Eric Zuesse
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Though the U.S. Government spends about $1.5 trillion annually for the military — around half of that being spent in the Department of ‘Defense’ — and Russia spends annually less than 5% as much on its total military costs, America’s ‘news’-media blame Russia’s alleged corruption for Russia’s alleged military failures, but do not blame America’s actual military failures upon America’s actual corruption. Here is how that happens:
The billionaire neoconservative Democrat Pierre Omidyar, who was one of the main private funders of America’s 2014 coup in Ukraine, subsequently founded The Intercept website in order to serve as a way-station to career-oblivion for progressive investigative-reporting stars such as Glenn Greenwald and Mark Ames (both of whom were then soon forced out), and now the neoconservative former New York Times reporter, James Risen, who hasn’t lost his job there, is reporting, on October 5th, that “THE CIA THOUGHT PUTIN WOULD QUICKLY CONQUER UKRAINE. WHY DID THEY GET IT SO WRONG? High-tech surveillance may have blinded the U.S. to how corruption has weakened the Russian military.”:
When Putin invaded in February, U.S. intelligence officials told the White House that Russia would win in a matter of days by quickly overwhelming the Ukrainian army, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials, who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive information. …
The U.S. intelligence community’s stunning failure at the beginning of the war to recognize the fundamental weaknesses in the Russian system mirrors its blindness to the military and economic weaknesses of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, when Washington failed to predict the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. …
U.S. intelligence did not recognize the significance of rampant corruption and incompetence in the Putin regime, particularly in both the Russian army and Moscow’s defense industries, the current and former intelligence officials said. U.S. intelligence missed the impact of corrupt insider dealing and deceit among Putin loyalists in Moscow’s defense establishment, which has left the Russian army a brittle and hollow shell.
“There was no reporting on the corruption in the Russian system,” said the former senior intelligence official. “They missed it, and ignored any evidence of it.”
No evidence was provided in Risen’s ’news’-report, except those allegations by those “current and former U.S. intelligence officials, who asked not to be named.”
If Risen’s report is news, then it is news that rhymes with five-month-old news from Yahoo News, whose finance columnist Rick Newman headlined on 1 April 2022, “Why Russia’s military is so shabby”, and he did name sources:
Western analysts obviously failed to notice many fundamental problems with Russia’s military, with many estimating before the invasion that overwhelming firepower and a deep kit of military tools would help Russia steamroll Ukraine. They had reason to believe that, however. For the last decade, Russia has increased defense spending and embarked on an aggressive modernization program, … One thing that’s extremely difficult to diagnose from a distance, though, is the cancer of corruption and inefficiency. Russia has adopted some market reforms since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but it has also become a kleptocracy with endemic graft and plodding state agencies that make America’s federal bureaucracy look like a whiz-bang startup. In Ukraine, those shortcomings may have metastasized into disaster.
“Corruption is part of the political and economic system in Russia, and what we are seeing in Ukraine is part of the explanation,” Katarzyna Zysk, a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo, tells Yahoo Finance. “The problem is there’s no accountability. We assume this continues to be part of the problem in the Russian military.”
Russia’s annual defense budget is around $62 billion — less than one-tenth what the United States spends. Even then, secret bidding for military contracts and an overcomplicated military bureaucracy leave ample room for graft. In a couple of rare admissions, Russian military leaders have estimated that 20% to 40% of Russia’s military budget is stolen. Former Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev, who now lives in the United States, said on Twitter on March 6, “the Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus.” …
Putin himself is responsible for those problems. As Russia’s leader or de facto leader for 22 years, he has fashioned the entire economy according to his liking, and probably purloined more of the nation’s wealth for himself than anyone else.
“Putin is the corrupter-in-chief,” Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, tells Yahoo Finance. “In autocratic systems like Russia, China or North Korea, it’s much easier to skim a lot of money off the top. The same thing is happening in the military. Each branch of the military gets a certain budget, and it seems to me there are chunks off the top that go for the aggrandizement of those leaders.”
Dude, I stole your army
U.S. intelligence officials have deduced that Putin’s deputies are reluctant or afraid to tell him the truth about Russia’s shoddy military and its halting war in Ukraine. That might be because those are the same people who plundered the military budget in the first place, leaving poorly equipped troops to deal with the deadly consequences on foreign turf against a determined defender. Nobody wants to tell Putin, dude, I stole your army.
If Russia is spending annually a total of “around $62 billion” on defense, then ten times that would be $.62 trillion, and 20 times it would be $1.24 trillion, which would be a bit less than America spends on it each year. So, if Russia’s military is “no accountability” and “there are chunks off the top that go for the aggrandizement of those leaders,” and “Nobody wants to tell Putin, dude, I stole your army,” then how corrupt is America’s military?
Are we to believe that the best the U.S. intelligence community can do in order to explain their long and amazing record of false ‘intelligence’ is for U.S. intelligence officials to blame it on the corruptness of Russia’s military? How stupid do they think we are? Or: ARE ‘we’, that stupid?
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Happy Friday,Eric. Thank you for this article. Do you believe what is being presented as to the amount and pervasiveness of corruption concerning the Russian military? If not, what are your estimations? What % of the U.S. military budget do you believe is misdirected into private hands?
No one has ever calculated that. My own guess would be based upon the impression that I have of the strictly military ability of U.S.-versus-Russian armed forces, including both men and materiel (weapons). Based upon a rough estimate that America has been spending about 20 times what Russia has been spending on that, I would roughly estimate that if both militaries are approximately equally corrupt, then America would have a military that is approximately 20 times more capable than Russia’s is. But I don’t think that that is the case. Their nuclear forces are approximately equal. I think that since… Read more »
Thank you, Eric. I appreciate your time and effort in answering my question. I have a great deal of respect for your knowledge and opinions. Please entertain another request and expand on “infantile myths”.
