The consistent bellicosity of the Russian government is never off the front pages for long and 2008 was no exception. When not invading or intimidating their former subjects, the Russian military is devising new and ingenius ways to reduce their military payroll. These strategies include decimating their submarine corps by getting them killed due to criminally negligent practices.
Reuben Johnson, an aerospace analyst, is a frequent writer and observer of Russian politics, its military and culture. He has written an illuminating report for The Weekly Standard on the state of the Russian military and the long reach between Moscow rhetoric and reality.
The performance of the Russian armed forces during the invasion of Georgia in August showed the dismal state of Moscow’s military machine. Some Russian soldiers went into battle wearing athletic shoes because there were not enough boots to go around. Russian troops stole everything they could lay hands on–particularly from the Georgian army facilities they overran. Uniforms, beds, U.S.-supplied Humvees, and toilets were even pulled off the walls by Russian forces. “They had everything; the most amazing f–ing beds, amazing f–ing barracks with sealed windows,” one Russian soldier was recorded saying in a short mobile phone video that was later broadcast–awestruck like Goldilocks when she stumbled upon Baby Bear’s boudoir. Apparently living conditions for soldiers have improved little in the decades since Belenko’s defection.
The astounding fact that the Russian high command deployed a mid-range strategic bomber to fly reconnaisance over Georgia, for which they had no regular crew, should shock anyone. They also lost the highly expensive aircraft, with crew members onboard, to Georgian defensive weaponry.
Russian forces were able to overcome Georgian forces because of sheer numbers, but in air operations the Russians had their proverbial head handed to them. A total of 12 Russian aircraft were lost to Georgian air defense units, including one Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire bomber. By the time hostilities ceased Russian pilots were being offered lavish bonus payments if they were willing to fly missions over Georgia, and still some of them turned the offers down, preferring to stay on the ground where it was safe.
The loss of the Tu-22M is symptomatic of the deep and pervasive ills of Russia’s military machine. There were no operational pilots with enough hours to fly the mission, so instructor pilots had to be press-ganged into service–only two of whom were able to eject safely. The fact that the aircraft–a medium-range strategic bomber that was originally designed to carry nuclear weapons–was misused for a reconnaissance mission is another source of embarrassment.
Incompetence reigns complete on land, beneath the water and on the seas:
In July, a Russian admiral, Vladimir Vysotsky, announced on the Naval Fleet Day holiday that the Russian navy would add six carriers to its force–plus all of the cruisers, destroyers, supply ships, minesweepers, etc., that form a complete carrier battle group. Russia has never had even one proper carrier battle group, has only one aircraft carrier in operation, and has demonstrated that its shipyards are not up to the task even of refitting an old Soviet-era carrier for the Indian Navy. (The shipyards where the current Russian carrier was built during the Soviet period are in Nikolaev, Ukraine, and there are no comparable facilities in Russia.)
Whatever ignoble deeds and evil mischief the Russian leadership is involved in, the threats do not include any serious military projects. This is not to say the Russians are not a force contend with, but their available instruments of warfare will not include conventional military forces in the near future.
The latest efforts by Putin & Co. to create an international natural gas cartel, a la OPEC, and their current attempt to buy a third of the Spanish energy giant, Repsol, are the 21st century version of domination of the Motherland. Russia is playing to win in the high stakes gas supply business for Europe. But Reuben Johnson has a warning for us all:
So, be on the lookout for more armed men in tennis shoes carrying stolen toilets in carjacked Humvees the next time Russia decides to make mischief beyond its borders. And don’t be surprised if the average Russian serviceman continues to risk being needlessly sent to an early grave.
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I was fortunate to have been able to spend three or four days with Viktor Belenko after he defected with the Mig 25 Foxbat to Japan. I will presume this is all declassified now. In 1973 we tracked a Foxbat from Russian to Egpyt doing a continuous Mach 2.5, which scared the bejabbers out of us. He landed at a military airfield in Egypt. What we didn’t know at the time was that his throttle was stuck wide open and he dead stick landed the plane out of fuel. The Foxbat turned out to be amazing. The Russians screamed for the plane and pilot to be returned. We gave the the plane back…completely disassembled. Some parts of it were still made out of wood! The radar was so powerful it could cook a rabbit at over a mile.
We learned a lot from Belenko. First that was at any one time or another, half the
Russian military was intoxicated on anything they could get their hands on. Also
at any one time or another, at least half their equipment was down for maintenance or lack of parts. Doesn’t sound like it’s gotten any better.
Belenko was at first totally disbelieving in everything he saw in the west. He had a big red headed Marine sergeant that went everywhere with him. The sergeant spoke fluent Russian (parents were Russian). One of the biggest things Belenko could no believe was the grocery stores. He would often ask to be diverted from where his destination was to find a grocery store. It was incredulous to him that all that meat was there on open display, and unguarded.
