A series of disorders strikes the Russian army which is slowly nibbling away at Ukrainian territory. While the soldiers of the tricolor forces continue their advance in the Donbass, and the lands of the Kursk region taken by the Ukrainians are reduced, the morale of the Russian troops is low.
The fighting is fierce and the living conditions are harmful. Only the pay of contract soldiers, which often far exceeds the promises of Russian companies, continues to rise, attracting all kinds of profiles, including the oldest.
As autumn cools Ukraine's countryside at a rapid pace, reports studied by Euromaidan suggest that troops in the east of the country have received decommissioned and unusable body armor. Some were even reportedly forced to purchase their own basic supplies, including boots, medical kits and food – korii. noted as early as 2022 that the Russian army often had to rely on crowdfunding to fill certain sometimes basic gaps.
Uniforms delivered are substandard, expired rations are distributed, thousands of rubles are requested from future soldiers wishing to avoid conscription… A few examples in a sea of ”hiccups” which hamper the Russian effort.
An XXL military budget
As part of another article, GEO recently questioned Léo Péria-Peigné, researcher in arms and defense industry at the Center for Security Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), on the Ukrainian attacks which destroyed ammunition depots behind Russian lines in September.
Ils “appear to have been constructed in an unsuitable manner”, said the researcher. “It is not impossible that part of the funds intended to ensure their construction were embezzled.” Corruption involving weapons is also particularly widespread. Russian arms manufacturers are fighting against the misappropriation of funds intended for research, development and quality control.
Oleksiy Zagorodnyuk, an independent researcher on the Russian war economy interviewed by Euromaidan, cites the case of the Su-57 stealth fighter jet, which suffered significant delays and technical failures.
Russia invests colossal sums in defense. The 2025 budget bill, presented at the end of September, provides that military spending will represent nearly a third of federal spending, an increase of 30%.
“In 2025, budget expenditures under the national defense item are expected to amount to almost 13.5 trillion rubles [soit environ 130 milliards d’euros]”, writes the website The Bell. “This is the highest level in the entire post-Soviet history of the country,” analyzes for its part the Moscow Times and an increase of more than 70% compared to pre-war years according to Meduza.
For its part, France is still struggling to reach the 2% of GDP devoted to Defense required by NATO.
Endemic corruption
For various experts, many problems on the ground can therefore be explained by corruption, a phenomenon that Oleksiy Zagorodnyuk describes as a “Russian disease”. Russia is in fact positioned in 2023 at 141st place in the ranking established by Transparency.org.
According to him, the Russian elite often considers conflicts led by Moscow as opportunities for personal enrichment. This mindset leads to inefficiency, overconfidence and endemic corruption, which results in poor military performance, and may partly explain the total failure of Russia's planned blitzkrieg in Ukraine.
Endemic corruption has been a dominant factor in Russia's losses. The exclusive hierarchical structure of the Russian military, which reports to the head of state and is subject to little or no external control, fosters widespread corruption. — Oleksiy Zagorodnyuk
The regime has made numerous arrests of high-ranking officers since the start of the war. Corruption within the Ministry of Defense “is so widespread” that the choice of persons arrested will be guided by “internal wars”said Richard Connolly, an expert on the Russian economy and military at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
For its part, the Kremlin denied any purge campaign, ensuring that it was a classic anti-corruption operation. May's appointment of Andrey Belousov as defense minister is widely seen as an attempt at a defense audit, but many observers agree the move came too late.
Related News :