- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin
Two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept a Russian military aircraft above the Baltic Sea, as Estonia said it would call an emergency meeting of the UN security council after Russian planes violated its airspace.
Germany’s air force said the Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane had switched off its transponders and ignored requests to make contact. The Eurofighters took off from the Rostock-Laage airbase to head off the aircraft as it flew in international airspace.
Tensions between Nato and Russia have been dramatically rising after a series of what European governments say are deliberate, provocative acts by the Kremlin. On Friday, three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace in the Gulf of Finland. Moscow denies this.
They are barely managing the war with ukraine and you want me to believe they are moving further than that? EU countries combined are matching already russia military expenses, they are looking for excuses to boost war industry even more. Check the data and watch out for propaganda.
The US plus all partners has sent about $150 billion in total, it looks like, up until the middle of last year: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/ About half of that is EU, so say $75 billion from the EU.
Russia spends about $500 billion per year: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/12/russias-2024-military-spending-surpassed-eu-uk-combined-in-ppp-terms-study-a87974 They have mobilized basically their entire economy to try to win this thing.
What is your source for saying the EU alone is matching Russia? The EU is barely paying attention to the war, because of complacency and a subtle racism. But the idea that the EU is pulling out all the stops like Russia is, or prioritizing making their “defense” contractors rich in this as the US is wont to do, is absurd.
Can do! I think I might have found some, I’m not sure.
Thank you.
Many folks fail to realize that it absolutely doesn’t hurt Putin to send another one or two million of his people to die for his delusions of grandeur. It’s not like he’s gonna have to start selling his mansions because Russia goes through economic hardships or that his own kids gonna get drafted.
If Russia did things that are logical - they wouldn’t invade Ukraine in the first place, not to mention that their invasion and annexations are illegal even by Russian laws and constitution that Putin can rewrite at his whim, but absolutely nobody cares. So expecting a country that breaks its own laws while being an autocracy to follow logic is foolish at best.
Yeah. I’m not exactly a geopolitics-man, but my best guess for what’s going on with Putin and Russia’s strategy here is:
I think the combination means that he’s just kind of telling his military to do whatever, including invading Ukraine thinking it would go about the same way as Georgia, Crimea, Chechnya, and the US elections. I do think he benefits from a certain amount of native cunning in this particular brinksmanship with NATO, and of course it doesn’t take too much detailed understanding of facts on the ground to just fly some planes around in their airspace and flip people off, but also I think in general this latest chapter of Russia is just a pretty good demonstration of why authoritarianism doesn’t make for effective countries.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures
They spend about the same in dollars, the article you linked adjust the price to PPP. We could argue all day about this adjustments but there’s no need to do it: we are not looking for the country that win the spending race, we are observing that both russia and EU countries are armed to the teeth and already dumping billions of money in war. It sound foolish to believe russia has plans to attack and invade a faction that match their military spending, they would be heading for a war they have no guarantee of winning and that could result in the complete defeat of their country. On the other hand it’s quite reasonable to think EU governments are using fear as a leverage to gain power and wealth (the same shit that russia government does to justify their spending)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures
They pay attention to it every second with endless surveillance missions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eastern_Sentry
https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/09/21/e-550-caew-missions-in-the-baltic-10-days-of-tracking/
I actually do see another possibility beyond what I said: I think it’s also possible that Russia has decided on war with NATO, and is doing provocations so the other party will have to be the one to “officially start” the war and then they can “retaliate.” That’s part of why I was saying it would be smart for NATO to establish very clear ahead-of-time guidelines and then stick to them, so there’s no escalation by mistake once missiles do start flying around. Anyway that type of behavior is a time-honored tradition especially for democratic countries that have to worry about the public perception (US with Japan before WW2, US with Vietnam at Tonkin Gulf, Israel at all times…). I don’t think that’s what they are doing for a couple of reasons, but it’s the only other explanation besides what I said that makes any sense to me.
Of course they are moving ahead. A billion in EU buys many times less than the same billion does in russia. Furthermore, russia has never - at least in the last two-three lifetimes - acted logically. A failed/miscalculated/etc attempt at an invasion still brings death and destruction.
Think about why it does
Governments and rulers do not follow me and you logic, they act for themself and according to their interests
Because no one in their right mind wants rubles, so money comparisons that involve rubles have to be corrected back to reality before the values actually match. If you go by the exchange rate alone, you might as well be comparing dollars to lollipops or something.