It's June 2006, the height of the Iraq War. Luckily for you, you're not an orphan in Fallujah, but just another suburbanite in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's a sleepy summer Saturday morning. As you're browsing the morning paper, your child is flipping channels. As he does so you catch half a second of a Bush speech. You'd normally never subject yourself to a Dubya speech, but this is unusual — why would the President be giving a speech at such an early hour? You tell the kid to switch back and your jaw drops.

Bush says that amid a tough and existential struggle against terrorism, a new Benedict Arnold has emerged to stab the nation in the back, to bring anarchy, fratricide, surrender and defeat. In light of that, Bush has issued orders to the DoD to deal harshly with this deadly internal threat. All who have taken up arms against the United States in this criminal and traitorous adventure consciously will answer to the people and be punished.

What the hell is going on? Civil war??? Bush mentions Blackwater and that Savannah has fallen but offers no specifics. You scramble to the internet to find out what's going on.

Turns out Blackwater is patrolling the streets of Savannah, has set up checkpoints around the city, and has even cordoned off the 4-star US Army general in the nearby Fort Stewart HQ along with his staff, effectively subjecting him to house arrest. What is more, 4000 Blackwaterites are marching up north from Savannah toward Arlington and Washington. Their stated goal is subjecting DoD chief Donald Rumsfeld to the same sort of house arrest and forcing his dismissal, but speculation is rife they're hoping their dash to the capital area destabilizes and topples Bush himself.

This might normally be called a mutiny, but seeing Blackwater is a separate organization from the US military, and a private one at that, the proper term is a coup. Like some hapless Panamanian, you now have the dubious privilege of watching the progress of a coup in motion against your national government in real-time. A coup that will determine your future, and of your country, and that you're helpless to influence. Unthinkable! What has this country sunk to?!

As you try to follow the advance of the Blackwater column on the interwebs, the news comes in. The mercenaries have shot down a US Army helicopter. And another. And another. US Army deaths are almost certain. And in an hour or two the private army will be passing through your Fayetteville.

Indeed, just as they enter your town they blow out a USAF surveillance plane out of the sky above it, as videos of the incident that hit your Facebook soon confirm. The fuckers! You aren't even that much of a support-the-troops guy, you were never for the war in the first place, you backed Howard Dean. But this is too much! Somebody is killing US military men right on US soil — and it's a fucking corporation!

You never thought you'd say this but this is one Bush war you're going to support! Dubya, go and ring Erik Prince's neck! Crush these merc killers of troops! Sure, after it’s done Bush will have to answer for allowing the situation to get so far from under him, and for getting in bed with these entitled criminals in the first place, but for now, he needs to do as promised and unleash the Pentagon against these murder yuppies!

Your first foray into backing a Bush war does not go too well. As far as you can see resistance to Blackwater consists of local mayors taking the initiative to improvise makeshift roadblocks, and Army engineers reportedly blowing up a few bridges. There are a few videos of what seems to be an aircraft targeting the Blackwater column, but it appears others were downed “preemptively” without ever firing on the mercenaries. There is talk of a “defensive line” being constructed but that is only at Washington outskirts. If after the jaw-dropping “stab in the back” speech you expected a Bush hammer to come down on Blackwater there isn't one in sight, which allows the 4000-merc column to cover 1000 km from Savannah to Virginia, coming within 300 km of the capital, mainly unopposed.

Instead, come evening, the exact opposite news hits. After the mediation of Tony Blair an agreement has been reached and Bush, the United States government, Erik Prince and Blackwater are back to being friends and back in business. Blackwater recruitment billboards that authorities had started to take down are being put right back up, and the Blackwater skyscraper in New York that was closed by the police is right back to being open again.

What the bloody hell?! After that speech on how the wartime backstabbers will face the punishment of the people? After the Blackwaterites shot up to half a dozen US aircraft, killing at least a dozen US airmen in a day?? They're going right back on the taxpayer payroll?? What kind of a godawful banana republic is this?!?

Read the rest at Anti-Empire's Substack: LINK

(It's a bunch of work to copy this to two places, time better spent researching.)

