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A late-September 2026 report by German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reveals the true motive behind CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s unannounced August visit to Moscow: a direct warning to the Kremlin that Russia’s war economy is heading toward a 1991 Soviet-style collapse. With Russia's 2026 budget deficit doubling to $88 billion, military outlays consuming over 40% of the federal budget, and domestic banks boycotting state debt auctions, discover how spiraling war costs, regional distress, and healthcare cuts are pushing Moscow to the economic brink.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - The Unannounced CIA Mission: John Ratcliffe's Moscow Warning
02:53 - Exploding Deficit & Debt Trap: $88 Billion Deficit & Borrowing Strategy
05:38 - Banking Liquidity Crisis & Failed Bond Auctions
07:46 - Regional Distress & Squeezed Social Infrastructure
08:52 - The Rejected Meeting & Escalating War Outlays ($202B Target)
11:59 - The Brezhnev Trap: Historical Echoes of the 1991 Soviet Collapse
14:12 - Soviet Collapse 2.0: Putin's Sunk-Cost Dilemma & Regional Disruption
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/Vuh7MqfZ
A late-September 2026 report by German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reveals the true motive behind CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s unannounced August visit to Moscow: a direct warning to the Kremlin that Russia’s war economy is heading toward a 1991 Soviet-style collapse. With Russia's 2026 budget deficit doubling to $88 billion, military outlays consuming over 40% of the federal budget, and domestic banks boycotting state debt auctions, discover how spiraling war costs, regional distress, and healthcare cuts are pushing Moscow to the economic brink.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - The Unannounced CIA Mission: John Ratcliffe's Moscow Warning
02:53 - Exploding Deficit & Debt Trap: $88 Billion Deficit & Borrowing Strategy
05:38 - Banking Liquidity Crisis & Failed Bond Auctions
07:46 - Regional Distress & Squeezed Social Infrastructure
08:52 - The Rejected Meeting & Escalating War Outlays ($202B Target)
11:59 - The Brezhnev Trap: Historical Echoes of the 1991 Soviet Collapse
14:12 - Soviet Collapse 2.0: Putin's Sunk-Cost Dilemma & Regional Disruption
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/Vuh7MqfZ
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NewsTranscript
00:01Toward the end of August, the director of the CIA made an unprecedented trip to Russia.
00:07Rumours swelled at the time. The world wanted to know what was said, why it was said,
00:13and what it would mean for the future of Russia.
00:16Now we know. That director came bearing a grave warning.
00:20Russia is facing the second coming of its Soviet collapse,
00:24as Putin's insane war against Ukraine is breaking Russia apart.
00:28The country is in an economic mess, and Putin has his head shoved so far up where the sun doesn't
00:34shine that he doesn't see it.
00:36You may remember that we reported on the visit that CIA director John Ratcliffe made to Moscow in August,
00:42and like many, we speculated on what that visit might have meant.
00:46The details were undisclosed, and the Kremlin mostly kept its collective mouth shut as to what discussions emerged.
00:53The visit was unusual for several reasons, despite US President Donald Trump trying to claim that it was semi-routine.
01:00It wasn't.
01:02Ratcliffe was the first CIA director to visit Moscow since the Ukraine invasion began,
01:07and he did so with no pomp or circumstance.
01:10Nothing was announced, making it seem as though Ratcliffe had made a mad 16,000-kilometer dash into the heart
01:16of Russia almost on a whim.
01:18Now, we know what the visit was about.
01:21In a bombshell report, the German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or FAZ, has revealed the true reason for the visit.
01:28Ratcliffe didn't head to Moscow to warn against Russia escalating its conflict with Ukraine into a war against NATO.
01:34He also wasn't there to try to negotiate a peace settlement.
01:38Ratcliffe came with a warning that he wanted to deliver directly to Putin.
01:43Russia's leader is taking his country down the path to a level of economic ruin not seen since the collapse
01:49of the Soviet Union.
