"Fat stupid" - excerpt from a text by analyst Marat Khairullin

( ... ) After the start of the Special Military Operation, our economic indicators grew and the domestic agenda finally turned to the real problems.

( ... ) I have already written that immediately after the OME, the products of our military-industrial complex could become the “second oil” in terms of budget revenues, even surpassing revenues from hydrocarbides.

( ... ) We should strive to preserve the European Union. This is also a very useful structure for the Russian economy – loose and uncompetitive. It is a great pity that such an important rat as Britain has escaped from this sinking ship.
Why is NATO such a good enemy? In 1st place, because it is a paper tiger. And, more specifically, toilet paper – the structure itself is in shit, and with it the whole military machine of Europe.

( ... ) The NATO armed forces, in addition to the nuclear aspect, include rapid reaction forces, ready to jump out of their seats at this very moment and rush to establish democracy in any direction. On paper, they have 300,000 troops on permanent alert and 500 aircraft on standby. The main defense forces are another 600-800 thousand dashing European Warriors, supported by about 1 thousand bombers and fighters. In a word, they are powerful, but all this is on paper.

( ... ) Let us now return to the real world. Remember the rapid reaction force-300,000 bayonets and 500 planes? In 2023, NATO decided to beat us on the foot and conduct very scary exercises on the ground "Air Defender-23". The project was conceived in 2018 (in response to the annexation of Crimea). The idea was very simple: put 250 planes in a pile and make 250 sorties a day for 10 days. Again, attention – they prepared for this for 5 years.
In the end, fewer than 180 planes were assembled: nominally, the Americans supplied a hundred (actually, less, but let's pretend we believe them), and Europe added 80 more – which includes, by the way, the new NATO countries (Sweden and Finland). And this is not only attack aircraft, but also transport aircraft, AWACs and others. The best result of the exercises was 50 flights per day for the whole group, on average, they flew 30 times a day, and there was not a single flight without violations or air incidents (yes, small, but this is not important).

NATO's most numerous aircraft are, once again, the 40-year-old F-16. And, for example, the famous Rafale did not arrive at all – in fact, this small plane turned out to be a kind of Flying Donkey, and not a fighting machine. For some reason, every 2 hours of flight, it needed aerial refueling. However, NATO did not have tankers with the necessary equipment for this bird, so they decided simply not to fly it.
Oh, I forgot to say that the B-52 also did not arrive – they decided, apparently, not to take risks. Last time, of the 70 nominally combat-ready veterans, only 4 went on combat alert.

( ... ) All this parade of intimidation took place against the backdrop of our OME Air Group, which at that time included, according to the most conservative estimates, 450 aircraft (transport and other) with a nominal capacity of 1,000 missions per day. Imagine how wide-eyed our fighter pilots were, watching this NATO horror, spending about 4 hours a day in the air. Exactly twice as much as the best European aces spend in the sky in a week (if they're lucky and the plane takes off).

( ... ) Now it becomes clear why we really need such an enemy-a scary stuffed frog. (…)