"D" wrote in message
nk.net...
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In article , "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:

Well, what is really strange that Russia has enough money (due to high
oil prices) to spend on military acquisitions..

What acquisitions? They have been buying danged little in the lines of
new
equipment over the last ten years or so. In the aircraft sector, their
emphasis has been almost solely on export production; domestic work has
largely been limited to some upgrade work, and they have been having a
hard
time paying for even *that*. A 2002 study indicated that Russia was
putting
about 7.5% of the funds into aircraft development/production that they
had
committed during the Soviet era--that level of funding is not going to
stretch very far.

Where is that second large (by their standards) aircraft carrier they
built
going? India. Where are the Su-30's going? India, China, etc. So what are
these "military acquisitions" for domestic use that you speak of?

Before getting snarky, it helps to count to ten.

Notice that he said that they have enough money to _spend_ on
acquisitions,
not that they are actually acquiring anything.

Well, Mr. Snarky, the fact is that they *don't* have the money to spend--or
have you missed their gyrations with executing more and more "barter"
exchanges of late?

Brooks





D