Russia - General Discussion.

[Sandhi Yudha]

Costs of war:

Russia is about to do the most Russia thing ever with its next space station

“Russia, meanwhile, will be left to carry on the legacy of the ISS, with all its problems.”…

arstechnica.com

That “thin gruel” bit at the very end is pretty great!


I also read that Russia lost a few spots in math and physics output, rolling down from 4th and 5th spot on the world stage in 2020 to 7 and 8, whichever was which, in 2025.


Probably belongs in this thread:

View attachment 54065

So, according to Budanov, Russia now has plans to occupy the Baltic States by 2027. So basically within the next 12 months. Really weird stuff. I am going to come back to this post in a year unless I forget (just like everyone else will, I am sure).

The strike on Poland should have logically come back in 2022-23, when significant equipment and materiel deliveries to Ukraine began. It makes no sense to strike Poland now.

Reuters posted an article citing a whole of 6 US intelligences sources saying that Russia not only wants to occupy all of Ukraine, but also other part of the continent that “belonged to the former Soviet Empire”. To note, the wording is really weird, the Soviet Empire. What belonged to it? The 15 republics (Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia itself, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgiztan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan… am I forgetting anyone?) or are we talking about them heading all the way to Berlin? Regardless, seems like a disinformation campaign and a poorly worded one.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-intelligence-indicates-putins-war-aims-ukraine-are-unchanged-2025-12-19/

A little bit remarkable article.

Before the plans to construct a whole new own spacestation from scratch, the Russian Orbital Station, the plan was to seperate the latest three Russian modules on the ISS (the Nauka Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM; the Science and Power Module, NEM; and the Prichal Node Module, UM) and restart their life as the future Russian station.

It is just weird to have suddenly the plan to reuse the oldest modules like Zarya and Zvezda.

 

[KipPotapych]

A little bit remarkable article.

Before the plans to construct a whole new own spacestation from scratch, the Russian Orbital Station, the plan was to seperate the latest three Russian modules on the ISS (the Nauka Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM; the Science and Power Module, NEM; and the Prichal Node Module, UM) and restart their life as the future Russian station.

It is just weird to have suddenly the plan to reuse the oldest modules like Zarya and Zvezda.

Just another angle of what the war costs the country. Once a leader in space in space tech, now… There is a saying in Russia that came from an excellent satirical novel called The Twelve Chairs that goes “ears from a dead donkey” is what you get. Putin used the idiom a couple of times himself, once during the border demarcation with one the Baltic States (don’t recall which one). It basically means you get squat all, especially if the expectations were different. I think this is rather perfectly fitting in this particular case. “Thin gruel” used by the author of the article is, like I already mentioned, is pretty great use of language as well

People often say that there should be no rewarding the aggressor and some such. The reality is, Russia has paid and is paying through the nose for this war. This is just one consequential example, which also greatly affects the very image Putin has been trying to restore for so many years. And it actually worked before the invasion.

While Russia does still have some world leading research branches, it has been greatly affected by the war. Be it via forced end of cooperation, access to tech, lack of funds, etc. The war has real and significant consequences for the country. I guess it should be noted that we have been affected by this end of cooperation as well, no one should fool themselves about it, but it is nothing comparable to the Russian scientific community. I may write a post on the subject at some point.

While, in spite of some suggestions/convictions, the country can function for a very long time with the current state of the economy, the trend of decline in various knowledge, tech, and money intensive industries is only going to continue on its downward trajectory, if not steepen.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Just another angle of what the war costs the country. Once a leader in space in space tech, now… There is a saying in Russia that came from an excellent satirical novel called The Twelve Chairs that goes “ears from a dead donkey” is what you get. Putin used the idiom a couple of times himself, once during the border demarcation with one the Baltic States (don’t recall which one). It basically means you get squat all, especially if the expectations were different. I think this is rather perfectly fitting in this particular case. “Thin gruel” used by the author of the article is, like I already mentioned, is pretty great use of language as well

People often say that there should be no rewarding the aggressor and some such. The reality is, Russia has paid and is paying through the nose for this war. This is just one consequential example, which also greatly affects the very image Putin has been trying to restore for so many years. And it actually worked before the invasion.

While Russia does still have some world leading research branches, it has been greatly affected by the war. Be it via forced end of cooperation, access to tech, lack of funds, etc. The war has real and significant consequences for the country. I guess it should be noted that we have been affected by this end of cooperation as well, no one should fool themselves about it, but it is nothing comparable to the Russian scientific community. I may write a post on the subject at some point.

While, in spite of some suggestions/convictions, the country can function for a very long time with the current state of the economy, the trend of decline in various knowledge, tech, and money intensive industries is only going to continue on its downward trajectory, if not steepen.

Yes, science and space exploration are often one of the first victims during long conflicts/wars.

But i also made a mistake. It seems not only the latest three Russian modules on the ISS were planned for ОПСЭК/OPSEK, but also Zvezda (2000) and Poisk (2009).

 

[Ananda]

While, in spite of some suggestions/convictions, the country can function for a very long time with the current state of the economy, the trend of decline in various knowledge, tech, and money intensive industries is only going to continue on its downward trajectory, if not steepen.

The War is costing Russia for sure, but not crashing the economy as some in West hope for when they put more and more sanctions to Russia. As for RnD in space industry, it is already on declining mode even before the war.

The war and sanctions also force Russia to invest more with RnD toward commercial airplane supply chain development. Something that Russia neglected after USSR collapse. They also invest more on semiconductor RnD and development of their manufacturing development. Something that they also neglected after Soviet collapse.

In short it will have mix results on Russia RnD development. They have to relies on domestic development on certain area, but in the cost on something else. Space is image building for Putin, but in time of survival, I guess it is something that they have to slow down. Russia has to eat their ego, and join China space development of still want to be counted as leading space nation in future.