It took him months of doing this to realize it wasn’t just a display set up for his
benefit.
One of our trips took him to Alven Callendar Field in Belle Chase, Louisiana, just south of New Orleans. The Air Force Reserve had an F-16 trainer there operated by a master sergeant and an airman first class. He told us in the Soviet Union they would have one field grade officer (major to colonel), one junior officer, one senior enlisted, one junior enlisted, and one civilian engineer to operate at trainer. Not that it took all of them to operate the trainer. They were just all there to keep an eye on each other.
Some of this is detailed in the book Mig Pilot, but some is not. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend it for reading.
#1 BigIron45
Good stuff. Thanks.
Back about 12 years ago, I was at my aunt’s home in north Austin. My young cousin came in and remarked he had left his 2 friends visiting from Hungary and Czech Republic in south Austin and they were supposed to be at the house soon. We began to get worried about these 2 young guys with only basic English skills getting lost in Austin. Finally, they showed up about 3 hours later. It turns out they stopped at every major supermarket across Austin (HEB & Randalls’, etc) and walked through all the aisles. They were ecstatic - you would have thought they had gone to Disney World.
You two are just making those stories up. If you have been listening to some of the posters here and the rhetoric we got through the campaign you would know that socialism is how we get to a worker’s paradise. You right wing fanatics clinging to your guns only think that having well stocked grocery stores, vehicles that work, access to cell phones, movies, and freedom of speech makes you happy. You are deluded I tell you. What gives true happiness is sharing the fruits of your hard earned labor, knowing that because you are more motivated and capable you can contribute to the common welfare of your fellow
comradescitizens so that they too may live in comfort.Stop deluding yourselves and join those of us who are happy paying the grossly high taxes that the government allows us to pay, who are happy paying for lazy SOB’s who can’t get off their a**es to work, be happy that our borders are open so that other SOB’s can come in here and live off the sweat of your brow. Be thankful that these small bussiness men are able to supply crack to your children so they too will not have to ever work and can enjoy the largesse of the government.
Wake up and enjoy the coming workers paradise.
I used be against secret government mind control experiments, but I am all in favor of them now.
BTW: Who is John Galt?
Didn’t Khruschev visit San Francisco and stop at a Safeway back in the early 1960’s? IIRC, he saw the contents of the store and wept.
Neat stories Big45Iron and texpat.
I remember my time in Russia and Kazakhstan from 2001 to 2003. I marveled at how cosmopolitan Moscow is at its center while it got poorer and more rural the farther you got from the political center of power.
Basically, in Russia, you don’t live like a westener unless you’re one of the elite power brokers running the country. Everyone else lives in generic government built apartments (many were falling apart) or small houses with tin roofs and an outhouse.
I brought my future ex-wife here to meet the family. The most marvelous things she saw? Wal-Mart and milkshakes. She never experienced either. She simply could not believe that there existed a store where she actually could shop 24 hours a day. Fortunately for me, she limited herself to 16. My feet still ache.
Strangely enough, she hated the Galleria. I really thought I had a keeper there.
During my time over there that I got a full sense of how blessed we are to live in a country as great as ours. The little things we take for granted are not available to the vast majority of people in the world.
Texpat, when I was working in intel, I was under then what was referred to as Communist Hostage Status. Meaning that I had close relationships in a communist country which could potentially put me at risk for a blackmail situation.
When I was in high school, one of my uncles came to Houston with one of my cousins for a visit. During the visit I was driving up Orem and she was riding with me. At that time the intersection at Hiram Clarke did not have a light, just stop signs. There was a cop coming up behind me who I recognized (we used to drag race them on the dirt roads out at Pine Island). I deliberately blew through the stop sign. He knew who it was. He hits the lights and siren, and we’re tearing up Orem towards White Heather by Madison HS. I was laughing my head off until I looked at my cousin. She was in abject hysteria because she knew we were going to the gulag. I pulled over and tried to calm her down. The officer, the late Don Easterling, could see her condition. I went back to him and explained the situation, then brought him around to her. She calmed down when she realized we weren’t going to jail. It was an eye opener for me on the difference between the mindset of a totalitarian nation and a real democracy. We also could not convince her afterwards that somehow, we were not a family with powerful political connections.
You have to hand it to the Russians for being able to accomplish a lot with a little. I’ve worked with quite a few Russian aerospace engineers and I’ve always been amazed at how persistent and resourceful they are. The Russians have survived more hardship and atrocities than I could even imagine much less endure. And once they trust you, they make darn good friends.
Actual Russian joke:
A boss calls a worker into his office for his performance review. He congratulates him for his outstanding work, and tells him with great sorrow that he has no money for a raise. Instead, as a reward, the boss promises not to punish him.
