Authore by Leonid Brershidky via Bloomberg.com,
During Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual press conference on Thursday, a friendly journalist asked Putin whether the escalating tension in relations with the U.S. and the crumbling of arms control treaties would draw Russia into an unsustainable arms race. "We will ensure our security without engaging in an arms race," the president replied, citing widely diverging dollar numbers for the U.S. and Russian defense budgets.
That's a simplistic answer from a politician starting an election campaign (of sorts: Putin is headed for re-election in March without giving anyone else a chance). The more pointed question that should be asked is this: How, with a relatively small and decreasing military budget -- 2.77 trillion rubles ($42.3 billion) for 2018, down from some 3.05 trillion rubles this year -- is Russia is still a formidable military rival to the U.S., with its enormous and increasing budget of almost $692.1 billion in 2018, up from $583 billion this year?
The equalizing value of the two countries' well-balanced nuclear deterrents is enough of a reason to avoid direct confrontation. But leaving that aside, Putin may well understand the nature of modern military challenges better than U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. legislators -- and Russia's authoritarian system may be more efficient when it comes to military allocations. Note that Russia is now almost an equal to the U.S. as a power broker in the Middle East, where the Russian military has just helped Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad effectively win a civil war -- in which the U.S. was helping the other side. At the same time, Russian defense spending numbers are deceptive. The country is far more militarized than its defense spending suggests. That level of security spending is only sustainable at the expense of Russia's future.
Trump's military spending hike, which makes it necessary to remove the existing cap on defense expenditure, is a dubious and likely outdated response to decreased global security.
Quite aside from the cost of maintaining the world's most powerful military, the U.S., according to the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, has spent at least $2 trillion on its wars since 2001. But, considering the less transparent costs, such as those of caring for veterans, war-related increases to the Department of Defense base budget and interest on the debt taken on to cover defense spending, it's closer to $4 trillion at the very least. The Afghan conflict has cost the U.S. at least $840 billion -- more than four times Afghanistan's cumulative GDP since 2001. Since the 2018 U.S. defense budget contains additional funds for sending 3,500 more troops to Afghanistan, the results of the massive outlay over the years are clearly suboptimal.
Today's wars aren't fought with fat wads of money. The adversaries are mostly small, agile forces that aren't as well-resourced as nation states. Fighting them requires a combination of local knowledge, brute force applied only at important points in a conflict and ability to shift risks onto the shoulders of irregular fighters. Russia kept cutting its defense budget all through its participation in the Syrian war. Yabloko, an opposition party, earlier this year put the cost of the Syrian operation for Russia at about 140.4 billion rubles ($2.4 billion at the current exchange rate) since September, 2015; that's some 4 percent of what the U.S. allocated to overseas contingency operations in 2017 alone -- and the outcome is as good as Russia could have expected.
The U.S. is pumping money into comparatively inefficient warfighting -- and into preparing for the kind of large-scale war that's not likely to take place because of existing nuclear arsenals and unauthorized nuclear proliferation. Even North Korea, with its unknown but probably small nuclear capability, is dangerous enough to deter the U.S. from attacking. At his press conference, Putin made the point that the U.S. couldn't know for sure where to strike in North Korea -- and if the Kim regime managed to get a single long-range, nuclear-armed missile in the air, the results could be catastrophic.
U.S. defense budgets, of course, feed a large, powerful domestic industry; even the indirect U.S. involvement in a conflict lifts the stock prices of major defense contractors, research has shown. In Russia, the biggest contractors are state-controlled; they have far less lobbying clout, and the technocratic Russian government has kept them on a short leash, though some of the military's purchasing decisions have served regional development rather than defense purposes. Such an arrangement, which would have been inefficient in most other industries, probably reduces wasteful spending in the budget-dependent military-industrial complex.
That said, in relative terms, Russia is spending more on force-related functions than the U.S. does. Trump's budget proposal allocated $71.8 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Add that up with the defense spending, and the total security budget will stand at $764 billion, less than 19 percent of total federal spending. Russia will spend a combined 29 percent of its federal budget -- some 4.8 trillion rubles -- on defense and domestic security. That's probably not all of the security-related outlay either, as Mark Galeotti pointed out earlier this year: Even some of the education and development spending in Russia goes toward military goals.
