Posted on 06/02/2022 12:32:55 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
On paper, Russian military modernization should have produced a force that could over-match the Ukrainian army. For more than a decade, funds for modernization were allocated to State Defense Orders for everything from next generation aircraft and tanks, to new communications and battlefield control systems.
Russian R&D did its part (mostly), turning out systems that won attention and praise at trade shows, while commentators steadily built the Russian army up as an example of a dangerous foe that proved you could achieve more with less in the military procurement space.
Then they invaded Ukraine, and the image was shattered. I've previously explained this by looking at the Russian Defense budget and their priorities in the lead up to the invasion, but in doing that I refrained from focusing on one key issue.
Corruption in Russia is endemic, corruption in the Russian defense sector (like many around the world) is a catastrophe. From the highest levels of procurement fraud, down to the level of the enlisted personal hawking diesel, copper, and even explosives for petty cash, corruption has been a constant thorn in the side of all efforts to modernize the Russian army and mold it into an effective fighting force.
In this video, I try to take a somewhat light-hearted look at how corruption in a military context can (and sometimes does) work, citing examples of actual cases and using hypotheticals to demonstrate the kinds of actions that can rot an institution from head to tail. For those of you in countries that face this problem, it should all seem a little familiar.
Examples are taken from the sources listed below and I make no independent representations on the veracity of any claims. I don't know exactly how much is stolen from the Russian defense budget, I doubt anyone does. But what I can do, is help us understand how a nation capable of producing some of the most advanced defense equipment in the world would be running out of fuel on day 3, and be rolling out museum piece tanks less than three months into a major conflict.
The second caveat is that there is a lot of corruption that falls into the categories I don't talk about. Legal but immoral manipulations of procurement processes at the top for example. There are also cases where profit may not even be the goal. Troops may strip down spare/stored vehicles for parts just to keep theirs running and avoid disciplinary action for example, the end result is the same.
And yes, on the Pyotr Velikiy slide there is a typo on the amount seemingly stolen.
And one final comment - because it seems to come through on all my videos. I often see comments that say that any critique I make of the Russian armed forces is propaganda because they're insert claim about Russia winning the war here and so the critique can't be true. I want to stress that Russia making gains and also suffering badly from economic, budgeting, or corruption issues is entirely possible. It's entirely possible to have a Russian force that poorly allocated its budget and suffered from corruption still achieve some goals. The reason I focus on corruption, or budgeting, or what not in a given video is because each video needs to stick to a topic, and can't be on the progress of the war in general.
When I get to myth busting again, I will try and filter out some of the propaganda from both sides to assess performance to date as best I can, but for the moment, this video is on corruption.
We do corruption differently. We just charge a billion for a fighter up front and let the corruption trickle down. Same folk, different army/politicians.
You can gauge the level of a nation’s corruption by measuring its prosperity. More corruption = less prosperity. It is a pretty infallible equation. You can see this in nation after nation. Those inflicted with corruption are the poorest. The nation’s resources don’t even matter. Look at Japan. Few resources, but also not a generally corrupt society. Then look a Mexico. Vast natural resources, yet mired in poverty and corruption.
And look at the descent of the West. All due to corruption.
Paper tiger.
Agree
In Latin America, many armies have had corruptions scandals. Some have involved ghost units. On paper a battalion may have three full strength companies of infantry. But in reality, one company is at 20 percent strength and the humble salaries of about a hundred non-existent soldiers add up to be a nice little bonus for corrupt officers.
In El Salvador, officers are graduates of the Gerardo Barrios Military College. It was once known as the poor man’s route to the presidency of the republic. Each class undergoes brutal treatment at the hands of upper classmen with the intended effect to be pushing the cadets to rely on each other and bind together. Unfortunately, sometimes the honor codes get sorta tossed aside. Each “tanda” (graduating class) has a lot of cross-networking and loyalty to each officer’s former classmates. It often works in combat because the men know and care about their fellow classmates whether they are artillery officers, the pilots, the cav, or the infantry officers. But other times it makes avenues for illegal schemes.
Ukraine is doing well — because there is no corruption in Ukraine. Everybody knows that.
Focus on Biden and the $50bn he just sent to Zelenskyyy. That should keep a normal person busy.
When that doesn't exist, and if you add the problems of theft and (very likely) corrupt inspectors, equipment will inevitably fall into disrepair. I imagine that when some of those Russian warehouses/storage facilities were cracked open, a lot of supposedly operational vehicles were found on blocks, with missing wheels, batteries, engines, etc.. a lot of the stuff that wasn't picked clean likely hadn't been started in years, and had dried out seals, missing gaskets etc..
That may be, but the result is that our equipment still works at the end of the day, and it seems a good portion of the Russian equipment doesn’t.
Alinsky 101: claim your enemy of doing what you are doing.
10% of the Ukraine loot for The Big Guy.
The US has FAR more corruption than Russia or the Ukraine. We’re talking multi-trillion dollar corruption. Our corruption is bigger than their entire GDP.
All this is working under the assumption that Russia is fielding it’s best equipment and it’s best people I think the opposite is true. It’s saving its best equipment and it’s best people for the war with the West that it knows is gonna come
Then look a Mexico. Vast natural resources, yet mired in poverty and corruption.
________
Mexico is actually quite rich country. Still living above the world average standard.
Look at Peoples Republic of Kongo.
That country has even more resources than Mexico, but it is on the bottom of the world living standard. How much corruption is there? I do not even want to speculate.
The US has FAR more corruption than Russia or the Ukraine. We’re talking multi-trillion dollar corruption. Our corruption is bigger than their entire GDP
_________
You have not listen to the movie.
There may be the top level corruption, like the 10% for the big guy, but not too much of the lower level corruption.
I do not think the soldiers are stealing cooper from the vehicles or sell the fuel for vodka.
US stuff mostly works, unlike the Russian one.
But, if the big guy keeps getting his 10%, this will go down through the ranks. The society will eventually reach this level, if there are AOC’s in charge.
This agrees very well with my own observations of Russian military.
Soldiers selling guns, parts and fuel for vodka.
Soldiers starving in outpost because of lack of food.
Stupid officers.
Friendly deals.
Lack of transparency.
Lying to the bosses.
Russian military is build by the Potemkin principles.
“There may be the top level corruption, like the 10% for the big guy, but not too much of the lower level corruption.”
Are you kidding? We have more lower level corruption than they do by far. Have you seen what is disappearing off of trucks these days? Seen the theft at retails outlets? Seen the grifting in corporations? Federal, State, and local employees on the take and their $100,000 pensions? Welfare fraud? Vote buying illegal alien payments to the tune of over $65,000 a year? We make Russia look like amateurs!
Russia’s best professional soldiers refused to go to Ukraine: right of refusal: Ukraine is a ‘special military operation’ not a declared “war.”
1- Hundreds of Russian soldiers have deserted or refused to fight in Ukraine, compounding major losses in the war, report says
https://www.businessinsider.com/hundreds-of-russian-soldiers-fled-refused-to-fight-ukraine-report-2022-6
2- ‘They were furious’: the Russian soldiers refusing to fight in Ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/12/they-were-furious-the-russian-soldiers-refusing-to-fight-in-ukraine
Whitewashing Ukraine’s Corruption
The country is not a symbol of freedom and liberal democracy.
April 6, 2022
https://www.cato.org/commentary/whitewashing-ukraines-corruption#
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