1/ Russia has reportedly effectively privatised its air defence systems, shifting their cost onto regions and private businesses. This is likely resulting in wealthy Moscow getting a disproportionate amount of air defences while poorer regions languish. ⬇️
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2059940044861825101
2/ VChK-OGPU (now restored to Telegram following Pavel Durov's falling-out with the Kremlin) reports that according to a source, "the federal centre has effectively shifted funding for the creation of ever-new air defence lines for Russian cities to the regions…
3/ …(Moscow is no exception). The air defence systems themselves come from the Ministry of Defence (and sometimes their creation is financed by regional budgets), but the expensive preparatory and communications work falls to regional budgets.
4/ "Even specialists have to be hired from among former Defence Ministry employees, financed by city and regional budgets. As a result, the wealthier the region, the better its defence against drones.
5/ "Several months before the May drone strikes on Moscow and the Moscow region, the Moscow Air Defence's operational zone was moved from the Moscow Ring Road to the borders of the Central Ring Road, using funds from the Moscow City Hall budget.
6/ "A new line of defence was built along the perimeter of the Central Ring Road. The main construction work was carried out by the capital's municipal services complex.
7/ "Site preparation, technical communications, and numerous other works—all of this was funded by Moscow taxpayers. Among other things, work was carried out to staff shelters in Moscow. Which is also "an expensive pleasure."
8/ "Now there's a demand to move the capital's air defence zone away from the immediate Moscow region... This again entails enormous expenses.
9/ "Moreover, I can say that Moscow, through numerous contracts with [state-owned air defence manufacturer] Almaz-Antey, is essentially funding the production of individual air defence systems, monitoring systems, sensors, and airspace control equipment for the city, etc.
10/ "The capital's budget also finances some of the air defence specialists—the Ministry of Defence is short of specialists. As a result, Moscow is attracting former military personnel, who are recruited into Moscow-based private military companies.
11/ "Even for Moscow, funding the capital's air defence is becoming an unbearable burden, to say nothing of regions with more modest financial resources.
12/ "There are also significant organisational problems. The first problem is coordination with the Ministry of Defence. Due to the lack of a law on private or regional air defence, management falls to the Ministry of Defence, and sometimes there is confusion.
13/ "The second problem is the lack of a unified early warning information system. SAM systems often detect targets at the last moment, and UAVs made of composite materials are very difficult to detect on radar. And when there are a lot of them, as during the last attack...
14/ "It's necessary to set up numerous visual posts (they even appear on [Lenin's] mausoleum and the Kremlin wall) and, as during WW2, manually issue telephone alerts. That's why, during the last attack, residents complained about the lack of UAV warnings.
15/ "However, you shouldn't expect sirens to sound in central Moscow at all. There's a ban on turning them on. Imagine sirens wailing on Patriarch's Ponds or right on Red Square."
16/ In this photo, Moscow's Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov can be seen at the site of an air defence installation being built with funds from the city budget and using equipment from the State Budgetary Institution "Avtomobilnye Dorogi" (Motor Roads). 
17/ Avtomobilnye Dorogi has become one of the largest cost centres in Moscow's municipal budget, spending over 1.6 trillion rubles ($22.5 billion) since its 2008 establishment. Despite its name, it is said to have "not built a single kilometer of new roads during its existence".
18/ Instead, according to VChK-OGPU, the agency "has repeatedly sent equipment and operators on special assignments to the Kursk and Belgorod regions and the Donbas to build fortifications and military installations, trenches, and dugouts, particularly the 'Surovikin Line.'"
19/ Private businesses are also being tapped to fund and support air defence installations. VChK-OGPU says: "If you want a good air defence system, let businessmen chip in and buy it. It could get to the point where every dacha community will have its own air defence system."
20/ According to a source, "The Kremlin has decided to bluff its way into shifting a pressing national problem to the regions, based on the principle: if you're a drowning man, you'll have to save yourself."
21/ "Moscow clans have already been forced to fork out for the necessary infrastructure for air defence around the capital, as well as the air defence systems themselves. Now they expect similar "feats" from other regions." /end
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