Russia, despite the shame and defeat in the war in Ukraine, is still making attempts to demonstrate to the world (or part of it) its technological developments as the "second army of the world."

For a year and a half of the war, all the "achievements" of the Russian military-industrial complex and military designers could be clearly seen on the battlefield - non-existent special equipment or equipment with clearly overestimated characteristics, such as the Zoo-1 radar station, the Rtut-B radio jamming station, "hypersonic "missiles, which turned out to be not so hypersonic, Armata tanks, which were not on the battlefield at all, and the like. Why did Russia need to hold the next Army-2023 forum, because apart from inflatable tents with icons and stylish packages for the 200s, Russians have nothing special to demonstrate.

According to the influential American think tank Institute for the Study of War, Russia is likely called upon to use the annual Army 2023 International Military-Technical Forum to diversify and expand its military-industrial base. By the way, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu bluntly stated that the Army-2023 forum will focus on the diversification and development of the defense industry, as well as the IT and artificial intelligence sectors, and will demonstrate military and dual-use products. But after all, the Russians, apparently, have practically no own developments. Accordingly, it can be assumed that countries helping Russia to circumvent Western sanctions, in particular on the supply of electronics and military equipment, will be attracted to this forum. We are talking, in particular, about China, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Iran.

The already mentioned "Institute for the Study of War" directly notes that the Russian Ministry of Defense may try to use the Army-2023 forum to purchase technologies or dual-use goods, trying to avoid sanctions. It is hard to disagree with this conclusion, since back in May 2023, Ukrainian intelligence reported that, despite the sanctions, Russia was able to establish the production of new missiles and produces about 60 of them per month of various types - cruise, ballistic, aeroballistic. We can also mention the drone factory in Kazan, where "Shaheds" are assembled using Iranian technologies.

So, all this indicates that Russia is simply hiding behind an international platform, but is actually looking for ways to circumvent sanctions and access technologies vital for its military-industrial complex. Therefore, although the West, as expected, ignored this forum, it must continue to work on a viable system of secondary sanctions that maximally exclude electronics and components for the production of missiles, aircraft and other types of equipment and weapons from entering the Russian Federation.

Separately, it should be noted that Russia's attempts to attract third countries to circumvent sanctions against the military-industrial complex update and increase the resonance with the transfer to Ukraine of a new range of Western equipment and weapons, in particular, aircraft, medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles.