Great analysis Juanjo. Thank you! I have added the two contributing YT sites to my future perusing.
Based on all the examples you give of the ingrained corruption and the tradition of government embezzlement of military funds... I'm even skeptical of many western estimates of how many particular missiles Russia has left in its depleted arsenal. We'll get reports saying Russia had maybe 2,000 of one class of really high quality missiles to start the war with. And they've used about 1,200 already. So they have maybe only 800 left. I am not convinced they are not already scraping bottom. After all, creative bookkepping and falsified inventory logs are a cultural norm over there.
It's like that other example where some troops in a particular section of the front (who were freezing from lack of socks and warm uniforms) were promised a prompt delivery of a portion out of a huge 1.5 million piece stockpile of uniforms and socks that were about to be released from storage. When they couldn't bullshit their way out of the fact that these uniforms never arrived to the troops in the field...they were more or less forced to admit that the uniforms turned out to be a fiction that only existed on paper.
So even our own western estimates of how many tanks, RPG's, cruise missiles, etc, etc, that Russia has left in its stockpiles and reserves...are just best guesses. And probably on the high side. Chances are high that much of Russia's true military arsenal is considerably less than Russia would like us to believe. Even among the Russian military hierarchy themselves they have little idea of the true numbers. Because just about everyone immediately below them is on the take also.
Based on all the examples you give of the ingrained corruption and the tradition of government embezzlement of military funds... I'm even skeptical of many western estimates of how many particular missiles Russia has left in its depleted arsenal. We'll get reports saying Russia had maybe 2,000 of one class of really high quality missiles to start the war with. And they've used about 1,200 already. So they have maybe only 800 left. I am not convinced they are not already scraping bottom. After all, creative bookkepping and falsified inventory logs are a cultural norm over there.
It's like that other example where some troops in a particular section of the front (who were freezing from lack of socks and warm uniforms) were promised a prompt delivery of a portion out of a huge 1.5 million piece stockpile of uniforms and socks that were about to be released from storage. When they couldn't bullshit their way out of the fact that these uniforms never arrived to the troops in the field...they were more or less forced to admit that the uniforms turned out to be a fiction that only existed on paper.
So even our own western estimates of how many tanks, RPG's, cruise missiles, etc, etc, that Russia has left in its stockpiles and reserves...are just best guesses. And probably on the high side. Chances are high that much of Russia's true military arsenal is considerably less than Russia would like us to believe. Even among the Russian military hierarchy themselves they have little idea of the true numbers. Because just about everyone immediately below them is on the take also.
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