Corruption bonanza, half their kit gets sold on the black market
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Only half? They must have taken some impressive anti-corruption measures to get it down.
Is it defense spending if it's spent on a war of aggression?
How much does that compare to other countries?
As a percentage of GDP for a peacetime country, it is high, though Russia has generally run high.
As a percentage of GDP, it's higher than the US (IIRC currently about 3.5%) or Europe (with a few exceptions, below the 2% target of NATO).
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true
The global average is a little over 2% of GDP.
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/220627-def-exp-2022-en.pdf
Compared to WW2 spending, it's quite low.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II
In 1939, Britain spent 9% of its GDP on defence; this rose drastically after the start of World War II to around 40%.
EDIT: I'd also add a couple of caveats:
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Given that this is in rubles, some is probably inflation, if the news source isn't adjusting for that, as the ruble has fallen in value relative to last year:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUBUSD=X?p=RUBUSD=X&.tsrc=fin-srch
Relative to the dollar, it'd need to rise by 70% to hold constant since a year ago, so a 70% ruble increase may not be so exciting. I don't know what periods of time the numbers take effect at (like, in this situstion, where in the year the rubles are from may matter a lot).
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What we have for this is Russia's word; it could very well be spot-on, but we don't know yet.
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We don't know what the breakdown in spending is. So, for example, I believe that there may be benefits that need to be paid family of solldiers who were killed or injured and suchlike. At least in the US, I'm pretty sure that that'd be counted as military budget.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/3/7327915/
"All members of the families of military personnel who died during the special military operation in Ukraine (Putin's term for the war in Ukraine โ ed.) will be allocated insurance coverage and one-time assistance in the amount of 7,421,000 roubles. Monthly monetary compensations will also be paid to each family member of fallen [soldiers]".
Details: Putin also stated that he considers it necessary to set up an additional payment of 5 million roubles for the families of dead soldiers.
In addition, he promises that the wounded receive a one-time payment of approximately 3 million roubles. And if a soldier becomes disabled during the war with Ukraine, he will be provided with monthly payments.
So it probably doesn't translate to something like "Russia has 70% increased capacity relative to last year."
I expect that Perun will put something up about it if he hasn't already, as this is his field.