01:51We'll provide all the evidence you need to see that proves Ratcliffe is right on the money in a moment.
01:56First, if you're enjoying the video, subscribe and tell us what you think in the comments below.
02:00And if you want even more from the channel, consider becoming a member for access to exclusive content.
02:06FAZ claims to have spoken to a high-ranking diplomat who is familiar with how the CIA briefed Western partner
02:12agencies during Ratcliffe's visit.
02:15The CIA director told Putin's cronies that Russia is losing the war, and he did it by focusing on the
02:22money,
02:22rather than the stalemate on the front line or the massive casualties that Russia has experienced due to Putin's hubris,
02:29the diplomat explains.
02:30Ratcliffe left after delivering a final message, it's time to negotiate before it's too late.
02:36Dramatic as this may seem, the evidence for the collapse that Ratcliffe and the CIA believe is coming is all
02:42there, if you look closely enough.
02:44In some cases, outside sources have revealed just how much of an economic black hole Putin has created for his
02:51country.
02:51In other cases, the Kremlin tells on itself.
02:55We'll start with the budget deficit.
02:57On October 1st, the Moscow Times reported that the Russian government has submitted a three-year draft federal budget that
03:04will cover 2027 to 2029.
03:06According to that budget, Russia expects its budget deficit to reach $88 billion by the end of the year,
03:13which is just shy of double the forecasted $45 billion deficit the Kremlin announced at the beginning of the year.
03:19This deficit is massive. It amounts to 3.2% of Russia's entire gross domestic product, or GDP, compared to
03:26the previous target of 1.6%.
03:28That fund, which is supposed to be Russia's rainy day money, has been whittled away over the last four and
03:34a half years.
03:35By the end of 2026, the fund will only be able to cover half of the debt that the Kremlin
03:40has gotten itself into.
03:41But not to worry, the latest forecast claims by the end of 2027, the budget deficit will have declined to
03:482% of GDP and will be on a downward trajectory from there.
03:52We don't know where Russia thinks it's going to magically get the money for that.
03:55Perhaps it plans to pull Putin's head out of his own rear and hope that cash showers out.
04:00We're being facetious.
04:01There is, apparently, a plan in place that the Kremlin will implement over the next few years to recover from
04:08its deficit problem.
04:09And it's a plan that everybody who is capable of making a budget and has a well-adjusted financial head
04:14on their shoulders would make.
04:16Russia is going to borrow its way out of the deficit.
04:20We'll stop the sarcasm now.
04:21Russia's big plan, the Kyiv Post reports, is to hit the 2% of GDP budget deficit goal by borrowing
04:27the money it needs to dig itself out of a hole.
04:30That plan doesn't seem to be the most stable in the world, especially as Russia is already borrowing heavily to
04:36fund Putin's Ukraine invasion.
04:38As United24 Media put it in a September 30th piece, Russia's war is running on credit.
04:43The Kremlin's debt has hit a 24-year high point and it's going to get larger.
04:48Under Russia's new plan for the deficit, state debt that currently amounts to 19.9% of GDP will rise
04:55to 21.7% in 2027 and then 24.1% by the end of 2029.
05:01This isn't a healthy way to tackle debt, especially as it means Russia puts itself on the hook for repaying
05:07loans that it can't afford.
05:08Again, that is already happening.
05:11According to IntelliNews, Russia currently spends about 9% of all tax revenue on servicing its existing debt.
05:17That percentage will easily rise to 10% and beyond if the Kremlin's plan to borrow to solve the deficit
05:23is put into force.
05:24All that Russia is doing here is trying to solve one problem by creating another one that Putin hopes can
05:31be solved later.
05:32And it's starting to look like going even deeper into debt might not work for the Kremlin.
05:37In an October 1st report, the new voice of Ukraine revealed that Russia has managed to raise $15.1 billion
05:43for the federal budget this quarter by making debt offerings in the form of federal loan bonds.
05:48That sounds like a lot of money and it should cover a few weeks of war spending.
