© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
The Syrian campaign has exposed the myth of Russia's 'inferior' economy
The Syrian campaign has exposed the myth of Russia's 'inferior' economy
How can Russia, the country "that doesn't produce anything", whose economy is supposedly smaller than Britain's or even Spain's, and which is said to be economically on the ropes, able to conduct an air campaign in Syria?
The short — and obvious — answer is that Russia's economy is much bigger than Western political leaders and commentators imagine.
Not only would Britain or Spain be unable to mount the sort of air campaign the Russians are waging in Syria.
They cannot run a huge space programme, develop rockets like the Angara rockets, build a space centre like Vostochny, develop the Arctic, construct nuclear powered ice breakers, or feed themselves.
Nor can they build a bridge as rapidly as the one the Russians are building to Crimea.
Nor can they create alternatives to Google like Yandex, or alternatives to GPS like GLONASS, or alternatives to SWIFT like the Russians have done in just a few months.
In military production, any idea any European state can simultaneously develop fifth generation fighters like the SU T50, tanks like the Armata, submarines like the Yasen and the Borei, or missiles like the Bulava and the Yars, is sheer fantasy.
Russia does all these things, and much else.
Comment: So for those Western commentators, who want to strip Russia of the seat at the UN security council under the pretext that it is just a minor regional power, the rapidity, size and stealth of the Russian Syrian campaign has put this to shame.
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