The EU alone has more expenses for military then Russia annually
This is often spread, but highly debatable. Russia is in war economy mode and economic numbers published are highly flawed. The Russian government is the only one “customer” buying Russian weaponry in large numbers. Which leads to the aspect, that the military budget of the EU needs to be divided by 27 countries, 4 different aviation systems*, 17 different tanks* and so on. The EU is an economic union, not a military one. Russia on the other side has only very few but centralized weapon systems it needs to support. Comparing the raw numbers of the military budgets does not make sense at all.
If western influence grows, Russia pushes back, no matter if ethical or not.
Countries decide to be democracies and they decide they want to be part of a defense union because they are afraid of their imperialist neighbor in the east. Speaking of western vs Russian influence spheres just feeds the Russian propaganda machine in my opinion.
*I made the numbers the fuck up, but the point still holds
This is often spread, but highly debatable. Russia is in war economy mode and economic numbers published are highly flawed. The Russian government is the only one “customer” buying Russian weaponry in large numbers. Which leads to the aspect, that the military budget of the EU needs to be divided by 27 countries, 4 different aviation systems*, 17 different tanks* and so on. The EU is an economic union, not a military one. Russia on the other side has only very few but centralized weapon systems it needs to support. Comparing the raw numbers of the military budgets does not make sense at all.
Countries decide to be democracies and they decide they want to be part of a defense union because they are afraid of their imperialist neighbor in the east. Speaking of western vs Russian influence spheres just feeds the Russian propaganda machine in my opinion.
*I made the numbers the fuck up, but the point still holds