It's June 2006, the height of the Iraq War. Luckily for you, you're not an orphan in Fallujah, but just another suburbanite in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's a sleepy summer Saturday morning. As you're browsing the morning paper, your child is flipping channels. As he does so you catch half a second of a Bush speech. You'd normally never subject yourself to a Dubya speech, but this is unusual — why would the President be giving a speech at such an early hour? You tell the kid to switch back and your jaw drops.

Bush says that amid a tough and existential struggle against terrorism, a new Benedict Arnold has emerged to stab the nation in the back, to bring anarchy, fratricide, surrender and defeat. In light of that, Bush has issued orders to the DoD to deal harshly with this deadly internal threat. All who have taken up arms against the United States in this criminal and traitorous adventure consciously will answer to the people and be punished.

What the hell is going on? Civil war??? Bush mentions Blackwater and that Savannah has fallen but offers no specifics. You scramble to the internet to find out what's going on.

Turns out Blackwater is patrolling the streets of Savannah, has set up checkpoints around the city, and has even cordoned off the 4-star US Army general in the nearby Fort Stewart HQ along with his staff, effectively subjecting him to house arrest. What is more, 4000 Blackwaterites are marching up north from Savannah toward Arlington and Washington. Their stated goal is subjecting DoD chief Donald Rumsfeld to the same sort of house arrest and forcing his dismissal, but speculation is rife they're hoping their dash to the capital area destabilizes and topples Bush himself.

This might normally be called a mutiny, but seeing Blackwater is a separate organization from the US military, and a private one at that, the proper term is a coup. Like some hapless Panamanian, you now have the dubious privilege of watching the progress of a coup in motion against your national government in real-time. A coup that will determine your future, and of your country, and that you're helpless to influence. Unthinkable! What has this country sunk to?!

As you try to follow the advance of the Blackwater column on the interwebs, the news comes in. The mercenaries have shot down a US Army helicopter. And another. And another. US Army deaths are almost certain. And in an hour or two the private army will be passing through your Fayetteville.

Indeed, just as they enter your town they blow out a USAF surveillance plane out of the sky above it, as videos of the incident that hit your Facebook soon confirm. The fuckers! You aren't even that much of a support-the-troops guy, you were never for the war in the first place, you backed Howard Dean. But this is too much! Somebody is killing US military men right on US soil — and it's a fucking corporation!

You never thought you'd say this but this is one Bush war you're going to support! Dubya, go and ring Erik Prince's neck! Crush these merc killers of troops! Sure, after it’s done Bush will have to answer for allowing the situation to get so far from under him, and for getting in bed with these entitled criminals in the first place, but for now, he needs to do as promised and unleash the Pentagon against these murder yuppies!

Your first foray into backing a Bush war does not go too well. As far as you can see resistance to Blackwater consists of local mayors taking the initiative to improvise makeshift roadblocks, and Army engineers reportedly blowing up a few bridges. There are a few videos of what seems to be an aircraft targeting the Blackwater column, but it appears others were downed “preemptively” without ever firing on the mercenaries. There is talk of a “defensive line” being constructed but that is only at Washington outskirts. If after the jaw-dropping “stab in the back” speech you expected a Bush hammer to come down on Blackwater there isn't one in sight, which allows the 4000-merc column to cover 1000 km from Savannah to Virginia, coming within 300 km of the capital, mainly unopposed.

Instead, come evening, the exact opposite news hits. After the mediation of Tony Blair an agreement has been reached and Bush, the United States government, Erik Prince and Blackwater are back to being friends and back in business. Blackwater recruitment billboards that authorities had started to take down are being put right back up, and the Blackwater skyscraper in New York that was closed by the police is right back to being open again.

What the bloody hell?! After that speech on how the wartime backstabbers will face the punishment of the people? After the Blackwaterites shot up to half a dozen US aircraft, killing at least a dozen US airmen in a day?? They're going right back on the taxpayer payroll?? What kind of a godawful banana republic is this?!?

Read the rest at Anti-Empire's Substack: LINK

(It's a bunch of work to copy this to two places, time better spent researching.)

Interestingly, the US does not buy artillery shells from the corporate defense sector, but instead produces them in government-owned munitions plants. (Albeit a contractor is apparently hired to operate the taxpayer-owned plants.)

Anyhow, at the start of the war these American armories were making 14,000 155 mm artillery rounds.

