Anyone know why exactly all the reasons the Russian mass production isn't as good as it was from the Soviet era?
Like Modern Russia doesn't even seem to be half as good as producing large quantity stuff as Soviet did.
Soviet Union had a lot of its higher tech stuff made in other WP\Soviet parts and bought at voodoo economics prices. Particularly Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Ukraine.
Now they don't have these industrial bases and had to try recreate them locally with... limited success.
Secondly, it's not the 80's anymore. Soviets were backwards in electronics at the end, and the gap only grew for Russia. That gave Russian MIC a choice - stick to old, increasingly obsolete sensors, computer chips, radios etc. that are made domestically, or buy components or full devices from other, not backwards countries (see: French thermals, German optics, massive impact of Taiwan chip sanctions) that are now not available, switching to what manufacturing capability is left for old stuff, or China's export grade equivalents if lucky.
As no one was willing to pay for large factories of the old stuff to stay open and keep people employed (there was no one to buy vast majority their production after all), most were liquidated or massively downscaled over the decades.
They can try rebuilding some of that now, but that raises the question, what are they going to do with all the crappy stuff few years from now after the war, who's going to want it, so is it worth it? Will it even be ready before the war is over?
So if they remained isolationist they would have been stronger in the long term?
I think the term is "open air prison". It's the same way North Korea can do what it does, and Cuba has its mythical "cheap *and* good" healthcare for tourists. Why pay the smartest people in the country world rates, when you can ban them from leaving and pay them just a somewhat better than the local third world working class and just not allow them to leave to get paid better anywhere else.
True, but ... that was a quarter of a century or more ago.
Russia had 30+ years to rebuild design beauros and manufacturing capacity.
It seems that losses due to rot under Yeltsin were not regained under Putin?
It had no use for it, capability and nor funding to get the capability, especially after the local corruption had its way with the budget.
