The Admiral Kuznetsov Struck Voronezh

[music]

Russian

the aircraft carrier has finally delivered a merciless

missile strike. Unfortunately, just as we feared,

the strike hit Voronezh and

other Russian cities. No, that is actually

exactly the case. Look:

at the same time, I see news about how

the Admiral Kuznetsov spent a month sailing from its

base in the Northern Fleet toward Syria,

where Russia is waging a rather strange and

very expensive war, for reasons that are unclear.

At the same time, I am reading responses

that the administrations of Russian cities

are sending me regarding our RosYama project

(a civic project about road potholes). Users of the site across the country

are demanding repairs to horribly damaged

roads—at least in the largest cities.

Especially since, by law, these potholes

must be filled within 10 days, according to

state standards (GOST). And lately, all the mayors

have started giving us surprisingly

direct answers: we have no money. Here is a perfect

example from that same Voronezh: on one and

the same road, several potholes were found. But

despite the fact that requests had repeatedly been sent

to the administration for

funding, the response was this:

there is only enough funding for

main thoroughfares.

And at this very same time, at the very moment when

motorists in Voronezh

are wrecking their suspension on potholes

that the administration supposedly has no money to repair,

the Admiral Kuznetsov, with its two black smokestacks,

is sailing to Syria. Let us just do the math.

The vessel has a fuel reserve of 10,000 tons

of fuel oil. The distance from Severomorsk to

the Syrian coast is

5,500 nautical miles. Fuel consumption at

a speed of 14 knots—which is a normal

speed for such a voyage—is

850 liters of fuel oil per nautical mile. At the same time,

we know the ship is very old; it was built in 1991,

and only three of its four main propulsion

units are working,

so there is a very large excess

of fuel that does not burn properly. That is

exactly why we see that remarkable

black smoke. Let us make a rough

estimate based on the data

published in the media. Let us assume the power output is

around 70% of the design capacity; in reality

it is less, but let us use that figure. Then we can

assume that at its current average

speed of 10 knots, the Admiral Kuznetsov

consumes those same 850 liters of fuel oil per

nautical mile. After that, the math is simple:

850 liters multiplied by 5,400 miles.

Thus, in order to reach

Syria, it needs at least

4,590 tons of naval fuel oil. It costs

about 14,000 rubles per ton, and

that means that fuel alone for

making this round trip to

Syria costs

128 million rubles. So it turns out that the money

that is badly needed for road repairs in

the country’s major cities has somehow been

simply burned up for a trip to Syria

and back. No—if we had

money to spare, enough to conduct military

operations around the world and keep our roads

in perfect condition, then there would be no questions.

But as things stand, this is a matter

of priorities, and in this battle of priorities,

Voronezh, Rostov, and Krasnodar, for some reason,

are clearly losing to Syria. Someone will, of course,

object and say that fighting in

Syria is necessary, that it is a matter of security:

terrorists could infiltrate Russia,

there could be casualties. And do you know what I would say to that?

We have plenty of terrorists much closer to home—for example,

in the North Caucasus. There is no need

to go looking for them in Syria. And as for casualties,

sorry, but roads are more important. In Russia,

every year, 25,000 to 30,000 people die on the roads,

and the terrible condition of the road

network is one of the main causes of traffic accidents. So

investing money in roads is, once again,

sorry, 100 times more important for

national security than either Syria or

Assad. And by the way, it is not only Syria that is beating

us in the fight over budget priorities.

One of the officials’ responses, in fact,

looks downright fantastic. Look:

the city administration of Volgograd informs us that

they have no money to fill a huge

pothole because of the holding of the

FIFA World Cup.

Well, that is just wonderful. Why the hell are we

bringing the World Cup here at all, then,

and why did we include Volgograd on the list of cities

where matches would be held if

there is so little money there? We are spending billions

to build stadiums

just to throw dust in foreigners’ eyes once

and pretend to impress them, yet we have no money

to repair a road on which every day

thousands of our people wreck their

cars. Volgograd is not, after all,

some little village; it is a city of over a million

people. Not to mention that it will be

a rather strange sight: to a new

gleaming stadium, fans will be

driving over monstrous potholes. All of this

is one of the huge problems of our country and

our government: we do everything

to make foreigners

pay attention to us. Let everything here go to hell,

let it all collapse and fall apart completely, but

everyone must see: our ship is sailing to

the shores of Syria, and we do not mind spending

billions on it; we will host the World Cup

and build the most expensive

stadiums—and they really are the most

expensive in the world—and we do not care that

for another five years we will have no money for anything.

to repair roads and buy medicine for the

hospital. That’s how our oil dollars are being burned through

— fighting wars over there, holding events here,

hosting the Olympics there, the FIFA World Cup here.

And then there’s this so-called aid to foreign

states — and in the end we’re left

with nothing, or rather, in today’s

reality, staring at a huge pothole in the road

that there’s no money to fix.

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