In the U.S., federal law enforcement outlay is a fraction of defense spending. In Russia, the two areas of government expenditure are almost equal. That's the difference between a country with a relatively liberal domestic order and a near-dictatorship, which relies heavily on the suppression of dissent and must keep large law enforcement agencies under centralized control.
Russia could show the world how to spend efficiently on more than adequate defense -- but instead it is engaged in an arms race against its own development. For years, it has been underfunding areas such as education and health, undermining what Putin told the press conference was his vision of the country's future -- flexible, technology-driven, highly productive. Judging by Putin's answers to reporters on Thursday, he still prefers not to notice that.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
((( Leonid Bershidsky ))) is another ((( Asset ))) who is unhappy that Putin will be President of the Russian Federation for 6 more years.
;)
He is not exactly a military analyst, more like a hasbera operative.
Not Hasbara, he is Langley/Tel Aviv.
Can't he be both? :D
And there's more knowledge and analysis on display in this comment stream, far more, than in his crap article.
"For years, it has been underfunding areas such as education and health".
Yes, yes, the US is the benchmark in these fields, globally, by any standard.
/s
The author of this article is a tool and a moron. Highly superficial "analysis" that at best states the obvious, with significant factual errors.
He simply omits the huge amounts that are spent officially and covertly in the USA for all the various intelligence agencies. More than 600bn $ (officially!) in total since 2001 just for the fucking C!A, N$A, and all the other a$$holes that have long subverted the officially "libertarian USA" into one giant authoritarian police state. Add to that billions in drug money that the C!A collects in Afghanistan and elsewhere that go straight into funding of terrorist groups and "rebels" and "revolutions" around the world.
"In the U.S., federal law enforcement outlay is a fraction of defense spending." Exactly. Because laws don't get enforced anyway anymore, except in certain cases. "federal law enforcement" agencies ba now have become unlawful , criminal organisations for all intents and purposes. The FB!? They have turned into a force of obstruction, as can be seen with Comey, McCabe &co. The DHS? Implementing a police state at high speed, not enforcing laws. So yeah, spending on law enforcement is insignificant by now.
And I love it, how that moron weeps crocodile's tears that Russia spends too little on eductaion and development (which is true, unfortunately). If an enemy surrounds you with dozens of satelite puppet governments, myriad military bases and speeds up armament spending, you just may have liuttle choice but to cut back on education ot somwhat keep your country's defense forces up to the task
and when and how did this new era of war and authoritarianism get turbocharged? well for those in the know, the '93 "unsuccessful" bombing of the wtc which was highly successful in that it gave grounds for a top to bottom "renovation". for the rest of us it began with 9-11 and the implementation of the yinon plan, the seven countries in five years of which general clark spoke. admittedly this knowledge was gained in retrospect but the layering of events has become too complete to ignore or misunderstand by now. sixteen years of bipartisan zionist war for israel and its ongoing persecution of whomever gets in the way of its likud mossad plan to rule the middle east and more have made the motive and means as plain as day to any but the willfully blind ("It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" upton sinclair).
president trump's actions in syria and the department of justice give hope. we shall see.
The object of US spending it to expand the money supply while enriching the MIC.
Russia doesn't have the luxury/curse of the world's reserve currency. So they run a budget.
The US' numbers aren't even close either. But for a Langley (((operative))) close enough.
I got to the end of the piece waiting for the tie-in, but it never really came. This shows that we might be winning, as now the trolls are merely mailing it in with their propaganda pieces.
pods
So true. Often a lot of dross in ZH comments, but often more than average gold yield too. Btw I chose "Setarcos" as a somewhat backward admirer of Socrates, I imagine that your choice of nick has similar origins?
Democracy killed Socrates.
you could as easily and perhaps less misleadingly say alcibiades and the thirty tyrants killed socrates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates
I like your use of "dross," reminds me I have two new moulds (purchased in UK so I'll use their spelling) and 200 lbs of alloy to start casting today. (sinkers this time, not boolits)
pods
I cracked the code. Russkies gonna getcha, Russkies gonna getcha, Russkies gonna getcha.
*Gasp* You mean, he is a ((Tribal)) member?
Say it isn't so!
