7 thoughts on “Russian Military Research”

  1. Isn’t NASA also involved with Skolkovo?

    Russia is our enemy, except when it’s time to extend the International Space Station program?

  2. AFAIK this is one of Putin’s supposed jewels of the crown. It was supposed to be kind of like the Special Economic Zones in China (e.g. Shenzhen). Yes it is supposed to be used as a vehicle to introduce high tech industries in Russia. AFAIK it was funded with oil money in order to create enterprises that would lead to Russian exports at a future time – when oil ceased to be a driver of the economy. It was probably expected to be led by civilian exports at one point but as we all well know the main Russian high-tech exports have, for a long time, been weapons exports. Remember the talk about swords to plowshares and how they could turn the tank factories into tractor factories? It never happened. Russians still sell tanks and buy tractors. So it is hardly surprising the defense industry is getting mixed up in it. Last I heard this Russian SEZ was mostly a failure.

    I don’t know why you are surprised though. It’s not like there aren’t any defense related enterprises in California. To a certain degree Fairchild Semiconductor started Silicon Valley. I think Rocketdyne also located in California until not so long ago.

    Russia has had a pretty decent hypersonic industry for quite some time. The Russians export a lot of ramjet cruise missile technology (e.g. BrahMos) and they have had hypersonic air to surface missiles (e.g. Kh-22 on the Tu-22M).

    As for the Clinton campaign getting campaign funds by 60% of the US companies in the SEZ… I would not be surprised if those same companies funded the last Republican candidate roughly in the same percentage.

      1. The links in the article point to companies like Cisco being there. What’s that exactly got to do with weapons technology? They make routers and things like that. If Cisco didn’t go there, Huawei would go there. Intel seems more iffy. But AFAIK Intel investments in Russia have been to develop software, like compilers, not chips. The guy at the SuperOX “nuclear-research cluster” which allegedly financed her does super-conductors. That could actually have all sorts of basic military applications and the US is a world leader in it. But there’s no evidence of a technology leak.

        There’s someone doing hypersonic engine development in the same economic zone. So what? If you want a smoking gun look at leaks which actually happened like the helicopter engine leaks to China at Pratt & Whitney.

  3. They used to call it treason. If we ever do get into a shooting match with any foreign country (Russia was small stuff for the Clintons) they may call it that again.

  4. One can’t get a security clearance if there is any chance one can be blackmailed by a foreign country. James Comey, coward though he is, made it clear that she could be blackmailed by Russia. The DNC has been feverishly blasting out the “fact” that the Russians hacked the DNC server, to distract from the fact that whoever did it is irrelevant; the truths disclosed show that Hillary stole the nomination.

    What she doesn’t seem to be connecting is the fact that, by insisting that the Russians hacked the DNC, Hillary is now openly admitting that she is vulnerable to blackmail by Russia. By any rational standard, she has to be denied a security clearance, and no POTUS can be without one.

    1. by insisting that the Russians hacked the DNC, Hillary is now openly admitting that she is vulnerable to blackmail by Russia.

      That is true but the Democrat controlled media isn’t reporting it that way.

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