Putin's Huge Military Buildup Leaves Industry With Debt Hangover
- Weapons producers ‘living hand to mouth,’ top official says
- Planned government writeoff seen well below industry needs
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Vladimir Putin’s 20-trillion-ruble ($300 billion) weapons-buying binge over the last decade has brought advanced hypersonic warheads and drone submarines. It’s also left the country’s defense industry with a massive hangover of debt that officials now say is suffocating the strategic sector.
The industry “is living from hand to mouth” and doesn’t have enough money to invest in vital new technology, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told an industry conference earlier this month. “We’ve appealed to the president to clean up this loan portfolio,” which he said totals more than 2 trillion rubles, costing as much in annual payments as the entire industry earns in profits.