What the sycophant Rutte failed to mention at this gangsters’ get-together is that the reason for this spending spree is the fact that NATO is massively out-gunned by Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex
I believe that Russia has more artillery shell manufacturing capacity. But in general, outside that, I think that it’d be pretty hard to make that case.
kagis
In a keynote speech in London last month, the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte repeated a warning he has made in public at least three times this year: the western alliance is severely lagging behind Moscow on ammunition production.
“In terms of ammunition, Russia produces in three months what the whole of NATO produces in a year,” Rutte said on 10 June, adding that Putin’s war machine is “speeding up, not slowing down".
Rutte, who became chief of the military alliance in October last year, went on to repeat the same warning.
“Let me repeat it again. NATO’s economy is 25 times bigger than Russia’s. It’s 50 trillion (dollars), and the Russian economy is two trillion. That two-trillion-dollar economy is producing four times as much ammunition as the whole of NATO is producing at the moment,” he said.
The Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service estimates that Russia produced or refurbished 400,000 artillery rounds in 2022, multiplying its production more than eleven-fold to produce 4.5 million rounds in 2024.
An analysis by consulting firm Bain & Company for Sky News in May 2024 came to the same conclusion, putting the total number of shells produced or refurbished in 2024 at an estimated 4.5 million rounds.
In 2024, Europe and the US produced an estimated 1.2 million shells per year, according to the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs, compared to Russia’s estimated 4.5 million.
It looks like RT and similar have been repeating the quote while not making it clear that Rutte was talking specifically about artillery shells:
https://www.rt.com/russia/623430-west-shocked-russian-arms-production/
Earlier this year, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that “it’s simply unthinkable” that Russia “should be able to outproduce and outgun” the US-led military bloc. Under US pressure, European NATO states pledged in June to increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP.
So if you figure that RT’s content probably reflects the messages that the Kremlin wants put out, the Kremlin is presumably aiming for an image that Russia is more-broadly powering past NATO in arms production.
And this Russia that has built up power, is it in the same room with us now? 😁
It’s currently a 182nd week of the 2 week police operation, Russians got to be tired of all the winniging by now /s.
I am glad this exists. How else can people who unlike me didn’t live under comminist regime get to appreciate the unique unconstrained by reality logic of a communist newspaper 😂
Russia…
Ok, so far.
… emerges …
War ain’t over yet buddy. They ain’t “emerged” from anything.
…strengthened…
- Down over a million soldiers
- Basically out of tanks
- No air defence left
- Lost several irreplaceable AWACS and strategic bombers.
- The Black Sea fleet decimated and forced to hide.
- Running out of fuel.
- Economy set to collapse.
…from Ukraine war,…
…that it started.
…with profound implications…
How are we going to look after all the Russian citizens after the Russian state collapses?
for western imperialism.
Translation: Allowing countries to join a joint defence pact so they’re not an easy target anymore.
I don’t think I’ll bother reading that article. The headline was work enough.
Fuckers are rationing gas of all things now. The only thing their economy could do and now they can’t even manage that. However they emerge from this, it definitely won’t be stronger.
deleted by creator
What a poorly written piece of garbage propaganda. It starts with the lie that the US started the in Ukraine, when it’s only Putin who wanted that war, and only Putin who can stop it. If it was a proxy war, would Trump be sucking up to Putin? If Ukraine was the US’s puppet, Trump’s surrender to Putin would have worked and Putin’s conquest would have been successful.
Instead, the Russian economy is struggling because a million soldiers were sacrificed at the frontlines while many others fled the country. It’s only China propping them up that allows Russia to continue their pitiful war.
the lie that the US started the in Ukraine
That reasoning is simple. Putin lost his sock puppet in Ukraine in 2013 with the large protests. He blames the West and especially the USA for this by putting ideas of freedom in people’s head. Now, instead of having a sock puppet state he had to do things the hard way and invade. In Russian that translates to “They started the war”.
This whole debacle has been a great lesson in propaganda, and how neither side is above pushing or believing it.
Yes, many people even on the supposed ‘good’ side have no problem lying and getting angry whenever someone dares to tell the truth.
A reality check:
Fuel Shortages Hit Russia’s Far East as Ukrainian Strikes Take Refineries Offline
My assessement: economically, Russia is very exhausted. Living conditions over there have objectively worsened. Inflation is so high that countries with a normal-sized police force would experience rioting (Russia has about 4 times more cops per citizens than a normal country, so it doesn’t).
Meanwhile, the weapons industry is of course booming and has gained lots of new knowledge. I’m not sure if the leading country in drone technology is Ukraine or Russia, but others are quite clearly bogged down in bureaucracy or lazy due to no perceived threat. Financing that industry is however close to falling apart.
Considering inflation (the same money is worth less) and the exhaustion of its sovereign wealth fund (saved up oil revenues) and considering that Ukraine is apparently enforcing a ban on oil refining in Russia (13% of refineries down in one month), Russia might have to reduce its military budget next year, despite not wanting to. (It has already reduced most other budget lines.)
Population has been reduced by emigration (those who could bailed out when it started), war deaths (about 1M men considered expendable are now dead or injured) and lack of births (people lack optimism about future). In fact, population data likely haven’t looked so miserable since the 1990-ties, for which reason publicaton of data was reduced.
Ukraine is, of course, experinecing the same kind of misery, but other European countries have enough resources to keep it functioning.
This could drag on for long, but would end if something broke. It would be far better if the agressor broke.
Had to make sure it wasn’t a joke.
From the article:
US imperialism deliberately provoked Russia into a war with Ukraine
Fucking lying tankie scum.
Also funny that alleged “communists” support an authoritarian (increasingly becoming totalitarian) oligarch capitalist state.
To quote a Portuguese comedian “the communists are still drunkenly believing that Russia is still communist”
Why are the communists supporting a fascist? Do they want Molotov-Ribbentrop 2.0?
LOL the russian economy is fucked up beyond recognition, they can’t stop the war or else their country snaps back into a fucking barter system - and even the russian economists say that.
and russia started that war, you lying piece of shit. also, they are not in war with NATO or else we would already have held a parade on the red square just to piss you off.
:))
So busy being afraid of the West they’ll end up as a vassal state of the East.
ok tankie
Wrong instance
