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2002-09-27 Caucasus

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2002-09-27 08:10 am|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Yeah. The question was raised yesterday on this blog about whatever happened to Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces, who presumably ought to be taking the lead in Chechnya. I haven't been following the Chechnya war as closely as I might have, to be sure, but I do know that back in '94, Russia had all it could do to scrape up enough formations actually capable of fighting to go in and try to put down the original rebellion. Improved economy or not, I don't know that the state of Russia's army has improved much since then, if at all. It's possible that there may not really be _enough_ of Spetsnaz left to risk committing to Chechnya; the Kremlin may be keeping whatever is still combat-capable in reserve for really major emergencies.

I don't know about the rest of you, but in light of the current world situation, and as someone who used to spend a lot of time wargaming NATO-vs-Warsaw Pact back in the 1970's and early 1980's when the Red Army actually amounted, or purported to amount, to something, I find all this rather worrisome.

Posted by Joe 2002-09-27 17:20:34|| 2002-09-27 17:20:34|| Front Page Top

#2 I find it worrisome, too, though if you'd told me in 1982 that I'd find the weakness of spetsnaz worrisome today I'd have laughed for a week.

Posted by Fred 2002-09-28 07:43:43|| 2002-09-28 07:43:43|| Front Page Top

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