Russian Spending on Global Leadership

"Russian Spending on Global Leadership": Why so many of the common Russian people, especially of the vast numbers of the elderly rural population, are so hopeless & poor and neglected

 From: Dan Everiss

Sent: Monday, February 1, 2021 2:59 PM

Subject: Shocking Revelations: "Russian Spending on Global Leadership": Why so many of the common Russian people, especially of the elderly rural population, are so poor and neglected

http://internetsobor.org/index.php/tserkov-i-mir/obshchestvo/traty-rf-na-globalnoe-liderstvo

Russian spending on global leadership

Author: Internet Cathedral. Date of publication:January 29, 2021... Category: Society .

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Greatness tax

How the Kremlin spent 46 trillion rubles in 20 years on geopolitical special operations

Anna titova

The last 20 years have been a period of major geopolitical projects for Russia. There is a simple explanation for this: the more expensive the main export resource - oil, the higher the degree of foreign policy adventurism of the raw material power. This rule was in effect during the Soviet era and, according  to  analysts at Bank of America, continues to operate today. 

But in recent years, the flow of petrodollars to the budget has noticeably dried up.

Experts agree that the peak of oil consumption has passed, and the "fat" times will never return. Perhaps the era of Kremlin geopolitics is also coming to an end? 

Novaya has calculated how much money the authorities have spent on helping friendly regimes and political megaprojects abroad over the past 20 years. The amount turned out to be impressive:  $ 609 billion  (almost 46 trillion rubles). 

This money could be used to build 15,000 new hospitals in the country or to deposit 400,000 rubles into the savings account of every adult citizen of Russia. But instead, the oil rent leaked abroad: about $ 1 trillion was parked  offshore , and the authorities spent another $ 609 billion on foreign policy, which brought international sanctions on the country and practically deprived the real allies. 

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The largest expenditure item from the geopolitical package is support for political regimes loyal to the Kremlin:  $ 271 billion. 

For example, over 20 years of union with Belarus, various  assistance to the  country cost Russian taxpayers more than  $ 109 billion . About $ 100 billion of this amount are fuel discounts provided to Minsk. Another $ 9 billion is government loans. Recently, Alexander Lukashenko touchingly  called  Vladimir Putin "his only friend." Total: more than $ 5 billion for a year of "friendship". 

In second place is Ukraine: more than $ 100 billion was spent on discounts, hidden subsidies and state loans until 2014  ,  according  to  the Russian authorities themselves. Experts could not confirm the adequacy of these figures to Novaya Gazeta, however, it is not possible to make more accurate calculations due to the closed nature of the data. 

In addition, Russia annually spends money to support the unrecognized republics: "DPR", "LPR", Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The volume of aid over the past 5 years, according to our estimates, could have name to  $ 32 billion.  This includes pensions to residents, free electricity for businesses and other expenses. “Almost everything is delivered there free of charge - at the expense of Russian taxpayers,” says Mikhail Krutikhin, partner of RusEnergy. 

 

Not all recipients of the Kremlin's aid are located in the post-Soviet space. Thus, the amount of Kremlin support for the Venezuelan authorities has exceeded  $ 20 billion  over the past 10 years. The greatest assistance was provided by Rosneft, which  allocated  $ 17 billion to the Maduro regime for various needs. Venezuela officially owes Russia another $ 3.15 billion. Some of this money was returned, in particular, through  secret  oil supplies, bypassing American sanctions.

Another famous geopolitical investment of Moscow is Syria. Injections into this country could amount to  $ 4.72 billion . The war on the side of Bashar al-Assad from 2015 to 2018,  according to the estimates of the  analytical center of the Yabloko party, cost Russia  $ 3.2 billion . Experts note that in reality the operation could have cost 1.5 times more, because the total amount does not include many unknown quantities, such as the cost of long-range aviation flights, the transfer of troops, training of local military personnel, and so on ... The  $ 1 billion  is estimated Russian assistance aimed at rebuilding the country in pandemiyny 2020 th, and another  $ 500 million  from 2019 to 2023, our country should invest in the modernization of the Syrian port, where the Russian naval base is located. 

HOW THE KREMLIN HELPS THE NEIGHBORS 

The most familiar way for Russia to support loyal regimes is subsidies for oil and gas. “Belarus receives Russian gas at a price of about $ 130 per thousand cubic meters. Apart from 2020, when prices collapsed in Europe, the discount ranged from 35 to 50% to the level of the average price of Russian gas in Europe, ”explains Aleksey Grivach, Deputy Director General of the National Energy Security Fund. Belarus receives oil without export duties, saving $ 1.5–2 billion a year. 

