[drran]

Russians invade other countries because they are not capable to produce good things by themselves. They need someone to build advanced weapons, armor, ships, planes, rockets, goods for export. Good warriors are bad makers, usually.

For example, if you are incapable to build a house, then you need to hire someone to build it for you. If you have no money, but you have an army, then you can just enslave him instead. Russian Empire is the jail of nations.

[rich_sasha]

Hmm, well, not sure, actually weapon-making in USSR was mostly constrained to Russia proper. The more advanced the weapons, the more they were constrained.

Much of the “allies” produced simple bits of kit, but the advanced parts of them, designing etc were generally kept in Russia just in case.

Ukraine is a bit of an exception, I guess because it was seen as more of an “insider”. This is why their weapons industry is actually so comprehensive (anti ship missiles, anti tank weapons etc).