Ah, Interesting;-)

French Agora Vox portal yesterday came up with, rather judicious, review of Russian Armed Forces. But these were accents in this piece which caught my attention. Especially the economic part and I was trying desperately to recall where did I read this before (wink, wink). Well, Google Translate will help in finding out. 

La réussite militaire russe

Economic and R&D parts of this piece are, indeed, very interesting and timely. It is about time that this fundamental idea of military power as a main pillar, however regrettable this is, of the present global order found its way into the thinking of all those humanities "educated" policy makers in the US and NATO. This, plus a superb definition of it by USMC Captain Joshua Waddle, which must be emblazoned on every freaking wall in Ivy League (and not only) political "science" and other national security "studies" departments:

Judging military capability by the metric of defense expenditures is a false equivalency. All that matters are raw, quantifiable capabilities and measures of effectiveness. For example: a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier that can be bested by a few million dollars in the form of a swarming missile barrage or a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of rendering its flight deck unusable does not retain its dollar value in real terms. Neither does the M1A1 tank, which is defeated by $20 worth of household items and scrap metal rendered into an explosively-formed projectile. The Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization has a library full of examples like these, and that is without touching the weaponized return on investment in terms of industrial output and capability development currently being employed by our conventional adversaries.

Maybe Waddle's maxim and the study of real economy will explain the conclusion French journalists make:

En se réarmant, la Russie a pris le bon virage et elle fait désormais partie des grandes puissances du monde.

Plus, will help to avoid a global military catastrophe. Surely, a worthy objective to pursue.