After the war started the US Army invested $1.45 billion to expand the production capacity. (It is not clear to me if this money was allocated in May 2022 or December 2022. The latter seems likelier.)

The result was that by October 2023 the production had doubled to 28,000 rounds monthly.

In November 2023 the Army allocated a further $1.5 billion to invest in capacity.

And the passing of the "Ukraine aid" bill last week allocates yet another $3.1 billion to expand production.

Some of the money will go toward building an entirely new ammunition plant in Texas that will be the most automated to date.

On October 2023 Army said it was planning to be building roughly 37 thousand rounds per month by April 2024, 60 thousand by October 2024, and 100 thousand by October 2025.

Thus 18 months from now the US will be producing over 3300 rounds daily.

Some of these will go toward replenishing the partly depleted US stockpile, but I predict that as long as the war rages the majority will be going to Ukraine.

Currently Russia fires about 6000 artillery rounds daily, while the Ukrainians are back to firing just 1000. (They were firing up to 5000-6000 themselves during their attempted 2023 offensive.)

As we have seen this is a temporary state of affairs. US capacity to supply Ukraine with shells is increasing quite rapidly. The EU has been slower in ramping up, but its capacity is rising as well.

Some two years from now the Ukrainians could themselves be firing 5000 rounds daily.

By failing to knock out Ukraine quickly, Russia has granted Washington the opportunity to beef up Kiev and greatly intensify the fratricidal Slavic slaughter.

Interestingly, the US does not buy artillery shells from the corporate defense sector, but instead produces them in government-owned munitions plants. (Albeit a contractor is apparently hired to operate the taxpayer-owned plants.)

Anyhow, at the start of the war these American armories were making 14,000 155 mm artillery rounds.

After the war started the US Army invested $1.45 billion to expand the production capacity. (It is not clear to me if this money was allocated in May 2022 or December 2022. The latter seems likelier.)

The result was that by October 2023 the production had doubled to 28,000 rounds monthly.

In November 2023 the Army allocated a further $1.5 billion to invest in capacity.

And the passing of the "Ukraine aid" bill last week allocates yet another $3.1 billion to expand production.

Some of the money will go toward building an entirely new ammunition plant in Texas that will be the most automated to date.

On October 2023 Army said it was planning to be building roughly 37 thousand rounds per month by April 2024, 60 thousand by October 2024, and 100 thousand by October 2025.

Thus 18 months from now the US will be producing over 3300 rounds daily.

Some of these will go toward replenishing the partly depleted US stockpile, but I predict that as long as the war rages the majority will be going to Ukraine.

Currently Russia fires about 6000 artillery rounds daily, while the Ukrainians are back to firing just 1000. (They were firing up to 5000-6000 themselves during their attempted 2023 offensive.)

As we have seen this is a temporary state of affairs. US capacity to supply Ukraine with shells is increasing quite rapidly. The EU has been slower in ramping up, but its capacity is rising as well.

Some two years from now the Ukrainians could themselves be firing 5000 rounds daily.

By failing to knock out Ukraine quickly, Russia has granted Washington the opportunity to beef up Kiev and greatly intensify the fratricidal Slavic slaughter.

You may have heard the information that Russia's 2024 federal budget devotes 38% of spending to "National defense and national security".

Indeed, media in the West is saying the Russia is now running a "war budget". Is that true?

29% of the federal budget is indeed earmarked for the military, while 8% of it will be spent on "national security".

But what is "national security" spending in Russia?

That is spending on the Rossgvardia gendarmes, prison guards, the small foreign intelligence service, and the FSB and border guards.

So in fact this "national security" spending contributes very little to the war, and has very little to do with the war.

So in fact the share of the Russian federal budget that goes to the war is actually just 29%.

Moreover the federal budget is not equal to government spending. For example in 2023 30 trillion rubles were spent through the federal budget, and 19.5 trillion through regional budgets.

So the federal budget accounts for only about 60% of government spending. Thus Russia's defense spending for 2024 will be only 17.5 percent of government spending.

Moreover as the federal budget represents 20% of GDP, defense spending in 2024 will represent 6% of GDP.

Is 6% of GDP a lot, or a little?

Let's put it in context.

6% of GDP is what Reagan was spending in mid-1980s in peacetime. It is also two to three times less than what the Soviet Union was spending during Reagan.

