Swedish intelligence said Russia has been covering up a weak, debt-driven economy hit by war costs and sanctions, warning of rising inflation and banking risks.
How would New York alone fund a war for 4 years and run a country and have an entire military. None of it makes sense to me how they are still fighting.
The glib answer is that Russia isn’t New York.
Russia can’t run out of money, they can just print more money. Unfortunately, that causes massive inflation, because you’re spreading the same amount of value over more coins, so each coin gets less value.
Russia was also very rich. They have absolutely massive oil and gas reserves, so they can sell products for cash, usually in dollars. And they’ve done that for decades. Sure, most of that money was private, but once the owner is found guilty of crimes against the state, its suddenly government money.
Russia also isn’t really one country. You should picture “Russia” as being Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and eeeeverything as their colonial holdings. All the money, political power and influence and resources are in the two cities, and everyone else is basically a pleasant.
Russia also used to be a lot stronger. The Soviet Union was much bigger and included all of Ukraine and more. During that time, they made an absolutely insane amount of weapons. There were literally multiple dozens of military bases that were just giant carparks full of tanks and guns. Many of those were made in Ukraine by Ukrainians.
That’s how Russia keeps going. They’re printing money to supplement their now empty Scrooge McDuck warehouse of money. They’re basically using destitute dirtfarmers as soldiers, using military equipment made during the cold war. And nobody important gives a shit because they barely consider them to be Russians anyway. And the people getting presses into the military have no idea what’s happening, because how could they?
Russia won’t run out of money, or tanks, or missiles. They’re just making more. They won’t run out of soldiers because it’s a huge country.
What will happen is that they run out of most things. And for a large part, that already happened. Advances have slowed hugely due to not having enough tanks and APCs. Logistics have broken down and they’re using horses in some places. Trained, professional soldiers have been rare for years already. They don’t even have radios so they’re using civilian stuff. But they won’t run out, they’ll just get less and less effective.
But an ineffective military of millions can still kill people.
The glib answer is that Russia isn’t New York.
Russia can’t run out of money, they can just print more money. Unfortunately, that causes massive inflation, because you’re spreading the same amount of value over more coins, so each coin gets less value.
Russia was also very rich. They have absolutely massive oil and gas reserves, so they can sell products for cash, usually in dollars. And they’ve done that for decades. Sure, most of that money was private, but once the owner is found guilty of crimes against the state, its suddenly government money.
Russia also isn’t really one country. You should picture “Russia” as being Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and eeeeverything as their colonial holdings. All the money, political power and influence and resources are in the two cities, and everyone else is basically a pleasant.
Russia also used to be a lot stronger. The Soviet Union was much bigger and included all of Ukraine and more. During that time, they made an absolutely insane amount of weapons. There were literally multiple dozens of military bases that were just giant carparks full of tanks and guns. Many of those were made in Ukraine by Ukrainians.
That’s how Russia keeps going. They’re printing money to supplement their now empty Scrooge McDuck warehouse of money. They’re basically using destitute dirtfarmers as soldiers, using military equipment made during the cold war. And nobody important gives a shit because they barely consider them to be Russians anyway. And the people getting presses into the military have no idea what’s happening, because how could they?
Russia won’t run out of money, or tanks, or missiles. They’re just making more. They won’t run out of soldiers because it’s a huge country.
What will happen is that they run out of most things. And for a large part, that already happened. Advances have slowed hugely due to not having enough tanks and APCs. Logistics have broken down and they’re using horses in some places. Trained, professional soldiers have been rare for years already. They don’t even have radios so they’re using civilian stuff. But they won’t run out, they’ll just get less and less effective.
But an ineffective military of millions can still kill people.