It's stalled for a decade
Solution is to scrap the damn thing and stop designing ships around imported components
This is regular occurrence, is there a single Russian ship that was designed around non-imported equipment?
You can have your little tantrum and blame Putin for anything you like... the irony would be that if he actually did what you think he should have done and demanded everything Russia used had to be Russian made using all Russian components they wouldn't be able to make anything for quite a long period and the cost of making everything themselves would mean they couldn't make anywhere near as much as they actually did, so there would be an enormous deficit of material and equipment, plus all the money they spent on improving the things they did make like nuclear powered cruise missiles and hypersonic anti ship weapons and strategic weapons that evade US ABM systems, not to mention some of the best SAMs and armoured vehicles on the planet, instead they would be busy spending their money making special lights for dashboards on ships, and insulation and other minor bits and pieces they saved an enormous amount of time and money buying off the shelf when it was available.
Of course when the sanctions are applied problems will be created, but demanding from day one everything is made in Russia means nothing would be made in Russia.
By using Ukrainian engines in their ships there has been a gap of five to six years where they couldn't make ships... from about 2014 to rather recently, but if they had stopped buying Ukrainian engines in 2000 the Russian companies that worked on the problem for the last half decade were in nothing like they shape they are in now and honestly would have struggled to get it done... it would have taken much longer and been much more expensive, and all the things they were doing for 14 years would then need to be done after and most of that was new CnC machines and computer design equipment and other stuff that helps make doing things easier and cheaper and faster.
More than that.. it likely would have pissed the Ukraine off so the US would not have needed all their colour revolutions, the Ukraine would have cut Russia off 15 years before they did, and Russia in 2000 was in no condition to be abandoned by its main trading partner...
It essentially would have condensed all the isolation and sanctions the Russians are dealing with now, back to a time when they were very much not equipped to deal with the consequences... the damage would have been much higher and the costs would have been much higher and Russia would have been left in a much more vulnerable and weak state...
But the ships would not have been built either... trying to make them of Russian components that didn't exist at the time would make them too expensive to build because the cost of designing thrusters to replace the rolls royce ones they built would make it too expensive to bother.
Russia did not start its revival with the presidency of Putin the Chess Grandmaster in 2000
Putin inherited a very weak hand... a very weak hand with a lot of potential but weak nonetheless.
If he had started playing then with that hand like he was holding what he holds now he would never hold the hand he has now, Russia would have been isolated and suffocated.
Most of the 21st century Putin has been both complicit, and complacent in the continuation of a loosing strategy and acute sensitivity to the interests of Russia's "Western partners", and basically continuing the old Yeltsin scheme of "who needs our planes anyway, we can just sell oil, and buy planes from Boeing".
Putin had to play that game or the attempts to crush Russia would have started much earlier than they did and would have done much more damage... Hitler couldn't do it and neither could napoleon... I rather doubt a Bush or Obama or Clinton could have managed, but Russia is in a good position which it would not be had he tried to play the strong man with nothing to back it up.
He hoped to build Europe "from Lisbon to Vladivostok" but as events showed Europe did not give a crap about Russia's security interests nor its traditional markets and supported every anti-Russian coup and regime on its doorstep.
But of course the Europeans never said they didn't give a crap to his face, they just led him on letting him think what he liked, and systematically tried to break his country by shredding away old allies and neighbours... not realising of course many of those old allies and neighbours were more of a problem than an asset.
He realised he was getting no where no matter which side of the political spectrum was in power in these western countries, so he started to assert Russian power as it has evolved.
He has done it carefully and gradually so the gradual response and pushback has enabled Russia to disentangle from the west and allow the west to push Russia away, rather than to openly reject the west and be brutally attacked for that blasphemy.
Russia is rather independent and much stronger now because it was gradual and the countermeasures were designed to help Russia rather than to hurt the west, though obviously they hurt western interests in Russia, it was not like they financed 11/9 or supported terrorists like the west has done with supporting the Chechen terrorists killing children in Beslan, and calling them freedom fighters...
