Russia to Cut Funding for Aircraft Production Amid Manufacturing Delays

The Russian government plans to reduce its spending on the production of new aircraft and helicopters by 22% due to ongoing delays and challenges in their manufacture [...]

The largest single cut, 8.5 billion rubles ($106.8 million), will affect subsidies for leasing companies and airlines meant to support the purchase and operation of aircraft.

"If there are no planes, there’s no need for compensatory subsidies," the source said.

However, only five aircraft — three Tu-214s and two Il-96-300s — have been delivered in the three years since then. [...]

He said that the real issues facing the Russian aviation industry are supply chain disruptions caused by the defense sector’s outsized demand for parts and unfinished research-and-development efforts tied to import substitution.

"No amount of money can speed that up," Khoruzhik said.

The head of Rostec warned in March that Russia will need to replace hundreds of foreign-made civil aircraft in the coming years as its fleet of Western planes reaches the end of its lifespan.

PooTin and his cronies are saber rattling again.

Chilling signs Finland could be the next country on PooTin’s hit list.

Finland is convinced the appearance of these along its border with Russia means it is next on President Vladimir PooTin’s invasion list.

Finland was once part of a Russian Empire.

By President PooTin’s self-professed standards, that means it should be again.

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years,” he proclaimed in 2022.

“He was not taking away anything. He was returning. This is how it was.”

PooTin went on to claim, “Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well” for his invasion of Ukraine.

Now, with US President Donald Trump washing his hands of his promise to negotiate peace with Moscow in his first 24 hours, and then first 200 days, President PooTin is once again thinking big.......

Finland was once part of a Russian Empire.

Russia was once part of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongol Horde customs and traditions, especially their "art of warfare" seem to have had a lasting impact on Russia.

And the Tartars took the town [of Ryazan] on December 21... They likewise killed the [Prince] and Knyaginya, and men, women and children, monks, nuns and priests, some by fire, some by the sword and violated nuns, priests' wives, good women and girls in the presence of their mothers and sisters. [from The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016–1471]

Russia Moves to Revise 2025 Budget on Lower Energy Revenues and Wider Deficit

The budget signed by President Vladimir Putin last December projected revenues at 40.3 trillion rubles ($508.5 billion) and a deficit of 1.17 trillion rubles ($14.76 billion), or 0.5% of GDP. That version allocated a record 40% of total spending to defense and national security.

Under the revised plan, revenues are now forecast to fall by 1.79 trillion rubles to 38.51 trillion rubles ($485.9 billion). The deficit is expected to rise to 3.79 trillion rubles ($47.8 billion), or 1.7% of GDP, an increase of 2.62 trillion rubles.

Russia’s first-quarter spending has already reached 11.2 trillion rubles ($141.1 billion), outpacing last year’s levels.

[...] estimates that about a third of that — 3.6 trillion rubles ($45.3 billion) — was classified, likely earmarked for defense. Russia has increasingly front-loaded military spending since 2023.

To cover the deficit, the government plans to draw 447 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which holds 2.8 trillion rubles ($36.4 billion) in liquid assets. Kremlin economists have warned that, given current trends, the fund could be depleted by 2026.

Putin will not end the war because he runs out of people to send into meat wave attacks or insufficient supply of artillery shells, but because he will run out of money.

Well the writing is on the wall, but will PooTin shoot the messenger (or push down stairs or out a window)?

Russia’s economy minister has given PooTin a brutal reality check.

Russia’s economy minister warned that the country was “on the verge” of recession, issuing the downbeat message on the second day of a forum designed to bolster economic confidence.

The Russian economy has been marked by volatility since it launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, with growth now slowing after a period of what officials called “overheating”.

Moscow reported strong economic expansion in 2023 and 2024, largely due to massive state defence spending on the conflict.

But economists have cautioned that growth driven by the defence industry is unsustainable and does not reflect a real increase in productivity.

“Overall, I think we are on the verge of a recession,” Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told journalists at a panel on the second day of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.

He said this view was based on “current business sentiment and indicators” that were pointing to a slowdown.

“Everything else depends on our decisions,” Reshetnikov said, calling for the central bank to show a “little love for the economy”.

Russia’s central bank jacked interest rates to an eye-watering high of 21 per cent last October to combat inflation and kept them at that level until earlier this month, when it eased them to 20 per cent.

Economists had warned for months that the high interest rate and a downturn in manufacturing were weighing on the economy.......

Well Poland certainly doesn't want any of PooTin's orks crossing its border.

Inside Poland’s plan to protect itself from PooTin.

As the Russian president’s war in Ukraine continues to rage, Poland is preparing to be his next target....

Well Poland certainly doesn't want any of PooTin's orks crossing its border.

Just recently Putin uttered the old Russian saying in public: Russia is where Russian soldiers once put their boots on the ground.

Well, we had large Soviet barracks in the city, not different than elsewhere... roughly one square kilometer within (0.4sqmi), a further 115 km² (44 sqmi) in the surrounding county, thousands of "Ivans", a full mechanised division (one of 21 in Eastern Germany); all 21 comprised 500K troops. There was a Soviet school for officer's children... a Soviet housing quarter, just for officers and wives (the Muzhiks (NCOs) freedom slave life was limited to the barracks)... and in the bricks near the basement of our historic water tower even today you can still read the cyrillic inscriptions (I had to learn Russian in school for six years.. as everyone else). Over many decades some Soviet soldiers carved their names, hometowns, and deployment dates into the bricks... locations from all over the vast USSR. Between 1945 and 1994 ten million Soviet soldiers put their boots on East German grounds.

So, if Putin isn't kidding, he claimed that six of 16 German states (One third of the area, a fifth to a quarter of the population) belong to Russia. I'm glad we have the Poles (and Ukrainians) between us. Poles are serious when it comes to Russian Imperialism. For decades we thought their hate for everything Russian is crazy, outright irrational. But no, they always knew Russian imperialism is alive; just held back for a short weakness period after defeat in the Cold War.

Btw. If Putin looks to justify another SMO to protect Russian speakers from oppression, he can easily argue that millions here must be able to speak Russian. And the Russian language clearly has since been erased here from public, forgotten; No, at least the dining car of our local "Pioneer railway" (a Soviet invention btw.) still bears the inscription "salonnyy vagon" (in cyrillic).

Oh, except for cyrillic inscriptions on the many gravestones in military cemetries from WW2 here. They will remain forever. We just should think about correcting the stated years this war lasted on these Soviet war memorials (1941-1945). There can't be progress in Russia until they also accept their history before 1941.