They are myths about: Who is “us”; and Who is “them”? These myths are mainly religious and/or nationalistic and/or ‘racial’, but the reality is very different. Power in society is almost invariably a reflection of how wealthy a person is, because practically every billionaire has enough wealth so as to buy whichever agents he or she needs in order to participate effectively in the control of the government. This is done via buying ‘news’-media and professorial seats and creating ‘non-profit’ foundations, so as to control public opinion enough so as to get one’s preferred politicians s’elected’ into public office, to… Read more »
Since 1988 the CIA has abandoned this speciality of Russia specialists said former CIA Russia specialist Ray McGovern.
Amazing Russia, has so much corruption, yet can “Totally” out science the Jewsa, with technology, & effective weaponry far more advanced than occupied America, Another example of Kike projection, Risen, Newman, LOL
Yea, we believe “ANYTHING” ! Ha !
What relevance is your bigoted screed? Are you implying that Pierre Omidyar is Jewish?
That was the first thing to check when I saw that name in your article, and now I would bet that piece of shit IS jewish.
(k.S.) Mohammed, ( al’Qaida’s #3 leader) at his tribunal hearing, conceded in a written statement that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaida’s council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot “from A to Z.”
That testimony was extracted after waterboarding him 183 times. He was never tried in any legal process, and is held incommunicado at Guantanamo Bay until he will die without any of the public hearing anything from him, so as to hide the U.S. regime’s crimes against him. However there is extremely solid evidence that at the head of the 911 attacks were Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud and other Sauds, plus G.W. Bush and a few others in his Administration.
Did you intentionally left the “Five dancing Israelis” out of the “who was behind the 9/11” picture, or don’t you simply just have a clue what really happened ?
When can we waterboard Omidyar to find out what he knows?
I do not believe that al-Quaida did it alone
One day you will accept that Al CIAda is the CIA.
I bought and read the Collected Speeches of Osama Bin Laden. Even though teh book-seller was displeased and actually had to go in search of the book in some box in the warehouse! Reading all those speeches convinced me that the US and Zionism did the WTC and much else besides and blamed it on the ‘other’.
Osama bin Laden denied any responsibility. Al Qaeda most likely had nothing to do that
KSA provided some patsies for the cover up story, but the planes who crashed the buildings were most likely remote controlled.
The main organizers had to be Americans. Israel provided agents to do the dirty work cause they did not trust Americans.
Oh yea . “HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUTIN”
POLITICO • Russian President Vladimir Putin was not responsible for the nationalization of the Russian centralized bank, which took place in 1917. • The Rothschild family banking business has had an office in Russia since the 1990s, but it has no oversight over the country’s currency or monetary policies, which are controlled by the Bank of Russia. • The Rothschild family long has been the target of conspiracy theories, and their wealth is believed to be responsible for inspiring the anti-Semitic trope that Jewish people “control” the world’s money. \ Jim-you continue to lie in your moronic fashion no matter… Read more »
Kicking Rothschilds, the GLOBALIST CRIMINAL JEWS out of Russia has possible been one of the greatest thing Putin has done to Russia and to Russian people. My question is, WHY THE HECK AMERICA’S BANKING SYSTEM IS 100% IN JEW’S CONTROL ? Or could there be some possibility that jews have run Americans from nose ring at least last 200 years ? Of course you all know that 70% of current WH illegitimate resident’s regime is jews, right ? Here’s just few of them: 1) Doug Emhoff (JEW), Husband of Kamala Devil Harris 2) Janet Yellin (JEW), Secretary Treasury 3) Anthony Blinken… Read more »
Laughable suggestion from the laughable CIA. Perhaps they could tell us who lost the Viet Nam war or the Korean war? Did the upright and squeaky clean americans win the Afghanistan war after 20 years with trillions spent on it?
Great American victory in Afghanistan against camel drivers celebrated with TALIBAN flag raise 2021.
Did I missed something ?
“Putin is the corrupter-in-chief,” Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, tells Yahoo Finance. “In autocratic systems like Russia, China or North Korea, it’s much easier to skim a lot of money off the top. The same thing is happening in the military. Each branch of the military gets a certain budget, and it seems to me there are chunks off the top that go for the aggrandizement of those leaders.” Shouldn’t that read: “Biden is the corrupter-in-chief,” Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic… Read more »
No doubt, second version is the correct, the real one.
The Atlantic, where the news goes to DIE!
Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and main sponsor of WEF through his Omidyar Network.
Member of WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow/1999
Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam are globalist shitheads who belongs to prison for life or even better, between the wall and firing squad, “Ready, Aim, FIRE !!”
I prefer to use the health-enhancing term ‘lead supplements’ to ‘firing squads’. It helps calm the squeamish.
In answer to how much of the US military budget is stolen, the only fair answer is “all of it.”
As the US has absolutely no need of ‘defense’ (being surrounded by two ocean-sized moats and castrated nations) a ‘Defense Budget’ and ‘Defense Spending’ is, by definition, theft, graft, grift, skimming and corruption.
At the very least, it would be up to the people involved to prove otherwise.
Thank you for your article, Eric. But be much bolder in future. Onus Reversus applies to all the activities of ALL the collective West’s regimes from now on.
Your book sounds right-on, Eric.
The contest for who can be most corrupt?