Things are looking bad for Russia’s military
right now. Really bad. So bad, that this explosive charge that was issued to a Russian soldier turned
out to actually be a fake filled with wood. And this supposedly bullet-proof Russian body armor
turned out to actually just be filled with useless foam instead of Kevlar. While Vladimir Putin
continues to paint a picture of a strong Russia, the reality is that his world-class military has
reportedly been reduced to using fake gear, which, among many other problems, is causing Russia to
quickly lose ground in their war against Ukraine. But a few facts never got in
the way of good propaganda, and so while the front line in Ukraine has so far
resulted in nearly 100,000 Russian casualties, Russian state TV has continued to portray the
experience of war in the best light possible. Take for example some recent Russian recruitment
propaganda, which is being pushed out in full force as Russia desperately tries to replace its
casualties with new manpower. Rather than showing the reality of soldiers being equipped with
fake gear, one video shows a young man going to the front line and returning home unscathed
in a brand new car, which he bought with the money he earned from joining the military.
Another video shows a soldier making up with his ex-girlfriend after joining the army, as
she fauns over his courage and begs him to take her back. Russia’s propaganda even extends to
middle-aged men, showing videos of disgruntled, underpaid workers leaving their factory jobs
to sign military contracts. And there are even reports that Russian TV showed footage of
Russian soldiers in Ukraine - with Saunas, and Ukrainians baking bread for them. It all
sounds rather rosy, and peaceful - the opposite of frontline war - an easy way to make a quick
buck while making everyone around you proud. But the reality is, this is just propaganda, and things are really not going well.
So let’s take a look at some facts that, unlike a sports car, you will never see
in a recruitment ad for the Russian Army: First, the Russian military
is in such a poor state, that Russian soldiers have reportedly
been reduced to buying their own gear, because, due to corruption and poor planning, the
Russian military just doesn’t have much gear for them. In addition to the fake explosives and body
armor, many recent reports show that Russia can’t even provide its soldiers with basic things like
socks, boots, or uniforms - let alone weapons. And the fakes we’ve mentioned are just the tip
of the iceberg. Take for example these modern military helmets, which, on closer examination,
turn out to really just be helmets from World War II with modern covers on them. Or how
about these tanks, which many soldiers have claimed have reactive armor that is filled with
rubber instead of explosive charges. And then, there’s the tampons, yes, tampons,
which have been issued to Russian soldiers instead of proper medical kits
to stop the bleeding from bullet wounds. All of these things show that
Russia’s conventional military power may largely be a facade, dressed
up on the outside to look intimidating, but in reality being far less potent than
portrayed, much like the army of literal inflatable soldiers and inflatable tanks used to
deceive the Germans on D-Day during World War II. Take for example Russian communications
equipment, where soldiers have been spotted using Soviet-era radios, or even basic
civilian-grade, unsecured walkie-talkies, like the kind you or I might buy at Wal-Mart.
Not very useful when the enemy can just deploy a squad with one guy on every channel and
listen in on all your secret battle plans. And that’s putting Russian soldiers in a bad spot
when they see actual combat, especially since many of them aren’t even equipped with proper
weapons. That’s right. Due to supply issues, many Russian soldiers have been seen using World
War II era rifles, and while I wasn’t able to confirm this, some Russian soldiers have even
been reported as using pellet guns rather than real firearms - certainly not sufficient for
an actual modern battlezone, especially if the enemy knows exactly what you’re doing because
you just told him on your $15 walkie-talkie. But, if morale is low due to lack of
gear, at least the soldiers have food. Sometimes. If they’re lucky. While Russian
propaganda shows soldiers receiving warm bread from thankful Ukranians, the reality is that the
Russian military is apparently experiencing severe food shortages, with many soldiers being
reduced to begging for food from locals, or being issued food rations with expiration
dates from back in 2015. Because nothing says military effectiveness like going
to war with a plastic walkie-talkie, a pellet gun, no socks, and a
severe case of food poisoning. And then there’s the heavy equipment. On paper,
Russia has a very intimidating arsenal of fighter jets, combat-ready tanks, and a world-class
navy. But in reality, many are finding that the situation is actually quite different. Take
the tanks for example. On paper, Russia has over 10,000 of them, beating even the United States,
which has only 7 to 8 thousand. But the reality is that while the number is large, most of these
Russian tanks are not battle-worthy. Many won’t even start, or have other severe issues due to
lack of consistent maintenance. For that reason, Russia has resorted to pulling 60-year-old
early-Cold-War-era tanks out of storage, because apparently getting those puppies to
work is easier than fixing the newer ones, probably because they don’t require microchips,
which Russia can’t seem to get their hands on. These cold-war relics might bolster the
numbers, but they’re not very useful against modern anti-tank weapons, or even basic
modern vehicles, which can simply outrun them. And then there’s the aircraft, which Russia
has a lot of. But the problem is that Russia has more aircraft than it has pilots,
because training pilots is expensive, and despite the fact that Russia started this
war, they apparently failed to prepare for it by ramping up their aviation training programs.
