Shoigu stole too much

and Soviet liars need to lie Soviet lies

Ok let’s start with this bit of nonsense:

“Putin replaces Russia’s defense minister with a civilian as Ukraine war rages and defense spending spirals”

Shoigu is a ‘civilian’.

He’s a Siberian bozo shaman thief.

My kid knows more about war than Shoigu.

““Today on the battlefield, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation,” Peskov said. “Therefore, it is natural that at the current stage, the president decided that the Russian Ministry of Defense should be headed by a civilian.””

Instantly Western news services swallow Russian bullshit without checking even Wiki. Oh btw Wiki, Shoigu isn’t a ducking military officer. He never served a day or went through training.

“Shoigu will also become the deputy in Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission”
where he can continue to steal as he learnt during his early CONstruction management days in the USSR. After the fall (rebranding) of the USSR, Shoigu was a well-known and well-connected thief who got in close with the kleptocracy around Yeltsin. Shoigu’s job will not be as lucrative as defence minister but lucrative enough.

Old Shoigu was just stealing too much. Not enough to warrant a defenestration but enough for rebuke. Putin shuffles his loyal morons like the refined dictator he is. He doesn’t murder the most powerful and important ones, even when they fail miserable, see General Gerasimov, but moves them around. This stops them deciding it’s better to kill Putin before he kills you. And it works. Even Prigozhin believed he would be forgiven, making the same moron thief sociopath mistake as Hussein Kamel. Some things can’t be forgiven and that’s plotting. Shoigu is a thief but he’s not stupid enough to plot replacing Putin. There’s a glass ceiling for non-Russians not named Stalin.

“In a reference to the war in Ukraine, Peskov said that due to “well-known geopolitical circumstances, we are gradually approaching the situation of the mid-80s when the share of expenses for the security bloc in the economy was 7.4%. It’s not critical, but it’s extremely important,” Peskov said.”

Peskov, who will hopefully one day end up at the ICC, is a lying liar.

He can’t even mention sanctions.

He lies about Soviet military spending.

Because they were Russian liars back then, the Soviets didn’t reveal military spending even internally, even possibly to the General Secretary.

Soviet Russia was spending perhaps up to 20% of its GDP on the military in the mid 80s. Or even more, 28%. Remember to grain of salt Western estimates because hawks wanted to spend more money on defence talking about budget gaps, leading to nonsense. But at least double the amount lying liar Peskov lies about.

“The budget currently amounts to 6.7% of GDP, he said.”

He’s also lying here.

Russia has to lie about its spending because Putin runs a good generous Tsar regime.

He pretends to and sometimes does, give some breadcrumbs from his thief economy to his slave population.

That’s what last year he spent more time talking social spending than war at his annual bore the people occasion.

Putin can’t tell his population how much the war is actually costing.

He can’t tell them the actual spend and how much Shoigu and friends steal, the second of which might probably be the larger figure.

The Russian military budget is one big lie even in peace.

So let’s make a guess that Russians are still lying the same as they did in the past, that makes Russian spending 15% of GDP.

So…

That’s sustainable for a good while.

Russia is a kleptocracy where the majority of wealth is stolen. The wealth comes from resource desposits, not production and services and taxation of those. Russia doesn’t need to tax industry, services and citizens more, because they don’t bring in the money.

Diverting money from resource wealth is sustainable as long as the resources sell at reasonable prices.

Sanctions are half-working so there’s money to spend.

Russia is also printing money ‘backed’ by seized assets (read the Memri report, it’s good). The head of the central bank is a miracle worker. But you run out of miracles in finances after a while. Always.

So Russia can definitely outlast Ukraine economically.

Blame the West.

PS Update 14 May 2024

No Politico, Shoigu wasn’t replaced as a restructuring of the war effort unless you count him being replaced for stealing too much. His stealing just got out of hand.

I would be worried if I was him now with the arrest of another deputy. This is cutting deep. Maybe his life is actually threatened.

Our book is still out