukes assassinated their own lead negotiator.
He was the only one that owned a suit, apparently.
The rest of their negotiators look like DJs or mafia figures.
Pooty Poot was lied to be his underlings as they embezzled from the military budget. Russians have this thing for buying as large yacht as possible. Makes for better partying in The Mediterranean, along with attracting a better class of party girls and call girls. Who knows? Steven Seagal might even show up. Or Decaprio to talk about global warming, and he always brings at least ten aspiring starlets with him.
Bureaucrats skimming money from the defense budget? Good heavens! I’ve lost all faith in humanity.
Doesn’t surprise me one but. All authoritarian societies is about enriching the elites, regardless of the effect on the population.
Well, his military operation in Ukraine was supposed to wrap up in three days. If Ukraine doesn’t surrender today, it will enter its third week.
Someone sure did miscalculate.
“Oh, please. Poontang might be an evil dictator, but he’s not stupid.”
Pooty used to be, but he’s lost his mojo and his grip on reality. All he thinks about these days is being a Czar running a Czarist empire. Pooty Poot dwells in the past glories of Mother Russia.
And his bad case of Covid rotted out half his brain. We need a rebellion of his closest to depose this useless eater, who gets young men killed for nothing in his dumbass wars. There was only one man in Russia who thought invading Ukraine was a great idea.
How here is a real clue. Patriotism is lower in Russia than it here. No one in Russia wants to fight this dumbass’ wars
Corruption in Russia. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
But the USA is headed in that direction as long as Democrats have their way.
Track suits are standard issue equipment in both countries, I believe.
Headed?
10% for the ‘big guy.’ An entire laptop detailing payoffs and corruption and who is currently in the White House?
We’re even more corrupt than Russia because the average citizen there KNOWS about the corruption. Most people here are in denial.
Yes, but see the photo. He’s the only Ukrainian negotiator wearing a suit, and the Russians are all wearing suits.
Corruption has a lot to do with it. Troops not outfitted very well, six years expired MREs, no maps, crappy comms, little conscript training, lied to that they would be seen as liberators, money on paper going into military build-up but in reality into the pockets of corrupt Putin regime oligarchs (as the title says). They have screwed themselves and will now have to resort to Aleppo or Grozhny type mass casualties, and they couldn’t give a damn really.
Luton’s Shock and Awe has morphed into Sturm und Drang.
How here is a real clue. Patriotism is lower in Russia than it here. No one in Russia wants to fight this dumbass’ wars
Only if Patriotism is defined as blindly following one’s leader or being eager to collectively beat the snot out of someone else-—a sort of neo-Con patrotism.
True Patriotism is running really high in Canada right now, and it isn’t because everyone is in love with Justine, or because we are on the dawn of Canada ruling the world.
(Though we do have a song ready to go when we finally manage to conquer the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G84iG3Ny3o )
I’m noticing that yachts,yachts,yachts is becoming a new media montage as witnessed by biden’s garbled gasbagging yesterday
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