They’re on losing ground. The economy is too thin a foundation for their military. And now they’ve lost the Ukrainian military industries they’ve depended on.
Two Russian Military Fighter Jets Crash In Under 3 Hours
Is the ‘World’s Deadliest Tank’ Bankrupting Russia?
According to an analysis conducted by Forbes Magazine, Russia will spend an estimated 5.34 percent of its economic output on defense in 2015. This estimate is based on the assumption that the Russian economy will contract by 3 percent and a 15 percent hike in the real value of the military budget.
However, another estimate quoted in the Wall Street Journal based on Russian government data notes that country’s GDP may even decrease by 4.6 percent largely due to lower oil prices and Western sanctions. Consequently, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently announced that this year’s 3.3 trillion rubles military budget will need to be adjusted and cut by five percent or 157 billion rubles.
Even worse, according to newly published budget data of the first three months of 2015, military expenditure exceeded 9 percent of quarterly GDP – almost twice the amount cited in Forbes Magazine. . . .
Russian spectators have said when Russia’s newest main battle tank, the T-14 Armata, abruptly grounded to a halt during a rehearsal for Moscow’s big May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square (see: “Did the ‘World’s Deadliest Tank’ Just Break Down?”): “The Armata truly has unprecedented destructive power; a battalion can destroy the entire Russian budget!”
By 2020, Russia plans to produce 2,300 T-14 Armata models. Each tank costs about $ 8 million. The Russian military intends to replace 70 percent of its tank corps with the new tracked vehicle, replacing the older T-72 and T-90 main battle tanks.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/is-the-worlds-deadliest-tank-bankrupting-russia/
Russia’s entire fleet of military bombers GROUNDED after plane engulfed in flames
It is thought that the drama was caused by an engine fire as the Tu-95 “Bear” plane took off in Russia’s Far East, causing it to overshoot the runway.
The bombers have been spotted over Britain several times during recent months in what has been seen as an increasing show of aggression by Vladimir Putin.
The Russian defence ministry said: “The accident occurred during a practice flight at the Ukrainka airfield in the Amur region at 17:00 Moscow time.
“The Tu-95 overran the runway during acceleration. There was no ammunition onboard. According to preliminary information, a fire in the engine was the cause behind the accident.”
(The U.S. has suffered at least four crashes of military aircraft in 2015.)