Russia's revival only started in 2014 and then, only because our elite was forced into it. Forced, with no way out. They made at least some contingencies for it, but not enough.
Nor the colour revolutions in 2003/2004 woke them up, nor the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia earlier (albeit those at least alerted them), nor the 2008 war with US client state Georgia.
It had to happen that way or it would not have worked out as well as it did.
Dealing with the rich west seems safe and the best choice for any country, but the west didn't get rich and powerful by being nice or fair, they are total bastards and if you are lucky you might earn minimum wage from a deal, but you can be sure much of the profit goes to them... and all the ownership rights etc.
Russia dealing with other countries can deal on more equal terms and make much more money, as can the trade partner...
Now as it is Russia has lost a lot of time, and half its remaining allies.
Honestly I think Russia is better off without most of the Ukraine... the sooner that country can decide where its future lies... the EU/US and the rest of the world, the better... it does not need to join the Russian federation... it just needs those
in Kiev from shelling them and sabotaging their daily life.
It's unclear whether the progress made during the last 7 years is sufficient, because these last 7 years might be all that we get. Stalin in his day had twice that time, and made much more rapid progress.
A very good comparison... Stalin murdered as many of Russias best and brightest as he created... he used fear to motivate... anyone who thinks that is a good idea is likely to get murdered by their sons when they get old enough to understand what a
they are.
We listen and find this utter nonsense, no matter how many sore commies spend their lives faking tears over Russia's "lost opportunities". Putin's approach passed the real world test, commie's approach is little more than a fake religion for delusional people.
Actually I think Putin is the best type of commie... he cares about the Russian people and wont sell them out to other countries for baubles.
He is happy to nationalise things that are in the Russian interests not to be foreign owned, but he is open to competition and free trade...
He is the opposite of western politicians, and I like him.
Your comments about "elites" show you still don't get how a civilised society works in reality,
Every society has elites, which is code word for rich, because money is power.... and such people are present in every society... ironically the best you can hope for is the situation Putin has engineered in Russia, where rich people pay tax and don't get involved in politics and invest their money in Russia preferably.
Obviously it is not perfect and I suspect more want to hide their money than invest in Russia and have it grow as the country develops... but that just shows the cowardice of most rich people.
Putin was an improvement but it was mostly just a mix of him fixing the most immediate crises as well as well as getting rid of the biggest leaches, before eventually the system transformed into something concrete driven by circumstance.
More extreme shock therapy has destroyed other countries... the fact that Russia survived the conversion from communism to free market democracy is a miracle... you make it sound like it should have been easy and natural and yet he still fucked it up... well I am saying it very easily could have been much worse and you can claim to know better all you like... I can talk shit on the internet with the best of them but respect is due to someone who actually did it and put Russia in a position it would never be other wise.
Back in the 2000s Putin was all war on terror, helping the US get bases in Central Asia, etc..
And why wouldn't he... according to the promises of the west at the end of the cold war Russia was to be welcomed into the international community because they are the same with no ideological differences... except they didn't say that the west is imperial colonial first world and Russia has just moved from communist rival for power second world to third world resources for the first world to plunder status.
Putin knows this now, explaining his shift to other directions... Russia now knows smoking and too much sugar is bad and while it is hard they are looking elsewhere for other things and trying to kick their habits of eating the wrong things and smoking.
Any of those factors missing, Russia would be over and nothing more than a frozen 3rd world shithole, already split in areas of influence under the control / looting of the West.
I disagree... Russians are used to hardship and despite being in a much worse place they will never be the third world gas station that makes nothing that Obama described them as being... and I am sure every time they think things are hard they can play that soundbite to remember who they are fighting and why.
Enough OT for this thread now....
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... torpedo catcher... sounds like Javelin catcher...
