Is America becoming Russia?

Daniel G. Jennings
Lessons from History
10 min readOct 8, 2024

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Two important stories our media ignores show how much the present-day United States resembles Vladimir Putin’s corrupt and decrepit Russian Federation.

The big stories the media ignores are the Russian military’s manpower shortage and the Pentagon’s recruiting crisis. A quick glance at the news shows the Kremlin cannot find enough soldiers to fight Putin’s war in Ukraine. The Russian army’s desperate efforts to get anybody into uniform are approaching comedic levels.

For example, Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov is offering his region’s residents a three million ruble ($31,200) enlistment bonus, The Kyiv Independent claims. In contrast, Russia’s average wage is 65,000 ($735) a month or 780,000 rubles ($8,820) a year. Thus, they need to offer Russians almost four years’ wages to enlist. I calculate it could take the average Russian four years to earn 3.12 million rubles ($32,000).

Gladkov offers that money because Russian generals are mobilizing everybody in uniform to fight. For example, the Russian Navy formed an infantry unit with sailors from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank claims. They also sent some of the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) SWAT teams into combat, even though Russian officers admit those cops lack the weapons and training to fight the Ukrainian Army.

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Daniel G. Jennings
Lessons from History

Daniel G. Jennings is a writer who lives and works in Colorado. He is a lifelong history buff who is fascinated by stocks, politics, and cryptocurrency.