But it is not in the trading subforum. So it is valid here. But truthfully, you can report this thread and report to the mod in which section you feel it belongs in, since it is not related to trading. I mean, that was your original complaint. So go ahead. Hit the report button on the OP, and explain in the comment section about where this thread should be moved to, and why, because it is not related to trading. You are making much ado about nothing.
Let me put it this way. It has only been 5 years since Russian army has moved to having socks as part of standard uniform. Before that, it was a "traditional" rag that would be wrapped around the foot before putting the boots on. I am not kidding.
Well this is what happens when you outsource your production to another country; you risk unavoidable technology theft and transfer.
In fact, the cloths – common everywhere before the industrial revolution – were eminently practical: far cheaper to make than socks, quicker and easier to wash, dry and mend, and (providing they were properly bound) fit for purpose. They allowed Russia's hard-pressed factories not to be distracted by making socks, and soldiers in the field to improvise replacements if need be. They did, though, need to be worn correctly. Oleg Dimitriev, a Russia Today journalist who spent two years – or, as he puts it, "695 days" – in portyanki on military service, writes that they could be torture until you got the technique right. "The most crucial aspect is that one can only wear portyanki that are wrapped tightly," Dimitriev says. "If the soldier doesn't follow the procedure exactly, he could hurt his feet and get painful blisters." https://amp.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jan/16/russian-soldiers-replacing-foot-wraps-socks Everyone who manages to master the wrapping technique is promoted to sergeant.
Yes, Nobert, Russians of course went all "our portyanki are way better than Western socks". Like the "who needs all these Western companies leaving Russia" thing today. Yet Russian military was the ONLY military in the world using portyanki. At least officially. Who knows what some army somewhere in Eritrea uses. Eritrea being relevant because it is one of only 4 countries that supported Russia in the UN lately.
"Risk" and "unavoidable" ... outsourcing production makes sense most often than not. I don't know where you're from but it's what made America and the rest of the western world powerful.
Been living in the US since 1980. I didn't want to live in shit and I didn't want to keep contributing my labor, my effort and my life to one of the crappier countries in the world. The country that became this way by basically destroying, killing, imprisoning and exiling millions of the best people in the population generation after generation after generation.