Ukraine

Ukraine War: All Balls for Russia

And no, it’s not about the ‘man-up’ media campaign in Putin’s paradise

Russia has recently been running a media campaign to encourage recruitment, apparently because Putin is reluctant to initiate another publicly embarrassing conscription round.

“You’re a man. Be a man,” touts one Russian Defence Ministry advert calling on Russians to sign up for the Motherland. There are videos too. One video features a supermarket guard, a fitness instructor and a taxi driver — all seemingly unhappy with civilian life and who are now finding fulfilment after joining the army.

The video promises a monthly salary of at least 204,000 roubles ($2,500; £2,000), four times Russia’s average. But the life expectancy is much less than average, although they don’t say that in the video.

‘Fulfilment’. What a word. Fill the meat grinder full.

But we know Russia is still conscripting anyway, with Putin having signed into law the electronic conscription bill. The bill makes it harder to avoid conscription and removes some fundamental rights guaranteed to Russian citizens under their constitution. F##k the constitution.

On the other hand, a major Russian celebration has been cancelled, according to British Intelligence.

The ‘Immortal Regiment’ has become too embarrassing due to the scale of losses Russia has sustained in Ukraine.

The Immortal Regiment is a massive civil event in major cities in Russia and around the world every 9 May during the Victory Day celebrations. It is also a public non-profit organization, created in Russia on a voluntary basis with the aim of “immortalizing” the memory of home front workers, armed forces service personnel, partisans, personnel of resistance organizations, and personnel of law enforcement and emergency services. (Wikipedia)

But it’s all balls

So apart from those aspects of history and of a man and his balls there are other balls in play. Or not, as Forbes reports.

The world revolves on balls. Ball bearings, to be exact, and that’s what this little tale is about.

According to Forbes, modern Russian tanks use French optical sights which are now embargoed under the sanctions regime. But there’s more:

… the Russian armored industry lacks not only optics — the Russians have a catastrophic lack of ball bearings, which they received from the US and Europe before introducing sanctions

So, some serious stresses are apparent in the ball bearing supply chain: Will Russia build trucks and trains, or tanks?

According to CSIS analysts:

“Historically, Russia imported most of its high-quality bearings from Western manufacturers. For example, in 2020, it imported ball bearings worth more than $419 million, about 55% of which were produced in Europe and North America,”

This is all in a comprehensive CSIS report which ‘… analyzes Russia’s supply and production of the core weapons and systems that make up its war machine, including tanks, missiles, uncrewed aerial vehicles, aircraft, and electronic warfare systems. It also looks at the key foreign components, restricted by the allied export control measures, needed to produce high-end Russian defense technology, such as optical systems, bearings, machine tools, engines, and microchips.’

Impacts

According to the United24Media channel on Telegram:

A new T-72BM3 or T-90M tank requires modern optics, and these optics usually came from France, but Paris deprived Russia of the necessary components — digital sights.

It is even more difficult for Moscow to solve the problem of ball bearings. “Uralvagonzavod” and “Omsktransmash”, as before, are at a dead end due to their lack.

UralVagonZavod is a Russian machine-building company located in Nizhny Tagil, Russia and one of the largest scientific and industrial complexes in Russia and the largest main battle tank manufacturer in the world, while Omsktransmash is a wholly state-owned engineering company based in the city of Omsk, Russia. The company was best known in the West during the Cold War period for its production of armoured vehicles such as the T-80 tank. (Wikipedia)

According to experts, the Russian military needs at least 150 new or refurbished tanks per month to maintain its advanced strength on the battlefield.

Given a choice between building fewer tanks or freezing transport infrastructure across Russia, Moscow did the smart thing and chose the former.

As a result, “Uralvagonzavod” and “Omsktransmash” ship every month only a few dozen modern tanks or restored or removed from preservation.

That is why, from a technical point of view, the Russians “travel in time” and restore old T-62s of the 1960s and old T-55s of the 1950s, which are in warehouses

From a Western perspective, this Russian dependency on Western ball bearings is a clear benefit of globalisation in the context of the Ukraine War.

Russia can replace MacDonalds with a rip-off burger chain. But ball bearings? Those factories take time to build. But maybe Putin can find his balls in China, or Iran?

And anyway, how long will it be before the Uncle Vanya burger chain can’t get the beef? No problem. Putin already has a meat grinder in operation. Fulfilment — remember that word?

Conclusion

All transport depends on ball bearings, but I’ll grant that horses and donkeys are exceptions. As long as they don’t end up in burgers.

US sanctions have seriously hampered the economy of Cuba — Cubans in southern rural areas were still using horses and carts as buses when I visited the country in 2018 (it was at Manzanillo). So, what will be long-term effects of massive global sanctions on Russia?

Putin models himself on Peter the Great and it seems that delusion might result in him running Russia as a pre-industrial state…

Burgers? Ball bearings anyone?

About me: If you follow me I guarantee variety in your inbox with some unusual perspectives! I write on a wide range of topics including humor, tech, space, geopolitics and travel, together with daily news events and the minutiae of my daily life living on a boat. Yes, I really do live on a boat (some readers don’t believe that). I also write about…

…balls in men, tanks and trains

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