So then is Russia's 2024 federal budget a "war budget"? No, it is not.

It is a substantial increase over 2023 in which just 4% of GDP went to defense, yes. But it still isn't any sort of a "war budget".

What it actually is, is the last peace budget. It devotes as much as possible to the military, but only under the constraints of neither growing government spending nor cutting into services.

Government spending will grow only minimally from some 30% to some 32% of GDP. Health and education meanwhile will receive the same amount of funding as in 2023 but due to inflation this is actually a slight decrease in real terms.

A true war budget, a true economic mobilization for the war means that government spending sharply rises as % of GDP, even as services are cut.

It also means that everyone becomes noticeably poorer as labor and industrial capacity abandon consumer goods for war goods.

The 2024 budget isn't that. It doesn't radically intervene in Russian living standards. In fact it is the opposite. It is a budget that clings to normalcy amid a war with 100,000 Russian dead, and against a bloc with 20 times the population and 25 times the economy.

By contrast SIPRI estimates that Kiev, which is actually aware it is in a war, spent 37% of GDP on it last year, and has government spending accounting for 64% of GDP. (Though some of that is enabled by foreign financial aid, mainly by the EU.)

You may have heard the information that Russia's 2024 federal budget devotes 38% of spending to "National defense and national security".

Indeed, media in the West is saying the Russia is now running a "war budget". Is that true?

29% of the federal budget is indeed earmarked for the military, while 8% of it will be spent on "national security".

But what is "national security" spending in Russia?

That is spending on the Rossgvardia gendarmes, prison guards, the small foreign intelligence service, and the FSB and border guards.

So in fact this "national security" spending contributes very little to the war, and has very little to do with the war.

So in fact the share of the Russian federal budget that goes to the war is actually just 29%.

Moreover the federal budget is not equal to government spending. For example in 2023 30 trillion rubles were spent through the federal budget, and 19.5 trillion through regional budgets.

So the federal budget accounts for only about 60% of government spending. Thus Russia's defense spending for 2024 will be only 17.5 percent of government spending.

Moreover as the federal budget represents 20% of GDP, defense spending in 2024 will represent 6% of GDP.

Is 6% of GDP a lot, or a little?

Let's put it in context.

6% of GDP is what Reagan was spending in mid-1980s in peacetime. It is also two to three times less than what the Soviet Union was spending during Reagan.

So then is Russia's 2024 federal budget a "war budget"? No, it is not.

It is a substantial increase over 2023 in which just 4% of GDP went to defense, yes. But it still isn't any sort of a "war budget".

What it actually is, is the last peace budget. It devotes as much as possible to the military, but only under the constraints of neither growing government spending nor cutting into services.

Government spending will grow only minimally from some 30% to some 32% of GDP. Health and education meanwhile will receive the same amount of funding as in 2023 but due to inflation this is actually a slight decrease in real terms.

A true war budget, a true economic mobilization for the war means that government spending sharply rises as % of GDP, even as services are cut.

It also means that everyone becomes noticeably poorer as labor and industrial capacity abandon consumer goods for war goods.

The 2024 budget isn't that. It doesn't radically intervene in Russian living standards. In fact it is the opposite. It is a budget that clings to normalcy amid a war with 100,000 Russian dead, and against a bloc with 20 times the population and 25 times the economy.

By contrast SIPRI estimates that Kiev, which is actually aware it is in a war, spent 37% of GDP on it last year, and has government spending accounting for 64% of GDP. (Though some of that is enabled by foreign financial aid, mainly by the EU.)

Alexander Sirski was born in Russia to ethnic Russian parents. When he was 15 his family moved to Kharkov in Ukraine when his father — a military man — was transferred there.

After graduating high school in Ukraine he attended a military school in Moscow. Upon graduation in 1986 he won commission to the Soviet Army and served in the Soviet War in Afghanistan.

As a Soviet officer he would have been a member of the Communist Party.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 Sirski was stationed in Kharkov in Ukraine, thus his unit passed into the Ukrainian military.

In February Sirski was appointed the overall commander of the Ukrainian military, replacing Valeri Zaluzhni.

It is said Zelensky replaced Zaluzhni because of Zaluzhni's great popularity. He was starting to be seen as someone who could easily become Ukraine's next president.

