5 ms·

How can Russia replace all its lost equipment (tanks, supply trucks, helicopters, planes) when they've lost more than half of their economy in a week, and count

How can Russia replace all its lost equipment (tanks, supply trucks, helicopters, planes) when they've lost more than half of their economy in a week, and counting? Their GDP was on par with Spain (a country of far smaller size and natural wealth), but is fast approaching that of Portugal. I mean, look at the flight of skilled workers out of their country, and the ruble halving in value in the space of a month.

s5300 5y ago
De facto slave labor, as always.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  I mean if they had the people's support they would probably volunteer; when it comes down to it, as long as people's needs are met (a house, food, water, hygiene, free time etc), a wage becomes optional. I believe that's an oversimplification of the communist ideology. Russia is big and I'm confident they have most resources needed to build their own tanks and the like without any foreign imports. But that's a gut feeling.
simonh 5y ago
Sure, a Ruble buys you fewer international goods than a dollar, but has much more buying power in Russia. The tank factories still exist, and the workers there still have jobs and can still make tanks. As long as they still get food and raw materials more tanks will come off the line, and Russia nowadays has enough food and plenty of raw materials. The Ruble will buy less on international markets, but it still buys stuff within Russia. There will be severe inflation, sure, but that just means people will prioritise food and other essentials. As long as there are enough of those they can still work.
- oblio 5y ago
  Tanks these days aren't raw steel, rubber and a few other things anymore. They're advanced alloys, a ton of electronics, etc. Russia can't make all of that at the same level as the rest of the world combined. Similar story for almost every advanced military product. And for civilian products. The Russian population is in for a world of hurt.
  - aivisol 5y ago
    Unfortunately they are able to replace quality by quantity. Their tech in Ukraine is from 50s and 60s (I know by first hand experience) but they are just too many...
  - treeman79 5y ago
    Depends on how China responds. The world is in a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine. China might decide to have a proxy war with the west via Russia. Or maybe not. Since The world is coming together hopefully discouraged shenanigans. This is kind of similar to how Vietnam was a proxy war between the US and Russia.
    - bigger_inside 5y ago
      "The world" is not. The US and their allies are. The rest of the world is sitting this out at best. Go check some Indian, African, and South American coverage. It's very eye-opening.
      - sanxiyn 5y ago
        I did follow Indian coverage for a while for that exact reason, but it didn't seem that different from BBC or CNN (except heavy focus on Indian students as you would expect) so I stopped. Had this changed?
      - type0 5y ago
        They don't cover it that well, doesn't mean people across the World stopped despising Russians for what they are doing right now. edit: actually even Western media aren't doing good job, reporters are scared and shit themselves afraid of Russian fire strikes and don't go into areas where most of the fighting happens, some Czech media and other small nations do but that's it.
        sanxiyn 5y ago
        One thing Indian media does better than Western media is not to rebroadcast Zelensky indiscriminately. Let's face it: it's a propaganda. They should extract informational content, not quote verbatim. Just as you would do so for Russian media.
- cosmodisk 5y ago
  Just before I went on lunch,I watched someone in Russia going to a shop with a camera and just filming some random stuff and how much it costs, like fruit,veg,etc. An average pensioner was sitting on probably $200-300 pension. Now it's more like $100. A kilograme of cucumbers was like $2 if converted from rubles..The video was shot during the weekend, when the exchange rate wasn't as bad as it is today.
reactspa 5y ago
> ruble halving in value in the space of a month Could you please clarify if this has a meaning other than the mathematical meaning? The ruble was 0.013 USD on Feb 7, and is 0.010 on Mar 8. Per my math, it has lost 23% of its value, not 50%.
- tpm 5y ago
  It's 0.0071 as of Mar 8, 13:51 UTC. Was 0.0066 at one point yesterday.

s5300 5y ago

De facto slave labor, as always.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
I mean if they had the people's support they would probably volunteer; when it comes down to it, as long as people's needs are met (a house, food, water, hygiene, free time etc), a wage becomes optional. I believe that's an oversimplification of the communist ideology. Russia is big and I'm confident they have most resources needed to build their own tanks and the like without any foreign imports. But that's a gut feeling.

simonh 5y ago

Sure, a Ruble buys you fewer international goods than a dollar, but has much more buying power in Russia. The tank factories still exist, and the workers there still have jobs and can still make tanks. As long as they still get food and raw materials more tanks will come off the line, and Russia nowadays has enough food and plenty of raw materials. The Ruble will buy less on international markets, but it still buys stuff within Russia. There will be severe inflation, sure, but that just means people will prioritise food and other essentials. As long as there are enough of those they can still work.

oblio 5y ago
Tanks these days aren't raw steel, rubber and a few other things anymore. They're advanced alloys, a ton of electronics, etc. Russia can't make all of that at the same level as the rest of the world combined. Similar story for almost every advanced military product. And for civilian products. The Russian population is in for a world of hurt.
- aivisol 5y ago
  Unfortunately they are able to replace quality by quantity. Their tech in Ukraine is from 50s and 60s (I know by first hand experience) but they are just too many...
- treeman79 5y ago
  Depends on how China responds. The world is in a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine. China might decide to have a proxy war with the west via Russia. Or maybe not. Since The world is coming together hopefully discouraged shenanigans. This is kind of similar to how Vietnam was a proxy war between the US and Russia.
  - bigger_inside 5y ago
    "The world" is not. The US and their allies are. The rest of the world is sitting this out at best. Go check some Indian, African, and South American coverage. It's very eye-opening.
    - sanxiyn 5y ago
      I did follow Indian coverage for a while for that exact reason, but it didn't seem that different from BBC or CNN (except heavy focus on Indian students as you would expect) so I stopped. Had this changed?
    - type0 5y ago
      They don't cover it that well, doesn't mean people across the World stopped despising Russians for what they are doing right now. edit: actually even Western media aren't doing good job, reporters are scared and shit themselves afraid of Russian fire strikes and don't go into areas where most of the fighting happens, some Czech media and other small nations do but that's it.
      - sanxiyn 5y ago
        One thing Indian media does better than Western media is not to rebroadcast Zelensky indiscriminately. Let's face it: it's a propaganda. They should extract informational content, not quote verbatim. Just as you would do so for Russian media.
cosmodisk 5y ago
Just before I went on lunch,I watched someone in Russia going to a shop with a camera and just filming some random stuff and how much it costs, like fruit,veg,etc. An average pensioner was sitting on probably $200-300 pension. Now it's more like $100. A kilograme of cucumbers was like $2 if converted from rubles..The video was shot during the weekend, when the exchange rate wasn't as bad as it is today.

reactspa 5y ago

> ruble halving in value in the space of a month Could you please clarify if this has a meaning other than the mathematical meaning? The ruble was 0.013 USD on Feb 7, and is 0.010 on Mar 8. Per my math, it has lost 23% of its value, not 50%.

tpm 5y ago
It's 0.0071 as of Mar 8, 13:51 UTC. Was 0.0066 at one point yesterday.