A.I Soltzhnitzen knew
Well considering that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 24 countries combined, I'd say that any military is leaner.
Get in my bell-ay!
But they are also meaner ...maybe even a leaner meaner more-grilling machine.
call it whatever you want. rusia will win any war with the good ol' usa. fact. and we bacon heads to the north will also lose as we have absolutely no defense. and trudeau s a meathead with no penis. putin is playing 99 degree chess with the usa and the world and will win. canada thinks were playing tiddly winks and we will get pised and shit on big time when the war starts and ends.
Nobody cares about Canada.
I think the Canadians do.
Judging by their Prime Minister, they actually do not.
You Americans elected Oblahblah. Twice.
Pot -> kettle eh?
And a Clinton, couple Bushes, Orange Jesus (he can still turn it around but I won't hold my breath).
We know we're fucked. Canada still has hope.
pods
Canada is another soon-to-be former Western country that gave it all away to invaders. I pity them.
Good thing it's too cold for Mexicans up there.
Toten's right though. Canada has almost nothing to worry about. (Bordering the most aggressive nation on the planet has to be kept in mind.)
pods
Where I live Candian visitors tend to be liked and respected. US visitors usualy feel the need to apologize.
Russia spends for the DEFENCE of Russia.
America spends for the BENEFIT of the MIC
America pays for its largesse by printing USD. This will become less effective over time as the the gold supported Petro-Yuan kicks in (the Rouble is linked to it)
Lack of domestic Russian investment?
That would be the OBOR the author is referring to then :)
They were talking of high speed Houston to Dallas trains 30 YEARS ago lLOL. Russia currently has them?
The future of humanity is Eurasia wether we agree or not.
History will show America to be a failed social experiment in time and it will resemble countries such as that of Brazil in around 50 yrears both economically and militarily.
The US will start a war long before its position in the world is seriously compromised.
read: the us will start another war, its position in the world is serioulsy compromised from within
really. and in fact it may not. no dynasty lasts forever and this one may be going down during the trump administration. it may not of course but the zionist, investigative and clandestine forces (some overlap) certainly acted differently toward donald trump than they did toward george bush, john mccain and mitt romney.
Russia needs to survive and overcome a US invasion of Russia. Normal 3-1 numerical supremacy for the attackers might be a bit on the low side, given Russian terrain and sheer size. The US would lose, badly, just by not winning. I wonder what the number of troops required might be, net of casualties.....
Do we have any other possible scenarios, other than endless containment, and/or nuclear war?
On that basis, the endless propaganda and war-drum beating is pointless and irrelevant. Here''s some classic BBC FUD: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42481216
The Russians are coming!!!! Run for your lives!!!
The value-worth of any defense budget isn't based on what you put IN, it's based on what you get OUT for your money.
I suspect 90%+ of the US military budget spending is diverted before it gets to the front line. Just look at the Pentagon finances - specifically the auditing......
Rome...
If a collapse of the dollar's value causes the US to withdraw more to its home shores, the People will have an easier time evicting the special Tribe who have control over our money, media, and courts.
Right. When Russia moves troops to its own borders the MSM dutifully cries foul
When we put troops and missiles in third party countries on the Russian border it is legitimate defense.
I believe the percentage difference in budgetary defence and security spending between russia and the US has less to do with "An authoritarian state" and more to do with it being the largest country in the world with only 144million people living next to all the trouble spots of the world, Afghanistan, Georgia, Ukraine, + all the 'stan countries and a stone throws from the middle east.
USSA will not be around in another 10-12 years.
Just as the USSR was not around circa 2002.
People need to pay some serious attention to what Catherine Austin Fitts has been talking about. 21 trillion bucks discovered missing so far. MSM silent. Nothing from Congress.
What have they been using that money for? Fitts has her hunches, as do others. But, how has the velocity of so much missing currency been suppressed? Or is masked the better word?
Since the current worldwide economic system is two seconds from midnight, now we’re seeing F-18 gun camera footage of an UFO captured over the Pacific....and amazingly enough...well yeah there really WAS ( cough...cough) a secret DoD UFO research program championed by Harry Reid (tag teaming with Bigelow Aerospace). The former director just resigned and happened to have this video in his back pocket on his way out. Might as well go to the MSM and show ‘em.
