Thread by @kamilkazani

Great question. Long story short: USSR organised competition artificially. We never have only one producer of e.g. bombers, we always have at least two rival structures. Let them fight

After 2000 Putin eliminated this competition, merging previously rivalling structure together

So Soviet logic was:

"If we produce bombers, we need to have at least two producing structures. So they would compete"

Putin's logic is:

"We have two or more bombers producing structures? That's inefficient. Let's merge them and create one"

Putin's Russia is hypercentralized

Soviet planners thought in semi-ecological terms. If their system prevented competition, they would try to create elements of competition artificially

Putin's planners think like accountants. If something is looking great on a spreadsheet, we must totally do it

Paradoxically it may sound, modern Russian military industry is far more centralised and vertically integrated than it ever was under the USSR. Calling this system just "Putinist" may be unfair though. These trends started earlier

While it was Putin who consolidated the military industry to a number of supermegagigaholdings, effectively eliminating competition, he just continued the logic of his predecessors. Varies attempts consolidate industry into megaholdings were taken since at least the mid-90s