Fear of the West forces Putin to spend record sums on armaments

According to the head of the DNI, “paranoid fear” of the West’s alleged intention to “limit Russia’s power” led Putin to decide to spend historically record amounts on armaments.

“Putin has increased defense spending to nearly seven percent of Russia’s GDP, which is nearly double the historical average,” Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to the Voice of America server. “Currently, Russia’s defense budget is about 25 percent of all federal spending,” she said.

According to her, Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine to address his fears “accelerated the events he was trying to avoid”, especially the expansion of NATO to include Finland and Sweden, which the aggression forced to abandon neutrality. But now Putin is using Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership to convince the “domestic audience” that Russia needs a stronger and more numerous army.

Haines also told a Senate committee, according to Reuters, that Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure to limit Kiev’s ability to move both troops and weapons, particularly air defense systems, slow down production of military equipment and force Ukraine’s leadership to consider negotiations.

“Putin’s increasingly aggressive tactics, such as strikes on Ukrainian energy, aim to create the impression in Ukraine that continuing the fight will only increase the damage and cannot lead to victory in any case,” said the head of DNI. “The Russians will continue this way of fighting and the war is not likely to end anytime soon,” she said.

“Right now, Russia is slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield and has the potential for tactical breakthroughs on the front lines in the areas around Donetsk and Kharkiv,” Hains said. According to her, this is caused, among other things, by the delay in American aid to Ukraine and insufficient European capacity in the production of ammunition.

“However, Russia’s gains are also largely due to Beijing’s willingness to provide Moscow with components and materials for the production of weapons and ammunition,” noted Haines.

Moscow also buys weapons, mainly drones and missiles, from Tehran, while some unmanned aerial vehicles of Iranian origin are assembled from imported parts on Russian territory. Russia then obtains its ammunition from North Korea, from 2022 to 2023 it obtained a million artillery shells from there.

Defense spending in NATO member countries

ANALYSIS: Russia is increasing the production of weapons and ammunition, but it is not enough, it lacks sophisticated weapons

The war in Ukraine