#7: Sounds like where I work. Too funny.
Sending that to my boss
#5 basara
What about tater tots?
I once had a boss whose motto was: “no good work shall go unpunished”.
I knew I missed something. No wonder she left me.
More on topic, I don’t think things are going to change much for the Russian military if oil stays at $50. It has to be killing them.
Off topic again - I once worked with an ancient Russian engineer who was actually on the Sputnik development team. He told me that the day after it launched, Korolev called a meeting to announce he had just spoken with Khrushchev, who informed him that Sputnik-2 would launch in 30 days. This was a complete surprise to the engineers (and to Korolev) because they had no idea there would even be a Sputnik-2, much less have it built. Thirty days later, just in time for the October revolution celebration, Sputnik-2 launched with Laika the space dog on board. It’s amazing how quickly an organization can react when their existence (and possibly their freedom) is at stake.
Korolev was purportedly a great motivator. He would call underperforming engineers into his office, show them their transfer order (usually to some place that wasn’t very nice, like Siberia), and then refuse to sign the order so they could have one last chance. To their way of thinking, this was more than they deserved, and they loved him for it.
Uh, I don’t think it was their freedom at stake. More like their lives.
13 - yep, that too.
I worked with Russian Rocket Forces in the space program and their Energia, TsniMaash and Krunichev contractors. In addition I employed two Russian contractors. Yes, they do well with less.
As the prices oil 5 years ago nudged higher Russia was rolling in dough. the streets were cleaned, the lights were replaced in the subway and the stores are fully stocked with food, even the the 24 hour ones. They even have an Ikea.
My last trip was February of 2006, the officers and technicians were bailing out of the Rocket Forces and Air Force in droves, lured by higher paying jobs in the private sector. My guys received $42K and in addition I paid the 16% income tax, Russia has a flat rate.
One of my guys had been insisting for several trips that I came by his apartment for dinner. After begging off several times it was no longer possible. He lived in a dreary appearing Soviet apartment block, with a non working elevator and graffiti on the walls - real tenement stuff you see all over the place. Inside his apartment on the other hand was a different story. The apartment was the latest in Euro-modern. New appliance, cabinetry, bathrrom, etc. This is pretty much the story all over he said, the tenants bought their apartments and have no reponsibility for the outside. Alexander’s wife had a good job as an engineer at Energia so they were doing well.
In addition to the state supplied insurance each had health insurance provided by thier employers, Energia even had a large hospital.
Militarily, Russia talks big but it takes a while to rebuild the infrastructure and the money spigots dried up. I was amazed that Peter the Great actually made it all the way to Venezuela without breaking down.
Heck Shaamal, I can find apartments like that all over Obama’s old district. But in Obama’s district, the inside was as bad or worse than the outside.
That’s what they look like on the outside. And very shoddy building materials. In a city like St. Petersburg the old Czarist buildings are still standing. It’s fascinating to enter and see the grandeur that was once Russia. The Hermitage is restored along with many of the churchess. How can I describe the St Pete Cathedral - there is nothing like it in the US. The Cathedral in St Petersburg has two columns 8 foot in diameter, one made of Lapis Lazuli and one of Malachite. On the walls are huge 40 foot mosaics so intricate in detail one must get with several feet before recognizing that they are not paintings.
Soviet planning ceated extravagant subway stations with chandeliers, mosaics and sconces. Also super expensive and impractical to maintain. When US money started flowing in 1996 it was rumored that although intended for the space program it went to the Russian Orthodox church.
The Russians had a second carrier almost finished. The Ukrainians sold it to a Chinese entertainment group who planned on turning it into a floating casino. Looks like plans have changed. There a lot of links on this but I’ll just post this one.
http://www.varyagworld.com/
(This does not count the Kiev class as carriers. The Chinese bought one of those as well, but that is another story.)
Shamaal, so you are saying that living standards in Russia are better than in Obama’s area of responsibility when he was a state senator. That should scare the heck out of everybody.
Don’t know about Obama’s district. We moved to Oak Park shorty after I was born, I can’t tell you whether that’s in his district. I’ve been to some parts of Pasadena and these guys were living better in Russia. I don’t think it means anything.
I’m not quite sure why any of this is relevant. When one moves away from the urban areas it gets pretty grim.
Seems to me in the United States, moving away from urban areas with strong Democrat support usually accompanies an increase in the standard of living.
Sorry, I was referring to Russia.
Shamaal’s right about St. Petersburg. The Hermitage is freaking amazing. I can’t describe what it is like to take a tour of it. Words would do no justice. It simply is something that must be seen to be believed.
Not at all hard to understand why the Captain of Red October decided to defect. Grin. Also not hard to seriously wonder how safe/reliable the Russian spacecraft are and to easily comprehend why they haven’t held up their end of building the ISS.
