Why can Russia produce advanced military technology but not cars, smartphones and other consumer goods?

I would slightly disagree that Russia isn’t advance in consumer-based technology. I think, the country is just as cutting-edge as many of developing countries like India and Malaysia. Also, it homes some of the best companies in different sectors that are fast emerging to be a global name. Such as Telegram (which has 350 million active users), FindFace (very popular image recognition technology), Nginx (web servers), Ecwid (E-commerce application) So, it does have a range of brands in the consumer sector. But then again, expecting it to match the height of China and USA would be difficult.

Indeed, Russia is progressing much faster than many nations in achieving its military technology goals. But there are plenty of other countries who are pacing just as fast as Russia, like Iran, China, Japan, Israel and Australia. It’s just that we’re in a bad habit of putting too much of the spotlight in Moscow (which, at times, is quite justifiable though). Although bound by many international treaties and regulations, do you really think that USA isn’t expanding its nuclear arsenal secretly? Or, for that matter, other countries aren’t doing the same?

Countless reports have confirmed that ISIS is Syria, a poor country, had advanced weapons. So, point is, many of the countries are fast progressing in improving their military technology. Many of them are just doing it under the hiding of international watchdogs. It’s not just Russia!

And this whole scenario is quite sad. Millions of people are dying of poverty and hunger. And the countries are wasting their resources in so much of weapons that they will never possibly use.

And unless Putin is removed from the President role, I don’t believe the scene of Russia will change anytime soon. Economic development will always be secondary to them to the military tech progress. Sad but true.