What does tl;dr mean? I read a while ago that oligarchs became rich diverting the big money in contracts, and the little guys got less poor by stealing the electronic components (chips) from military equipment and reselling them.
tl;dr = Too long; didn’t read
And you’re right about the theft. A lot of military components have been stolen and sold on the black market by maintenance crews and the troops themselves. That’s a big part of why we don’t see sophisticated weaponry in use by the Soviets.