About the same, until 2014, assistance was provided to Ukraine. In just 5 years, the volume of support could have reached $ 39 billion: $ 17 billion in  discounts on gas supplies, $ 18.5 billion in unpaid fines for not collecting the minimum amount of gas and in  debt  on loans of $ 3 billion. 

The relatively small volume of the national debt (compared with the Belarusian one) can be explained by the fact that Russia paid off Ukraine's gas debts by leasing several bays in Feodosia and Sevastopol to accommodate the Black Sea fleet. 

It is not known exactly how much the war in eastern Ukraine cost Russia. We do not even have approximate data on the number of servicemen and the amount of their daily salaries, because officially there were no Russian military on the territory of the “LPR” and “DPR”. In addition, to assess military spending, you need to know at least the internal prices of the Ministry of Defense for food, fuels and lubricants, ammunition, and inventory, says military expert Alexander Golts. All these data appear in closed sources.

According to  Stratfor , the cost of the unrecognized republics is about $ 5 billion annually. The country has allocated $ 2.8 billion for regular payments to pensioners alone for the entire period of subsidies: $ 1.6 billion - to South Ossetia and Abkhazia,  $ 1.2 billion   - to Transnistria. Russia gave almost another $ 7 billion for gas supplied by Gazprom to Transnistria free of charge  since 2006.

In a separate category, we identified the costs of large energy projects, which to  $ 224 billion . The construction of the Power of Siberia, Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream gas pipelines by state-owned Gazprom alone could have  cost  $ 133.4 billion. Analysts believe that these projects are unlikely to pay off, since they are politically motivated, and huge funds for their implementation go primarily into the pocket of contractors. 

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 Mikhail Krutikhin adheres to a similar opinion  : “The meaning of the scheme is this: Gazprom starts sometimes politicized, sometimes not very, but absolutely unnecessary non-commercial gas pipeline projects, and then distributes construction contracts between so-called friendly companies. They monstrously overestimate their estimates and budget and get super profits from this. " 

Another area in which Russia is trying to realize its political ambitions is nuclear energy. For the construction of  21 power units  abroad, for which contracts have already been signed, the state allocated $ 92 billion to Rosatom  . 

Nuclear power plants are usually built in countries that cannot afford to build them on their own. And not a single bank will lend them money - they will not be able to pay. A striking example is the construction of the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey, for which the corporation has been unsuccessfully trying to  find an investor for  more than two years. Therefore, most often the project is paid for with Russian export loans at a low interest rate or even with  funds  from the NWF. 

“Russian export loans are fundamentally different from export loans from other countries,” says Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the Russian environmental group Ekozashchita. - In any Western country, a loan never covers the full cost of a project, only a small part, and companies have to look for the rest from individuals, investors, banks. With us, export credits can cover up to 90% of the cost. Where there is a political component, there is no need to wait for profit ”.

Russia not only generously distributes energy subsidies, builds nuclear power plants and pipelines around the world, gives loans to other countries, but also has a habit of writing off past obligations.

The last category in our ranking - forgiven debts to other countries - totals  $ 116 billion . Among them, $ 20 billion -  to African countries  (mainly for the purchase of weapons) and a record $ 31.7 billion - to  Cuba . Most of this money is still Soviet assets. To have claims for these debts, Russia had to join the Paris Club, recognize and regularly pay  off the debts of the former USSR . 

And while this money could hardly be returned in full, the ease with which the Russian authorities finance megaprojects abroad (as well as their excess consumption within the country) is becoming less and less justified in the eyes of most Russians.

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Tags: society , globalism , russian federation

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# RE: Russian spending on global leadership - Metropolitan Agafangel 01/29/2021 08:19

Here we are talking only about the expenses of the Russian Federation for international support of the ruling regime in the Kremlin, but nothing is said about the financing of globalist projects, such as, for example, the Russian World. There are no expenses here for the Moscow Patriarchate (and they are considerable) and other confessions (even the Old Believers, as it turned out, have long been fed by the Kremlin). There are no expenses for the maintenance of "fraternal parties" and public organizations (including Masonic lodges). Many other expenditures aimed at the Kremlin's globalist plans are also not indicated . This is all that the poor and hungry people in the Russian Federation receive less.