05:52But something strange happened during the final auction Russia tried to hold for these bonds for the quarter.
05:58Nobody turned up for the auction.
06:00A complete lack of buyers forced the cancellation of the auction, leading to the Kremlin getting nothing.
06:06Russia blamed a lack of bids at acceptable price levels, but it looks more like potential buyers are actively boycotting
06:13the methods that Russia wants to use to fund Putin's war.
06:17Ratcliffe's warning is starting to look very credible here, and it gets worse for Russia.
06:22The Kyiv School of Economics agrees that domestic borrowing remains the Kremlin's most important tool for funding Putin's war.
06:29However, it adds that the costs of that borrowing are high, and Russia's banks are reaching a point where they're
06:34struggling to deal with the large government debt issuance that the Kremlin thinks can solve its problems.
06:40Those banks already have a structural liquidity deficit, the school claims.
06:44That's a fancy way of saying that Russian people are pulling their money out of banks by the billions.
06:50Between January and May, the amount of currency floating around in Russia outside of the banking system stood at $13
06:56.6 billion, United24 media reports.
07:00More has come out since, as Russian people seem to have collectively decided that keeping cash is a good idea
07:06when compared to storing money in banks, where it could be seized or become inaccessible due to internet blackouts.
07:13A deterioration in the banking system could therefore ultimately create additional costs for the state, the Kyiv School of Economics
07:20states bluntly.
07:21This is another issue that can feed into the type of Soviet-style collapse that Ratcliffe warns is coming.
07:27And all of this is without mentioning the toll that Putin's obsession with his war is taking on the rest
07:34of Russia.
07:34With so much money being dedicated to war spending, to the point where Russia's budget considerations centre on this one
07:41factor, Russia's social services are taking a massive hit.
07:44On September 28th, the New Voice of Ukraine reported that war spending is now above 40% of Russia's entire
07:51federal budget, which has led to Russian authorities making sharp cuts to healthcare funding.
07:57Of 11 federal healthcare projects, 8 face spending cuts as Russia robs Peter to pay Paul.
08:03All of this is happening as 74 Russian regions report falling into severe financial distress.
08:10Russia has 83 regions, only nine more to go before the entire country is on its economic knees.
08:17Faced with all of this, surely Putin has to listen to the dire warning delivered to him by Ratcliffe, right?
08:23The ingredients are all in place for a Soviet-style financial collapse, and the US has been kind enough to
08:29tell Putin that it's coming.
08:30At least, that's what Ratcliffe tried to do.
08:33What we're now seeing is Putin doubling down on the insanity that is leading Russia to ruin.
08:39But before we explain more, this is a reminder that you are watching The Military Show.
08:44If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit the button and ring the notification bell to
08:49ensure you never miss a video.
08:51So, that short-noticed journey Ratcliffe made to Russia.
08:54Surely, Putin would recognize that something needs to seriously be amiss for the director of the CIA to make an
09:01unannounced visit.
09:02Meaning Russia's leader would have respected Ratcliffe enough to make time for a meeting.
09:07That's what was supposed to happen.
09:09But it didn't.
09:11Putin reportedly blocked out some time for a meeting with Ratcliffe, even going so far as to cancel a previous
09:17engagement to do it.
09:18However, the intended meeting never took place, reports the new voice of Ukraine.
09:24Why?
09:24Putin had Ratcliffe meet with some of his intelligence officials first, who went on to report the content of his
09:30message to their leader.
09:31When Putin heard that Ratcliffe was there to warn him that his policies were leading Russia off an economic cliff,
09:38Putin did what all mature leaders do.
09:40He cancelled the meeting and presumably stuck his fingers in his ears while chanting,
09:44Nah, nah, nah, nah, I can't hear you.
09:46What all of this means is that despite the clear budget crisis that has emerged in Russia,
09:51Putin is showing no signs of de-escalating the conflict that caused all of this in the first place.
09:56If anything, he seems to be going in the opposite direction.
