r/worldnews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 21h ago

Russia/Ukraine ‘We Were Mistaken’: Putin Admits Russia Was Unprepared for Ukrainian Strikes on Oil Refineries

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83674
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u/Zem_42 18h ago

Whose exports account for a good 30% or so of our GDP, since we have little other products competitive on the international market

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u/a_neurologist 17h ago

IIRC (and I’m probably basing this off pre-war learning and assumptions) Russia’s economy also functions off agriculture (being the world’s largest country means considerable amounts of arable land, I think they’re a major exporter of grains like corn and wheat) and “defense” (as a legacy of Soviet arms development and by virtue of being willing to sell bombs and guns to enemies of the west). I’m not sure if the latter is still supporting Russia’s economy because I think most their war-making potential is being used for their own conflict.

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u/AstralMecha 17h ago

Arms sales cratered both from their equipment looking bad in battle (which is part of the reason they refuse to use their most advanced tanks and planes) and from having fresh arms go straight to the front lines (which again, are not their most advanced and costly). They still 'technically' are selling them, just with a huge asterisk that you have no idea when they will deliver.

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u/zephalephadingong 16h ago

They do still have licensed production of some things, so that is money coming in AND the buyer getting the product. IIRC India makes their own T-90s, including local parts

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u/Anatoly_Cannoli 17h ago

other than stolichnaya, I can't name a popular product brand from russia.

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u/WoodenGur6066 16h ago

And to add insult to Russian Stolichnaya, the version produced in Russia is not for export since the global distributed one is from Latvia run by an exiled Russian businessman who the Russian government claimed was an extremist.

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u/a_neurologist 13h ago

Is Tetris a brand? Lol

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u/electricheat 15h ago

Electro-Harmonix (previously sovtek) vacuum tubes is about the only thing that comes to mind for me.