Dam disaster shows Russia 'very far behind': Medvedev

[Cruelbreed]

Dam disaster shows Russia 'very far behind': Medvedev
(AFP) – 17 hours ago
ULAN UDE, Russia — The disaster last week at Russia's biggest hydroelectric dam that is feared to have killed 75 shows the country lags very far behind in technology, President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.
"The only truth here is this. Our country is technologically very far behind," he said on a visit to the Siberian city of Ulan Ude.
"We really are very far behind and if we don't overcome this challenge then all those threats that everyone is talking about will truly become a reality."
Russian investigators have said a technical fault caused the August 17 disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant in southern Siberia and have ruled out terrorism as a possible cause.
Medvedev also accused Russia's enemies of writing out apocalyptic scenarios for its future after the tragedy and calling the disaster a "Chernobyl of the 21st century," in reference to the Soviet-era nuclear reactor accident.
"Those who don't like Russia within its existing borders and don't like its role in the world started rubbing their hands," he said.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBgyP-HAAte0tbqHRbno9BfFwPoQ

[bobdina]

They would not be so far behind if they just didn't spend all that money building those new nuke missiles and such. Spend some money on the right stuff it's not like we're gonna nuke them.

[ghost]

They would not be so far behind if they just didn't spend all that money building those new nuke missiles and such. Spend some money on the right stuff it's not like we're gonna nuke them.


Are you talking about the failed "Bulava" missiles?

[Reactor-Axe-Man]

Look, Russia was corrupt in the Soviet era. Perestroika attempted to rectify this, but then the whole thing collapsed and we got the Dawn of the Oligarchs instead. I don't think this is about Russia's poverty or technological backwardness here; competent megadam construction is a technology from the 1930s for Christ's sake. See also, Hoover Dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_dam).

This is about wholesale corruption. A corrupt contract process, a corrupt procurement system, a corrupt inspection regime, a corrupt staffing system. Incompetents and crooks made this possible, not a failure of Russian know-how.

[bobdina]

Look, Russia was corrupt in the Soviet era. Perestroika attempted to rectify this, but then the whole thing collapsed and we got the Dawn of the Oligarchs instead. I don't think this is about Russia's poverty or technological backwardness here; competent megadam construction is a technology from the 1930s for Christ's sake. See also, Hoover Dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_dam).

This is about wholesale corruption. A corrupt contract process, a corrupt procurement system, a corrupt inspection regime, a corrupt staffing system. Incompetents and crooks made this possible, not a failure of Russian know-how.

Correct but all the money they put in those failed missiles when they are no longer needed and the money they put into their un safe sub program just to name 2 could have went to inspections and repairs. But I agree with you they need to overcome the corruption before anything good can happen. Now I'm just talking out my ass here but they don't seem to put the same price on Human life that the west does.

[Reactor-Axe-Man]

The obscene military spending only shows that their priorities are screwed up. We have spent a staggering amount of money on the armed forces from the dawn of the cold war to the present, but we also lived in a world where corruption was far less significant. It was there, but more often than not it was not tolerated when its existence was brought to the public. In much of the world, corruption is just part of the cost of doing business and accepted by everyone. Our relative lack of corruption has allowed us to prosper - we could afford what others would call 'obscene' in our military spending, and still only end up spending between 3% and 8% of our GDP.

If Russia cleaned itself up, its economy would grow and diversify, and they could afford submarines and missiles that actually worked and dams that didn't collapse. Just like us.