Editorial: Yes the Russians can do that

Numerous people are telling you that the Russians can’t do this or that. Almost all of this is based on their own bigotry. Russian scientists and engineers are every bit as capable as western ones. Russian capitalists are just as eager to automate their factories and make big profits as western capitalist, and do. What is different is the infrastructure, resources, regulations and priorities. This changes where and what they are going to invest in, and when.

It is almost never that the Russians can’t do something. Instead, it is, is it cost effective for them to do it that way here and now, just like every other place on the planet. It was often more cost effective to import certain things, rather than to manufacture them, themselves, the same as it is more efficient for the United States and Western Europe to import certain things. But this is not the same as not being able to as so many would have you believe.

The return on investment in the western stock market was a lot higher than in the Russian industry, so until 2014, that attracted the lion’s share of Russian investors seeking to diversify. But a great many Russian businessmen got badly burned investing there, which massively changed that dynamic. For more than 10 years now, most of that investment capital has been going into building more automated factories inside Russia instead of buying western stocks, and business is booming. Some things are getting massive investment, others very little as importing is almost certain to stay the most cost effective solution. But it is never about them not being able, it is always what will it cost, and is that cost worth it to them?

But people don’t seem to understand that. Far too many don’t see them as people, making what investment that makes the most sense to them in their circumstances, but as ignorant, Russian peasants blindly doing whatever their commissar tells them to. This wasn’t true even in the Soviet Union, and is even less true today. They are just people dealing with the cards that they were dealt as best they can.

It is certainly true that their options are very different. They have an entirely different infrastructure, regulatory system and tax structure, so exactly what works here will have to be done differently there in many cases. This means doing some things, is going to cost them a lot more, and some things, are going to cost them a lot less to do. Some of it will be very profitable, others not so much.

But over and over the media and the politicians will tell you, the Russians are incompetent, inferiors that can’t have production lines unless they are getting everything from the west. They are telling you that all of this is their stockpile from the Soviet Union and from western countries, and as soon as it is gone, the Russian army and Russian economy will collapse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Military and nonmilitary production is going like gangbusters now, because it is profitable, and a Russian capitalist love profit just as much as an American capitalist. If it is profitable to build it there, then someone is looking to make that profit.

Some will never see the Russian as equals doing the best in situation that they are in and will constantly be surprised. They are the one pushing this narrative the hardest. To them Russians are inferior and say that they are just like us is “Russian Propaganda.” Because of that, they will never make an accurate prediction of what will happen next, and every plan will be based on some fantasy they have about their ability. That is dangerous, damn dangerous. And right now, they have a lot of power.

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