10:00In a September 28th report, Reuters revealed that Russia is planning to raise its war spending by another 27%
10:07in 2027.
10:08Meaning it will spend a little over $202 billion in a year when Russia claims it will start bringing its
10:14budget deficit back down.
10:16This amounts to the highest single year spend on the war since Putin launched his invasion.
10:22Lessons aren't being learned.
10:24And remember, this is just the anticipated expenditure,
10:28which already amounts to 35% of what Russia anticipates to be its total spending for 2027.
10:34The number could easily climb higher.
10:36Coinciding with this announcement was another, as Russia is also planning to make its military even larger than it already
10:43is.
10:43According to the Moscow Times, Putin signed an executive order on September 28th that adds 15,500 more troops to
10:52Russia's military,
10:53bringing the total number of active service members to 1.55 million.
10:58This is just soldiers, by the way.
11:00When accounting for all personnel that are part of the Russian military, such as those in administrative and support roles,
11:06Russia is now spending money on 2,441,630 personnel, all of whom are being paid by the Kremlin's war
11:13spending.
11:14And all of this is on the back of 2026, when Russia has already created 52,500 new positions in
11:21the military.
11:22The logic here is insane.
11:24As war spending spirals further out of control, Putin is signing executive orders that enlarge the military,
11:31making more spending on recruitment and salaries necessary.
11:34And it's here where Ratcliffe's warning about a collapse akin to that seen by the Soviet Union really becomes prescient.
11:41In a September 29th report, the Times pointed out that Russia's planned war spending is a record not seen since
11:47the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
11:50That collapse was caused in part by the Kremlin completely losing track of its military spending to the point where
11:56it bankrupted itself.
11:57We're oversimplifying it a little here, but there's definitely a link to be made between what Putin is doing now
12:03and what was happening in Soviet Russia ahead of the fall.
12:06The Telegraph makes that abundantly clear with an article by Kon Kochlin, who accuses Putin of making the same mistakes
12:13that one of his predecessors, Leonid Brezhnev, made decades ago.
12:17Without diving too deep into a history lesson, Brezhnev oversaw massive Soviet military expenditure during nearly two decades in which
12:25he served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
12:29To Brezhnev, nothing mattered more than one-upping the US on the military front, leading him to plough cash into
12:36the development of nukes and equipment.
12:38As the Telegraph puts it,
12:39Soaring Soviet expenditure on defense from Brezhnev in the 1960s onwards, compounded by Moscow's disastrous military intervention in Afghanistan from
12:481979 to 1989,
12:50was one of the key factors that ultimately resulted in the Soviet bloc's eventual disintegration.
12:56By the end of his time in power, Brezhnev was little more than an old man, a shell of himself,
13:01who was desperate to keep hold of what he had failed to build.
13:04All as his many failed economic policies led to a Russia that was crumbling around him.
13:10Brezhnev's legacy is one where shortages of consumer goods were common in Russia.
13:14People lived in poverty and huge inefficiencies were built into a military-industrial complex that produced as much corruption as
13:22it developed usable weapons.
13:24There are some very clear parallels here, and Putin needs to recognize them if Russia is going to have a
13:30chance of surviving.
13:32Putin is very much an old man clinging to power.
13:34He turned 74 this month and has spent over two decades in the Russian hot seat,
13:39practically making him incapable of seeing any perspective other than his own.
13:43In 2026, Putin is going to spend more on Russia's military than has been spent since the fall of the
13:48Soviet Union,
13:49showing us that he's fallen into the same militarization trap that crippled Brezhnev.
13:54And as for economic policies failing, well, just go back and listen to the first half of the video and
13:59you'll see how Putin is doing in that arena.
14:02Echoes of the past are haunting Putin, and he doesn't even seem to realize it.
14:06He might have if he'd listened to Ratcliffe and the warning he attempted to deliver at the end of August.
14:12There is a terrible, though some might say hilarious, irony to all of this.