I was particularly struck by the accessability of the paintings. All those paintings they showed me in art class when I was a kid, there they were just hanging there. Matisse - The Dancers, just hung on a wall with others. No trouble at all to open a window and chuck it out.
Another thing was the coldness of all that white marble, my friend who came with me explained that the huge marble staircase actually had a red carpet on it during czarist times and the furnishings made it a pretty grand place.
#24
Soyuz has a better safety record than shuttle, and with the Progress will be the only spacecraft supporting the ISS post shuttle. I spent ten years in the ISS program office. The FGB and Zvezda launched on schedule.
I am disappointed that the US will not keep up their end of the bargain.
I can see I’m going to make all kinds of friends here.
I’m from Houston but live in the former “Captive Nation” of Slovakia. Most of the people here fear and detest the Russians. They go across the border into Austria and see how they could have been living during the communist years. The country is catching up. We have modern fully stocked supermarkets like Tesco, Carrefours, Hypermarket, Lidl, Billa but all are headquartered elsewhere. New home, apartment, and luxury housing construction is booming, The old communist block buildings are being refurbished inside and painted outside, most for the first time. In the small village along the Danube were we live there is a rush (three) hour(s) going to Bratislava and coming home, the roads system hasn’t caught up. The Slovaks make more cars per capita than any country in the world and even in this down economy the double digit growth rates have been pared back to high single digits. The 19% flat tax with no capital or dividend taxes sure helps. Slovakia is moving to the Euro next month and last year became part of the European open borders program along with 3 of its immediate neighbors, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. The communist mind set regarding work and how one gets paid for it are still here though, especially with the older generations. The younger generations are learning English and German, traveling freely to the West to study or work and are coming home again because they can live a western lifestyle here too, and be close to mom and dad.
Audax, since my uncles have all passed away, I’ve had little contact with my family Zagreb. During the breakup, we told them that if they wanted to come here, we would support them, but we wouldn’t send them money because we didn’t want it falling into hands that would use it to buy weapons and kill people. We were willing to pay for them to come here. After the breakup, things quieted fairly soon in Croatia, but I don’t have a clue as to what conditions are like there today. Do you have any insights?
When was the last time you saw a Russian fly aboard a shuttle? There is a good reason for that. They don’t think it’s safe. After Columbia, RSC sent NASA a letter stating they would no longer use shuttle for their crew because of its poor record. I really can’t blame them for drawing that conclusion.
Nope – The ESA ATV is flying and the JAXA HTV will launch soon. We are currently reviewing RFPs for commercial lift vehicle services to ISS.
FGB - true
SM - Not even close – It was supposed to launch in November 1998. It was delayed so many times we ended up having to fly a special shuttle mission to replace the FGB batteries. It finally launched in July 2000, two years behind schedule. The consensus was that Russia dragged its feet because they wanted to stretch the Mir program out as long as they could.
It should also be noted the Russians reneged on the Science Power Platform and both research modules, as well as a few other odds and ends.
Big45 Iron,
The Slovenia border (Slovakia, where I live is part of the old Czechoslovakia, we are 20 minutes from the Vienna airport) is just next to Zagreb, Croatia. Both Slovenia and Croatia are very safe now. Croatia has gotten VERY Expensive with lots of tourists visiting the stone beaches. My wifes family vacationed there under communism because it was one of the few places they could get permission to travel, and her father was a Minister in the Czechoslovak government. We spent a wonderful week in Dubrovnik several years ago at the Hilton which is in an old Palace just next to the city wall. Great fresh seafood. The city has been completely reconstructed from the war damage of Serbs firing artillery into this beautiful walled city. The streets are white marble and you can see where the new stones have been placed over shell holes. There is an interactive map showing the damage. But now, the worst that could happen to you in Croatia is a bad sun burn. Unless something happened to your family members in the war, they are probably living a very comfortable life now.
Big 45 Iron,
My regular email is gwilson1954@gmail.com
Thanks Greg
Big45 Iron,
The Slovenia border is just next to Zagreb, Croatia. Both Slovenia and Croatia are very safe now. Croatia has gotten VERY Expensive with lots of tourists visiting the stone beaches. My wifes family vacationed there under communism because it was one of the few places they could get permission to travel, and her father was a Minister in the Czechoslovak government. We spent a wonderful week in Dubrovnik several years ago at the Hilton which is in an old Palace just next to the city wall. Great fresh seafood. The city has been completely reconstructed from the war damage of Serbs firing artillery into this beautiful walled city. The streets are white marble and you can see where the new stones have been placed over shell holes. There is an interactive map showing the damage. But now, the worst that could happen to you in Croatia is a bad sun burn. Unless something happened to your family members in the war, they are probably living a very comfortable life now.