Zaluzhni had also candidly spoken about the necessity of mobilizing hundreds of thousands more, which initially shocked Zelensky.

At the start of the war until his promotion Sirski was the overall commander of the Ground Army. A post he held since 2019.

He is a veteran of the 2014-15 Donbass war, and was the overall commander of the Ukrainian forces in Donbass in 2017.

Alexander Sirski was born in Russia to ethnic Russian parents. When he was 15 his family moved to Kharkov in Ukraine when his father — a military man — was transferred there.

After graduating high school in Ukraine he attended a military school in Moscow. Upon graduation in 1986 he won commission to the Soviet Army and served in the Soviet War in Afghanistan.

As a Soviet officer he would have been a member of the Communist Party.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 Sirski was stationed in Kharkov in Ukraine, thus his unit passed into the Ukrainian military.

In February Sirski was appointed the overall commander of the Ukrainian military, replacing Valeri Zaluzhni.

It is said Zelensky replaced Zaluzhni because of Zaluzhni's great popularity. He was starting to be seen as someone who could easily become Ukraine's next president.

Zaluzhni had also candidly spoken about the necessity of mobilizing hundreds of thousands more, which initially shocked Zelensky.

At the start of the war until his promotion Sirski was the overall commander of the Ground Army. A post he held since 2019.

He is a veteran of the 2014-15 Donbass war, and was the overall commander of the Ukrainian forces in Donbass in 2017.

Intensifying Ukrainian drone attacks are forcing Russian companies to find ways to protect their own plants and factories instead of relying on the military, providing an unexpected boost to radar and warfare-equipment producers.

Tender data show that demand for private systems to repel unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, has quadrupled over the past year. At the same time, Russia has managed to at least double output of this sort of equipment since the start of the war, Bloomberg Economics estimates.

“Russia will likely be able to make its refineries and other high-value structures less vulnerable to drone strikes over the coming quarters,” said Russia economist Alex Isakov, of Bloomberg Economics. Much of the ramp up has happened over a period of relatively mild enforcement of trade sanctions, including around the transshipment of electronic components, he added.

Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion has entered a new phase with Kyiv increasingly using homegrown drone technology against some of the country’s most important manufacturers. Russian oil refineries have been hit hardest as Ukraine seeks to cut fuel supplies to the Kremlin’s armed forces and the flow of petrodollars into Russia’s coffers.

Russia was discussing the deployment of military-grade defenses at oil plants, but nothing has been publicly announced yet, though officials have said they’re working with industry to protect these sites. Ukraine has also struck some metals industry facilities, and earlier this month hit a refinery in the Tatarstan region, far from the border with Ukraine.

As the war increasingly spills into Russian territory, private companies are fueling demand for special electronic warfare systems. According to one local electronic procurement platform, Tenderpro, which says it is used by more than 300,000 Russian companies, about a third of all tenders for anti-UAV systems were carried out by oil and gas enterprises. Industrial and mining companies account for 28% and 10% of cases, respectively.

The war has led to “explosive growth” in the electronic warfare market, and production has not yet kept pace with demand, said Andrey Klyuev, chief executive officer of local radar-equipment producer Umirs. “The threat is growing much faster than the manufacturers can handle,” he said, speaking at a conference on anti-UAV technologies in Moscow.

Still, the production of radars and radio remote-control equipment — the statistical category in which anti-drone systems fall — is starting the year with strong momentum. Output increased two-fold in February compared with the same period in 2023, according to the latest Federal Statistics Service data, the second month in a row of skyrocketing growth.

Electronic warfare equipment isn’t invincible against drone attacks, but can significantly limit damage. Those defenses thwarted a strike on the Slavneft plant in Yaroslavl, the sixth largest oil refinery in Russia, which purchased its protective systems from a Rostec State Corp subsidiary. At the same time, the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery was attacked by drones that were downed by electronic warfare systems, resulting in debris falling onto the property.

