Russia is stealing Western military technology: expert recalls what Putin said back in 2019

The aggressor country Russia, despite Western economic sanctions, has the ability to modernize its own weapons. This is mainly due to copying samples of Western weapons.

This opinion was expressed by Mykola Sunhurovskyi, director of military programs at the Razumkov Center and military expert, in an exclusive interview with OBOZ.UA. "The fact that Russia is able to modernize its weapons, in particular missiles, is a consequence of the fact that this country, despite numerous sanctions, is not completely isolated from the supply of the components it needs," he said.

The expert said that he is skeptical about the Russian military-industrial complex's own developments. "In most cases, they are copied from Western models," he assured.

In this context, Sunhurovskyi recalled a phrase Putin said in 2019, "We'll wait until the Americans spend money on new technologies, and then tsap-tsarap (hinting at stealing)."

"It is on the basis of such stolen technologies that Russian ones are being developed," the expert said.

He added that due to the enormous amount of destroyed energy infrastructure, Ukraine's domestic defense industry is in a difficult situation as it is critically dependent on electricity. At the same time, the expert is convinced that there are other options for establishing mass production of modern weapons in Ukraine, including at enterprises located abroad.