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University, wrote in Politico, that rampant corruption meant Russian troops were going into battle in Ukraine with out-of-date rations, faulty equipment, and inadequate fuel supplies.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 ...
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