Both the Syzran Refinery and the Novokuybyshevsk Refinery, purchased anti-UAV systems in the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, according to tender data, analyzed by Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg calculations based on data from available government procurement portals, state-owned companies and government agencies spent at least 1.7 billion rubles ($18.4 million) on electronic security last year. Most of that spending was to protect utilities and energy infrastructure, including a nuclear power plant 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

It’s nearly impossible to estimate how much money Russian corporations have spent on anti-drone protection based on public data, because the procurement announcements are published on various platforms, and Russian authorities allow companies that are targeted by international sanctions to classify their procurement data. According to Tenderpro, the largest single anti-drone equipment purchase amounted to 45 million rubles, while 36% of companies purchase expensive stationary and mobile systems costing more than 1 million rubles ($10,845).

Apart from expensive electronics, companies have also been compelled to invest in constructing physical barriers, strengthening existing structures and insuring themselves against damage. Tenderpro has seen a threefold increase in interest for insuring against drone damage, according to Elena Astafieva, the Moscow-based platform’s commercial director.

Source: Bloomberg

Intensifying Ukrainian drone attacks are forcing Russian companies to find ways to protect their own plants and factories instead of relying on the military, providing an unexpected boost to radar and warfare-equipment producers.

Tender data show that demand for private systems to repel unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, has quadrupled over the past year. At the same time, Russia has managed to at least double output of this sort of equipment since the start of the war, Bloomberg Economics estimates.

“Russia will likely be able to make its refineries and other high-value structures less vulnerable to drone strikes over the coming quarters,” said Russia economist Alex Isakov, of Bloomberg Economics. Much of the ramp up has happened over a period of relatively mild enforcement of trade sanctions, including around the transshipment of electronic components, he added.

Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion has entered a new phase with Kyiv increasingly using homegrown drone technology against some of the country’s most important manufacturers. Russian oil refineries have been hit hardest as Ukraine seeks to cut fuel supplies to the Kremlin’s armed forces and the flow of petrodollars into Russia’s coffers.

Russia was discussing the deployment of military-grade defenses at oil plants, but nothing has been publicly announced yet, though officials have said they’re working with industry to protect these sites. Ukraine has also struck some metals industry facilities, and earlier this month hit a refinery in the Tatarstan region, far from the border with Ukraine.

As the war increasingly spills into Russian territory, private companies are fueling demand for special electronic warfare systems. According to one local electronic procurement platform, Tenderpro, which says it is used by more than 300,000 Russian companies, about a third of all tenders for anti-UAV systems were carried out by oil and gas enterprises. Industrial and mining companies account for 28% and 10% of cases, respectively.

The war has led to “explosive growth” in the electronic warfare market, and production has not yet kept pace with demand, said Andrey Klyuev, chief executive officer of local radar-equipment producer Umirs. “The threat is growing much faster than the manufacturers can handle,” he said, speaking at a conference on anti-UAV technologies in Moscow.

Still, the production of radars and radio remote-control equipment — the statistical category in which anti-drone systems fall — is starting the year with strong momentum. Output increased two-fold in February compared with the same period in 2023, according to the latest Federal Statistics Service data, the second month in a row of skyrocketing growth.

Electronic warfare equipment isn’t invincible against drone attacks, but can significantly limit damage. Those defenses thwarted a strike on the Slavneft plant in Yaroslavl, the sixth largest oil refinery in Russia, which purchased its protective systems from a Rostec State Corp subsidiary. At the same time, the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery was attacked by drones that were downed by electronic warfare systems, resulting in debris falling onto the property.

Both the Syzran Refinery and the Novokuybyshevsk Refinery, purchased anti-UAV systems in the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, according to tender data, analyzed by Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg calculations based on data from available government procurement portals, state-owned companies and government agencies spent at least 1.7 billion rubles ($18.4 million) on electronic security last year. Most of that spending was to protect utilities and energy infrastructure, including a nuclear power plant 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

It’s nearly impossible to estimate how much money Russian corporations have spent on anti-drone protection based on public data, because the procurement announcements are published on various platforms, and Russian authorities allow companies that are targeted by international sanctions to classify their procurement data. According to Tenderpro, the largest single anti-drone equipment purchase amounted to 45 million rubles, while 36% of companies purchase expensive stationary and mobile systems costing more than 1 million rubles ($10,845).

Apart from expensive electronics, companies have also been compelled to invest in constructing physical barriers, strengthening existing structures and insuring themselves against damage. Tenderpro has seen a threefold increase in interest for insuring against drone damage, according to Elena Astafieva, the Moscow-based platform’s commercial director.

Source: Bloomberg