This puts a hard-limit on what the Russian air force can actually accomplish, which is made
worse by the fact that aircraft and pilots keep being lost due to equipment malfunctions before
they ever even make it to the battlefield. As for the communications equipment, it's a similar
situation to the civilian-grade walkie-talkies, with Russian pilots reportedly taping
smartphones or civilian GPS devices to their dashboards in order to locate their
targets, mainly because Russia apparently was too cheap to equip all of their fighter
jets with sufficient navigation systems. But if they can’t claim air superiority with
aircraft, at least they have missiles, right? Well, yeah. Sometimes. Those are apparently
in really bad shape as well. For one, they’re very inaccurate. While they claim to
be accurate down to a range of a few meters, recent studies have found their accuracy to
be closer to 60 or 70 meters - over half the length of a football field - hardly useful
when you’re trying to pick off strategic targets without collateral damage. More than
that, most Russian missiles don’t make it to their target in the first place, with up to
60% of missiles failing in the early days of the war, many of them turning around and
striking Russian soil instead of Ukraine. I’m just saying, you know the situation is bad
when even the missiles want to return home. And then there’s the paltry Russian Navy, with
only one serviceable aircraft carrier. And we use the term lightly. Because Russia’s only aircraft
carrier is technically an aircraft cruiser, designed to field only a small number
of aircraft to protect its submarine fleet - not to conduct air superiority
missions over land. The ship is so old, that sailors apparently see being stationed on it
as a punishment, similar to being sent to the cold eastern front in World War II. The archaic design
means that the ship has to choose between running its boilers or running its engines, so while on
the move, there’s no heat onboard for the sailors, even when sailing in sub-zero conditions. That’s
definitely not good for morale, or for keeping up fighting efficiency. But of course, they
only have to worry about freezing to death if the ship can move, which can’t be taken for
granted, because apparently, its most important support vessel is a tug-boat, used frequently
as the ship's engines continually break down. From fake gear, to broken
tanks, to unmanned aircraft, to obsolete naval vessels, one really
wonders why Russia continues to fight. But how could all this happen? Russia
was undeniably a world-class military power during World War II, and a force to
be reckoned with for decades following. They successfully fought back against Hitler,
and even kept the United States at bay during the Cold War. So how did a genuine
military power degrade into shows of force with fake gear made of wood and plastic?
Well, there’s an interesting story here, and it all comes down to poor planning,
big egos, and, mostly, corruption. You see, Russia was probably not expecting
to get drawn into a long conventional war with Ukraine - or, frankly, with anyone. In
Putin’s early statements about his so-called “special military operation” he was
clear that he was expecting a quick and decisive victory that would cement
his place in Russian history once and for all. And he wasn’t completely
without reason for thinking that. Ever since acquiring nuclear weapons, Russia’s
military doctrine has become increasingly centered around exploiting its nukes as its primary means
of national defense, resorting to theatrical shows of force and nuclear saber-rattling
to keep enemies from wanting to attack them, rather than actually building up a strong
army that's capable of conventional warfare. This isn’t all that different from the strategy
used by the tiny nation of North Korea, because, let’s be honest, it’s easier to equip a few
soldiers for a once-a-year parade than it is to equip hundreds of thousands of soldiers for an
actual prolonged war. The idea is that if people believe that Russia is immensely powerful,
their enemies will simply surrender before Russia’s army actually gets themselves into
a sticky situation. Basically, the goal is to appear powerful, rather than making the massive
investments that would be required to actually be powerful - investments like proper gear for
soldiers, a sufficient number of trained pilots, or a Navy that could do more than sink a World War
II cruiser. By so doing, the idea is that Russia gets the benefits of being perceived as a world
power, without the associated costs that usually come with maintaining that status. In fact,
Vladimir Putin himself once said in an interview: “We are not trying to start a war. Our goal is to
create a perception so that no one will fight us.” And that perception apparently includes
very little in the way of actually making strategic investments in the military, and
very much in the way of staged parades, propaganda, and constant reminders
that Russia is a nuclear nation. This strategy worked for Russia when they invaded
Crimea in 2014 and found themselves facing little to no opposition, with a very short military
campaign that was over within about a month. Playing off this success, it is more than likely
that Putin and his generals were planning on similar results with the most recent invasion
of Ukraine - a quick drive across the border where they would be greeted by civilians waving
Russian flags, after which they would quickly claim some more Ukrainian territory with very few
shots fired, before heading home for the winter. But of course, that was not the case. It seems
that in their second invasion, Russia bit off more than it could chew. Because rather than smiles
and waves, this most recent invasion saw Russian soldiers being greeted instead by bullets
and missiles, owing largely to a failure of Russian propaganda in Ukraine, and unexpected aid
provided to Ukraine by NATO and the United States. Many Russian soldiers actually reported being
surprised about this, because their commanders had told them that this would be a fast, peaceful
mission, or even just a training exercise, and they were terrified when, after
crossing into Ukraine, they suddenly found themselves in an actual war - something
that was apparently completely unexpected. These are some actual quotes intercepted
from Russian soldiers calling home, and published by the New York Times: Quote: “No one told us we were going to war. They
warned us one day before we left. We were told we were all going to training for two
or three days. We were fooled like children.” Another: “I didn’t know this was going
to happen. They said we were going for training. [They] These
b—--s didn’t tell us anything.” And another: “They just want to fool people on
TV, like, “Everything is alright, there's no war, just a special operation.
