About half of the country’s federal budget goes toward the fight in Ukraine, money that does little to support its long-term development.
For four years, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made the war against Ukraine the lodestar of his every move.
The single-minded approach has helped Mr. Putin salvage what began as a disastrous invasion, get his troops back on the front foot and dictate demands in peace talks mediated by Washington.
But his stubborn pursuit of the war has come at a huge cost. It has killed or wounded as many as 1.2 million Russians, by some estimates, while reordering Russia’s economy and society in ways that many economists believe jeopardize the nation’s future.
“You have lots of money spent on tanks, shells, bombs, military benefits and other things — no long-lasting value, nothing that works on what we call development,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official who is now a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
The thing is, Russia never runs out of soldiers to send into the meat grinder.
It’s been the Russian military tactic for hundreds of years. Throw bodies at the enemy until they somehow win. Even if it takes years or decades of fighting.
It’s not a smart tactic, and has seriously fucked up their population demographics to this day, but it is the Russian tactic. The thing is, it usually works.
I can’t keep working, but the fear is that it might work this time as well.
Russia is fucked either way, we should rename the Pyrrhic victory.