Putin claims Russia has better weapons than NATO

Speaking at the ‘Everything for Victory’ forum in the city of Tula outside Moscow, Putin praised the role the country’s defense industry is playing in the conflict with Ukraine and in the national economy, as it provides jobs for millions.

The Russian leader acknowledged that while some Russian military equipment designed and produced in the twilight of the Soviet era is often – but not always – inferior in some respects to NATO hardware, this is not true of modern Russian weaponry.

“It is clear that [these arms] are superior… I mean both missiles, armored vehicles, everything that is being used on the battlefield.”

He added that for the army to be successful, it should be able to swiftly react to developments on the battlefield, suppressing the adversary’s artillery and reconnaissance assets. The military should also have its own such assets which should be more effective, Putin said.

“Whoever does it faster will win,” he concluded.

Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that production of military hardware and materiel had been significantly ramped up. Manufacturing of artillery shells had been increased several times over, he added.

Meanwhile, on Friday Shoigu estimated Ukraine’s losses in January at 23,000 service members. In December, he said that Ukrainian casualties since the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022 had reached 383,000.

Putin also stated the Russian economy keeps growing and has already become the largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP).

PPP is a metric popular with many economists that compares economic productivity and standards of living between countries by adjusting for the differences in the cost of goods and services.

According to the Russian leader, the country’s economy has demonstrated stability, unlike those of the US and the EU, which are currently in decline.

“The fundamental principles of the US’ and EU’s economies are good, they [economies] will rise, but today they are at the bottom, while we are rising,” Putin said.

According to the World Bank, in 2022 China was ahead of the US in terms of PPP, while India and Japan were a respective third and fourth. Russia rounded out the top five, while Germany was in sixth place. Meanwhile, Putin’s top economic adviser, Maksim Oreshkin, stated recently that Russia “is already breathing down Japan’s back in the race for fourth place”.

This week, the IMF significantly raised its growth forecast for the Russian economy, projecting that the country’s GDP will grow by 2.6% this year. The estimate is a sharp increase from its October forecast of 1.1% growth. The forecast for 2025 was also increased by 0.1 percentage point from the October estimate, to 1.1%.

The Russian Economy Ministry expects the country’s GDP to expand 2.3% this year, following 3.5% growth in 2023, according to the preliminary reading.