What I Disagree About...

 ... with Mr. Bhadrakumar. In his latest he writes:

Kremlin’s hope that US support for Ukraine is on the wane seems misplaced. Curiously, spokesman Dmitry Peskov added in good measure in an interview on Friday with broadcaster NBC News that Putin would prefer an American president who is “more constructive” toward Russia and understands the “importance of the dialogue” between the two countries. Peskov added that Putin would be ready to work with “anyone who will understand that from now on, you have to be more careful with Russia and you have to take into account its concerns.” 

Well, here is where I have to strongly disagree. There is NO "hope" in Kremlin on the support waning. In fact, Kremlin doesn't operate on hopes or wishful thinking because it is not in Kremlin's nature since 2013-14 to hope for anything. The way Russia met the challenge of initially non-stop sanctions and then proceeded to demolish not just VSU but combined West's aid is this proverbial proof which is in the pudding. Tomorrow I will be talking about Mr. Lavrov's recollection of his meeting with the US political "scientists" and the discussion of the US grand "strategy", or whatever passes for it among illiterate US establishment--Russia is not hoping, she simply turned on the "turbo" mode and continues to increase military production. That is the first indicator of Russia having no hopes or, for that matter, illusions about combined West.

This, however, cannot obscure the fact that money for Kiev regime in and of itself means absolutely nothing in terms of operational realities on the battlefield, because the West headed by the US simply has no military-industrial resources to supply Kiev with any meaningful quantities of anything, let alone of required quality. And the hypothetical increase in military production cannot happen overnight--it will take years to build military-industrial base in the US (Europe is a joke militarily) and this ONLY if one considers that the US can close the technological gap with Russia in critical weapons. But it cannot--the technological gap continues to widen and it is doubtful that the US will now catch up in such critical areas as air defense, hypersonic weapons, air force technology and strategic nuclear weapons, to name a few. This is not to mention the fact that the US cannot produce main battle tank anymore and can supply only kits or older versions of Abrams tanks. So, those $61 billion will go for sustaining the political regime in Kiev and its basic governing functions, and laundering money for DNC and Biden family. 

But most importantly--no amount amount of money can buy the US a competent top brass which constantly sustains its military skills through extremely tough academic institutions and field experience with no parallels in the 21st century--SMO that is. As was stated before and I will repeat it: Shoigu and Gerasimov are not in rush because they are building and shaping the force which will define the warfare (already is doing so) for the next 30-40 years, including through introduction of C4ISR level and weaponry which now is simply out of reach of the combined West. So, Russia doesn't hope but does what any normal operational level commander does--puts oneself (and his formation) in a deliberately disadvantageous position and then plans from it. Yesterday Russia celebrated RVSN Day (the day of the strategic missile forces)--a new regiment with Avangard system has been put into service.