14:17Back in March 2018, Putin declared that he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if it were in
14:23his power to do so.
14:24That statement indicated that Putin longs for the Russia of old, the global power that oversaw an empire to rival
14:31any other.
14:31Putin wants a new Soviet Union, and if things had gone to plan, Ukraine would have been the starting point
14:37for something much bigger.
14:38But now, after almost five years of war and much more to come, Putin has gotten his Soviet legacy all
14:45right.
14:45He has failed to create the Soviet Union 2.0.
14:49Instead, he's fast forwarding to the Soviet collapse 2.0 without ever getting to enjoy the glory that he's chasing.
14:56When all is said and done, that will be Putin's legacy.
14:59After all, there's no indication that he's willing to back down, as he almost seems stuck in a sunk cost
15:04fallacy that may well see him push for a forever war.
15:07Or at least a war that will last until he is dead and buried.
15:12In his piece, Coughlin notes that Western leaders believe that Putin's ultimate plan with Russia's sky-high defence spending is
15:20to enable Russia to look beyond Ukraine.
15:22Putin is assuming a victory that he is nowhere near achieving, as he looks to spark a broader conflict between
15:28Russia and NATO.
15:28NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutter warned that Russia may be capable of mounting an attack against NATO in five years,
15:35back in 2025.
15:37And in 2026, we've seen a rise in Russian hybrid attacks against NATO nations, such as the explosive drone incident
15:44at Leipzig Airport.
15:45All signs are pointing to Russia making its economic blunders to fund a future war.
15:51And as the war spending goes up and the Russian economy falls apart, Russian hypocrisy is coming to the fore.
15:57On September 30th, the Russian embassy in Dublin put out a statement that included this eye-wateringly duplicitous claim.
16:04The slogan of Russian threat is being recycled in the Western media on a daily basis.
16:10The aim is clear to justify higher defence spending, the overall militarisation of Europe,
16:14as well as to promote further financial, military and political assistance to the Kyiv regime,
16:19which is being painted as the bulwark against Russian aggression.
16:22What we're seeing here is Russia lambasting Western nations for increasing their defence spending
16:27as Russia breaks records for spending on its own military.
16:31It's almost as though Russia is surprised that the collective West would maybe want to be ready for anything
16:36when dealing with a nation led by a man who is so obsessed with war
16:40that he's willing to destroy his own country to keep the fight going.
16:44And that ultimately is what Ratcliffe tried, and failed, to convince Putin to stop doing.
16:49The CIA has identified just how bad a situation Russia is in, and almost as a professional courtesy.
16:56It has tried to warn Putin that he needs to change course, but Putin is too far gone.
17:02Purposefully or otherwise, he is blind to the situation that he is creating in Russia,
17:06all to fund a war that Russia isn't winning.
17:08Now Russia's economic strategy can be boiled down to
17:12buy guns now and figure out how to pay for them later.
17:15The strategy is short-sighted to the extreme.
17:18Putin shows no indication that he is going to slow down in Ukraine.
17:22Russia will be spending more than ever as the prospect of peace negotiations seem to have disappeared.
17:28Whatever the outcome of that war, and those to come against NATO, one thing is sure.
17:34Putin will leave behind a broken Russia that was destroyed to fuel his obsession with Ukraine.
17:40Compounding all of these economic issues are the deep strikes Ukraine has been conducting
17:45against Russia's oil refining sector.
17:47Throw US sanctions into the mix, and you get the reason why we say it's ridiculous that Russia anticipates
17:53almost halving its budget deficit in 2026.
17:56To do that, the Kremlin needs tax revenue.
17:58And if you watch our video, you'll learn why that revenue isn't going to be coming from the one product
18:03Russia needs to sell in bulk to solve the problems that Putin has created.
18:08But before you move on, if you enjoyed the video, consider subscribing and let us know your thoughts below.
18:14You can also become a channel member for access to exclusive content we don't publish publicly.
18:19And thank you for watching.