But in reality, it’s an actual f—----g war.” Other quotes reveal that some soldiers did
not even know they were going to Ukraine until they saw the “Welcome to Ukraine” signs
the day of the mission. And the last minute nature of the assault also meant that the
soldiers did not go through the customary psychological hardening that is usually given to
soldiers leading up to a war. This psychological hardening would normally include things
like providing a motivation to fight, giving instructions on how to overcome the
hardships of battle, and painting a clear vision to the soldiers of what the mission
was and what they would be fighting for. But this was completely lacking for
the Russian soldiers, and that fact, combined with the last-minute nature of the
assault, and the completely insufficient nature of Russian supply chains, all demonstrate that
Russia probably truly did not anticipate the war that they actually found themselves in. This
is corroborated by leaked Russian documents, which show that the military expected the
conflict to take no longer than 15 days. Planning for immediate success, they were
instead pulled into a prolonged conflict, which so far has lasted about nine
months. And in that situation, Russia’s army quickly found themselves running
out of men, equipment, and the will to fight, as they were drawn further into a
war that they were not prepared for. This was partly because of the
big egos of Russia’s leaders, who expected their campaign to be successful
based on their past shows of force, not considering what might happen if this
time things turned out differently. But the lack of sufficient gear is also
partly because of something else, something that Russians do better than just
about any other nation in the world: corruption. You see, the Russian military isn’t exactly
known for being the most honest organization in the world. And some long-time insiders
have said that career soldiers do not stay in the Russian military to fight,
but to steal. With that in mind, it's probable that one of the main reason’s
Russia isn’t able to keep their soldiers equipped through a sustained war is because,
over decades, the money that was supposed to be spent on new military equipment has instead
been siphoned off into the personal pockets of Russia’s corrupt military leaders and
oligarchs. And this all goes back to Russia’s military doctrine, which prioritizes
looking strong over actually being strong. Let’s take the example of the explosives that were
replaced with blocks of wood, and imagine how that scenario could have played out. First, a commander
places an order for explosives to meet a quota, and awards a large contract to a manufacturer
to build them. But because he doesn’t believe Russia will ever be drawn into an actual war, the
commander doesn’t actually think he will ever need the explosives, so he offers the manufacturer a
deal. They can make half of the order out of wood, saving them millions of dollars, and the commander
will look the other way, in exchange for a healthy kickback that allows him to retire next year
in Lithuania. Once the order is complete, the fake explosives go into storage, where no
one will ever be the wiser. The manufacturer gets rich, and the commander retires early as
a wealthy man. But when actual war arrives, and soldiers start digging into stockpiles
for functional explosives, everybody panics. This scenario, and others like it, could explain
why there is so much fake gear being issued to Russian soldiers, as manufacturers were
not incentivized to make functional gear, but instead cut costs for decades
by making fake gear that simply looked real enough to allow them
to get paid for their contracts. This kind of corruption probably
explains why, over the past 15 years, Russia has only spent $3.2 billion on warships,
while Putin’s oligarchs have managed to spend just over $4.1 billion dollars on their own
personal superyachts in the same timeframe. That’s right. A few Russian rich dudes spent
almost a billion dollars more on their fleet of ships than the entire Russian navy. And this
is probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to money that has been stolen from Russia’s
military budgets and put into luxuries instead. It doesn’t even mention the less sophisticated
leaders, who simply sold their squads’ gear on the internet in order to make a quick buck,
siphoning off stockpiles of weapons one gun at a time. And the same thing goes for maintenance
contracts, where the responsible parties signed off on incomplete work, and pocketed a portion
of the money saved from not having to actually do the work, which is why Russia’s impressive army of
over 10,000 tanks is functionally almost useless. It seems that Russia has made the classic
blunder of a power that has overplayed their hand, thinking that they can allow
a series of bad decisions without ever having to pay the tab. As the Proverb
states, pride comes before the fall. While Russian oligarchs and military leaders may
have gotten momentarily rich from corruption, they are now finding themselves in a situation
