How much does a military tank cost? guns and butter m

MK: Comparing military power and spending is a difficult task. MT: Can you elaborate on that China-Russia comparison? Arguably the only Russian institution that has been successfully reformed in recent years and come out the better for it has been the military. Russia’s military reform and modernization on the whole have been successful in restoring the armed forces as a useful instrument of national power. Russia’s military reforms preceded China’s reforms by quite some time. On the military front, Russia, as a country that has gone through transformative military reforms and modernization, is definitely the leader and China is more the understudy. On the political front, Russia feels like a China understudy. It has in effect committed to a stable, prolonged stagnation. However, the ruling regime seems to have no ability and no desire to conduct major reforms. It seems the Russian state understands how to create a stable macroeconomic picture, conduct long-term investment in defense modernization and defense planning, and have a reasonably good hedging strategy against an uncertain future. The issue of guns and butter is interesting. Michael Kofman: There are by definition few powers comparable to Russia. How does this behavior compare to that of other big nations? It does seem as though the choice between guns and butter has been decided in favor of guns. Maxim Trudolyubov: Against the background of the Kremlin’s stellar macroeconomic performance, Russian citizens are not doing particularly well: real incomes have been falling for five years now. In a conversation with Michael Kofman, a senior research scientist at CNA, we discuss how far-reaching those reforms were, what they tell us about Russia’s world strategy, and how Russia’s prospects in international politics compare to those of the Soviet Union. While Moscow is contemplating stimulus measures for Russia’s stagnating economy, we are looking at Russia’s other success story, its military reforms and modernization program. Russia’s international foreign exchange reserves are at $530 billion. Seeing debt as a dependency, the Kremlin has driven Russia’s net public debt - that is, external debt plus all kinds of domestic debt - to zero. In response to sanctions and attempts to isolate Russia, the Kremlin has built up a budget with a very comfortable surplus (3.7% of GDP).

How much does a military tank cost? guns and butter m