RtoccupyMoscow, is not a typical Russian. He is either one of those nazi/hitlerite leftovers or one of those sadly unpatriotic, eternally dissatisfied third class Russians who think that everything in the West is made of gold. He should either, go to Europe & see how good it is, especially during these difficult times or take a lesson from your neighbour China, on PATRIOTISM.

I remember a day, when a retired army general a WW2 hero, visited our school. Apart from his experience from the war, he has been talking about weapons too, and he mentions one thing about copying of the German cannons. We made the barrels little bit bigger, he said, so if we captured the Germans supply of munitions, we were able to use it in our cannons, but if they captured our stock of munitions, it was useless to them. So the idea of copy it, and make it even better, is not new. The Japanese after WW2, build their economy on this principle and China recently doing exactly the same and very effectively. I am glad to see modernized our military, but what needs to be modernized more importantly, is the political and economic system, for the benefit of everyone, not just the privileged few.

The Russians are doing what everyone else does, except they are more honest and open about it.
Talk about Russia buying Italian wheeled vehicles for evaluation... the US bought some Italian vehicles for evaluation too... is the US China? Is the US 20 years behind the west?
The reality is examining what everyone else does is the natural first step in design... look at other solutions to make sure you don't make the same mistakes, you don't have to copy someone elses ideas but looking at existing solutions greatly improves the design process because you can avoid making the same mistakes previous designers have made.
No Russia is not like China, because unlike China, if Russia finds a technology that is useful to them they buy the production rights where possible. If the rights are not available then of course they will try to replicate the results on their own.
During the Cold war US technology was not for sale, but before the cold war the Russians or Soviets depending on when, bought the design for the Maxim machine gun (just like Britain and Germany did), they bought the design of the DC-3 transport aircraft (licence produced under the name Li-2), they bought Christies tank design, mainly for the suspension and produced the BT series of fast tanks. They had to redesign it for heavier models but even the T-34 used a suspension system that was directly related to the Christie design. And of course who can forget the Nene and Derwent jet engines they bought from the UK.

It wasn't just them, the Abrams tank had a british gun originally and that was replaced with a West German design, and of course its armour is British designed too.
Americas standard Pistol is Italian, and its new standard MG is Belgian.
The rockets that took it to the moon were German.
The physics that created the first nuclear weapon came from France and lots of other places in Europe and even New Zealand (Ernest Rutherford was a Kiwi).
The very idea that western standards are better because they are western is white mans ego and ignorance all balled into one. Most international air rules... so called western standards are created with blood. New rules usually require deaths before they are created and introduced. Not the best system really is it?