where their billion dollar yachts have been seized, and their nation is being pushed back
in battle after battle due primarily to their own careless decisions and their pride that
made them believe that they were special, and that real preparation wasn’t
necessary before going to war. With his most recent invasion of Ukraine, one
could argue that Vladimir Putin has essentially made the same strategic mistake that Adolf Hitler
made in World War II. Putin’s original conquest of Crimea could be compared to Hitler’s original
blitzkrieg of Poland, where he successfully captured huge swathes of land without much of a
fight, and without much international pushback. But just as Hitler’s pride caused him to continue
his series of conquests, which ultimately led to massive international pushback and his decisive
defeat in World War II, Putin also thought he was invincible, and decided he could continue to
bite off pieces of Ukraine without consequences. He was wrong, and now it seems that Russia is
paying the price, as their military runs out of equipment, and Putin doubles down, putting
his personal pride over the fate of his nation. Russia’s strategy to project strength to
avoid war isn’t stupid - but it is stupid to start a war you can’t win because
you forgot your own military doctrine. Putin could have avoided all of this if he would
have just brushed up on some of his military history. But just because Putin failed to learn
from the past, doesn’t mean that you have to. Now, more than ever, is a good time to start or
continue your own habit of learning from others. And to do that, there’s no better place than
Audible. A lot of research and information goes into these videos, but my secret is that for years
I’ve studied by listening to books while I walk, while I’m in bed, or even while I play video
games. Audible is a great way to fill your brain with useful information without disrupting
the lifestyle you already enjoy. And by using the link in my description to access their free
trial, you can get up to 2 audio books for free, including some of the most recently published
books on Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. So if you want to keep more up to date on
current events, and learn from reputable sources, I encourage you to start your
free trial of Audible using my link, and pick out a free book on a topic you’ve
been telling yourself you want to learn more about. You won’t regret your decision. And if you
enjoyed this video, don’t forget to subscribe.
Omg this thing was an audible ad 😩
Just kidding. It’s an interesting theory on how long term corruption can affect military readiness. I do feel like the video’s creator may have over extrapolated his dissertation based off a few choice examples, references and quotes. He did summarize in general the reasons the Russian invasion is failing due to their own lack of preparedness but only from his viewpoint. There are definitely other factors that played an as-large role in Russian failure / Ukrainian success. EG the amount of western support thru supplies and intelligence was probably the biggest factor in the early days of the conflict, and was the principle counter to Russia’s original assertion that the conflict would be over in a matter of weeks. As Russia did not have any contingency for a drawn out conflict, and that being their biggest blunder, the war from that moment was no longer “winnable”. Instead we have Afghanistan 2.0 (for Russia, 3.0 worldwide) whereas Russia has no exit strategy and no competent leadership.
After Perun this sounds dumbed down. Perun has spoiled me.
I saw an analysis of these views from a Portuguese channel before. But this video is also clear and simple.
The New Potemkin Army
This video is somewhat outdated, as an example the 'aircraft carrier' has been out of commision for some time now, and recently has been declared beyond repair and will probably be scrapped soon.
Everything else is on point, the Russian military, thought to have been stronger and more capable than it is, it's equipment more capable than it is, has now been proven many times over to be nothing but a paper tiger and even that is a generous description.
Here's hoping for a full and unrecoverable demise of the Russian military and it's oligarch class that looted it for it's own gain that's ultimately blown up in their faces.
Here's hoping the same happens to oligarchs worldwide who've engaged in similar behavior.
I'm sorry but you'd have to be stupid to believe half the claims made in the first few minutes of this video. The examples of propaganda are mostly just recruiting videos, which every country I've lived in has. Hell america has that psyop thirst trap army chick on tiktok.
"Some people claim the reactive armor is just rubber" then a few tiktok videos of unconfirmed origin. "I couldn't confirm this but some soldiers are said to be using pellet guns"
This is just such blatant bullshit it's only real value is showing the gullibility of people who think propaganda is for them and we're all immune to such tactics.