Yup. I have a recollection of Putin recently admitting that the Russian economy was somewhere south of Portugal’s (sorry, no citation). Portugal is not a booming economy.
Okay, DJ, so you’re saying that you’re convinced that the Russian have more satellites, and nicer ones, than they say they do? That they’re just poor-mouthing themselves?
Or are you saying that they’ve got $10 billion socked away somewhere that they’re deliberately not spending on new satellites?
If #1–why would they want to do this? To put an enemy off-guard? Such as who? China? America? Do you think that NASA can’t just look out the window, so to speak, and see for themselves how many satellites Russia has up there, and what kind they are? Ditto for China.
If #2–why would they want to do this? What are they doing with the extra money then? Vacation homes in Bermuda?
This is from today’s news.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_415357.html
So, what, now that we’ve sniffed out their conspiracy to hide their satellites from us, they have to admit we got 'em dead to rights, and they’re gonna bring the satellites out from the closet where they’ve been hiding them?
Playing with conspiracy theories is fun, but only up to a point. 
dj, I didn’t make this sufficiently clear in my earlier post -
When you’re talking about national priorities, and your choices are to: Build satellites and other expensive technology, - or - Keep the populace from revolting because they’re cold and hungry, which would you choose? Unless you’re a serious looney, you’ll feed the people. I don’t think the Russians are looney.
Politicians are, by nature, short-sighted. Statesmen take the long view. It would have required a statesman to keep the Russian technical intelligence apparatus in shape, and Russian politicians have been too busy trying to just stay in power to have time for that statesman stuff.
Tranquilis, you’re generally right about Russian government priorities being forced upon them. But you might have mentioned that staying in power requires giving the people some sense of pride and hope, too. The Soviet space program did that - it was a symbol of the results of the people’s sacrifices, an example of their abilities, and a representation of a brighter tomorrow. To some extent, that’s been true of the US and the other partners in NASA programs, too.
They certainly still remember that feeling, and to a large degree its symbology is still applicable. A politician, much less a statesman, who tried to take that feeling of pride away would suffer for it. I do think that their keeping their program going as well as it has, including keeping Mir staffed for so long it became the butt of jokes in the West, has reflected a need to keep that sense of pride. Keeping that symbol in place, including subsidizing it, is IMHO a good investment by the US in keeping Russia relatively stable. Yes, they’ve let money-draining stuff with less public and governmental constituency go to hell, but the stuff Ivan Q. Public cares about is still there. That spirit may be lessening with time and with greater Russian public realization of their post-USSR situation.
No argument from me on that, Elvis. Well stated.