The globalists have one card left to play, and that is the alien card. You watch. They are playing it right now....because they are running out of time. A Great Reset stops everything...black programs especially.
quote "In the U.S., federal law enforcement outlay is a fraction of defense spending. In Russia, the two areas of government expenditure are almost equal. That's the difference between a country with a relatively liberal domestic order and a near-dictatorship, which relies heavily on the suppression of dissent and must keep large law enforcement agencies under centralized control
Wake me up when Clinton Comey and friends face justice, crickets, we been ragging on about the swamp nothing EVER happens.
Rusiia
near-dictatorship, which relies heavily on the suppression of dissent
Wake up writer, election in 2018 in Russia free and fair or is that balanced.
Really.
In their own way, each outfit has a good claim to "Authoritarianism."
the cost of maintaining the world's most powerful military, the U.S
Power is the work done over time, and work is the force applied over a distance.
The US military have spent a huge amount of time (denominator), and got fuck all work done.
E.g. Syria, Afgan, Iraq, UK ran etc etc etc.
This suggests it's not the most powerful but certainly the most costly. Russia sorted the ISIS in much shorter period of time, and got the job done (work) with much less force. Please get the terms right Costly and inefficient might be more suited.
I understand your meaning, but actually "Energy" is work (power or force) expended over time; ie, Energy = force*time. For example, electrical watts is the amount of continuous power delivered over an electrical circuit in terms of watts; whereas watt-hours or Kilowatt hours (kWh) is a measure of total energy delivered to you and that is what your power company bills you for. Energy = Power or Force over a given length of time. There are also other formulas for kinetic energy, potential energy, etc., but basically power or force is something that is delivered continuously whereas energy is the power or force expended in a given length of time, or to move an object a certain distance against friction or gravity.
I decided not to go done that road for fear of appearing to be an irritating nerd.
I decided not to go done that road for fear of appearing to be an irritating nerd.
Russia is a proud nation with a long tradition of destroying invaders and foreigners that have coveted Russian resources, territory and wealth. USSA is a gone-to-seed anglozionazi sewer crawling with critters all at each others throats where corruption is rife and NOTHING happens without incurring more unpayable debt (as long as foreign creditiors allow). USSA is a nation of drug addled morons without any values controlled by an insidious tribe of alien supremacists with its snout in every facet of the "culture" and a pathological hatred for everything Christian and decent. Rightly the working class and proles despise everything about the zero 1% and holds the ruling class in total contempt with a military that hasn't "won" a war since Russia smashed NAZI Germany in 1945. USSA will NEVER attempt to militartily engage with Russia, China, Iran nor North Korea. Germans (after being suckered twice) seem to have figured the anglozionazi game plan and won't be marching to Moscow to save their USSAN occupiers and Natostan any time soon. USSA's cattle drivers are a sly, devious collection of scum but not suicidal and in the end more afraid of the inevitable stampede of its own tax cattle.
USSA'S next war will be its long overdue war with itself and humanity will be more than happy to "help" in any way it can with the coming Balkanization of Slumville.
Russia was largely helped to win against the NAZIs because of Adolf Hitler's stupid mistakes, which were stupendous.
I am not taking anything away from their fighting armies. They were tremendous, and made terrible sacrifices.
However, Hitler fucked up a lot: he put off Barbarosa for over a month due to Italian bungling in the Balkans.
Instead of following his generals' advice, he split his invasion force and allowed Stalin to withdraw eastwards, even after capturing around a million Russian troops.
Raeder was correct: smash the British in the Med and in Egypt, cut them off from India, and sweep up through Turkey into Russia. Own the ME and the Med and Britain was defeated. Rashad in Iraq had Hitler's back. He could have united the Muslims to attack the communists.
Hitler also exterminated the peoples in "liberated" areas and thus lost hundreds of thousands of fighters to use against Stalin.
I could go on, but ole Adolf lost WW2 because he came to believe the image he created of himself was actually who he was. Instead, his ego and race-hatred obsessions got away from him and he royally fucked up. Once the Allies invaded in 1944, it was Over.
Hitler was a methhead and Jew heritage like 90% of his SS. Russians and Germans both common heritage of RUS tribe