Expert: Georgia spent twice as much on the war than Russia

Эксперт: Грузия тратила на войну в два раза больше России

The total outflow of capital from Russia during the period of military activities in South Ossetia amounted to $7 billion, said Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to reporters. "$6 billion on Friday (August 8th) and $1 bllion on Monday (August 11th) -- this was currency which left Russia," said Kudrin.

The newspaper "Труд" ["Labor"] has estimated the cost of the war. Based on world market prices for weapons, the cost of one tank shell is $200, one artillery shell - $150, one grenade - $8, one thousand automatic rounds - $30, "Smerch" ["Tornado"] rockets - $2000, one aerial bomb - $3000. According to experts from the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, the greatest expense of the military operation in the Caucasus was fuel -- no less than 1.2 billion rubles [~$49 million] a day.

Georgia lost no less than $200 million per day. But there is an important nuance. The Georgian military is funded entirely by the US: in 2007, Georgian military expenditures totaled $1 billion. Georgia does not have that much of its own money. It is also widely known that their purchases of military technology and weapons are not made at world market prices, but at a 50-80% discount. According to the experts, Ukraine, for example, sold Georgia the modern Su-25 planes (under Georgian classification, "Mimino") for $3 million, while their real price is $8-10 million.

"2 billion rubles per day -- this is the minimum that Russia paid for the war," Ruslan Pukhov directr of the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technologies told "Труд." Accordng to Pukhov, these are purely military expenses, but there are also expenses from providing humanitarian aid, which also come from the Ministry of Defense: evacuation and accommodation of refugees, their supplies, and medical aid. "However, our calculations follow the guidelines of standardized international methods," specified the expert. "This, for example, is the cost of putting a plane in the sky, the daily use of a tank, and of infantry fighting vehicles and ships, and fuel expenses."

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