• @[email protected]
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    25210 months ago

    Russia went from being the second best military in the world, to being the second best militarily in Ukraine, to being the second best military in Russia.

    • aname
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      6010 months ago

      Russia turned out to be world’s best paper tiger

      • @[email protected]
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        1710 months ago

        That’s probably still China, lots of money invested but their actual combat movements look horrific. Their special forces are legit very good though.

        • @[email protected]
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          9 months ago

          A billion people and the largest basic manufacturing capability full stop scares the bejesus out of me, I don’t care if they can’t march straight.

          I also have no reason to expect they’re anywhere near as incompetent. Probably just normal dictatorship levels.

          • @[email protected]
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            39 months ago

            Yeah they don’t need a big military. They can just call in debt or flip off the manufacturing switch that supplies the rest of the world and they’ve already mostly won.

            • @[email protected]
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              9 months ago

              I really hope we in the West wouldn’t just fold the moment “ABBEXA childrens plastic bucket fun water toy for family” gets cut off, but the thing about civilian manufacturing is that it can be converted to military manufacturing. One moment it’s making buckets, the next it’s making covers for mines. And, the sector isn’t even bad quality anymore; it’s not as good as CNC nerds in Germany, but their stuff will work at a basic level and arrive on schedule. Meanwhile, the need to supply Ukraine has exposed that our own manufacturing, while advanced and awesome, doesn’t scale very easily.

              It’s all a bit academic because of MAD, but the main reason I think we’d have a shot in a conventional war is that the professionals seem to think we’d have a shot.

          • @[email protected]
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            410 months ago

            Nah I have issue with having a well prepared military, I have an issue with finding excuses to use it.

      • Natanael
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        49 months ago

        Wagner is only as independent as Putin allows

        • @[email protected]
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          69 months ago

          Yeah, didn’t they fold it up entirely over that whole “tried to overthrow the government” thing?