[lbo-talk] Is Putin a Republican?/Q for Woj

[Peter Lavelle]

Chris,
You are right about how the Russian military is reported on in the West and Russia with the advent of America's mess in Iraq. However, nevertheless, the Russian military remains underpaid, under-trained, with a very low morale. The Navy is in awful shape, the number of new planes to the airforce is almost none, the army is not in much better shape. There is something missing through - the very long struggle DefMin Ivanov is fighting to modernize the miltiary. He has successfully created new special and modern units, changed miltiary doctrine and stopped the generals from building dachas at state expense. Just because Western media has slowed its anti-Russia military stories doesn't mean the problems no longer exist.

 
On Russia's space program. you are right. With tiny budgets, the Russians still have their hat in the game in a very big way.  
The Russian military is nothing to sneeze at.

On the gays in Poland during the 1980s. I lived there for most of the 80s - never came across the issue. 

 
*

I follow Western press converage of Russia pretty
closely, and after a while you start to discern trends
that are based on American self-obsession and
self-congratulation. A case in point is the "declining
Russian army" story, which used to appear every two or
three weeks, about how the difficulties in Chechnya
show how the once-mighty Soviet Army was now a basket
case, forgetting that a) counterinsurgency is
inherently difficult and b) the Russian Army is not
designed for counterinsurgency, but for mass tank
battles against NATO. Ever since the US Army started
its reign of incompetence in Iraq, such stories have
mysteriously vanished from American newspapers.

Another example if the once-popular "Russia's
crumbling space program" story. Oddly enough, such
stories disappeared immediately after the Russian
space program saved the United States' after the
shuttle explosion. In fact, NASA now owes Russia money
for the use of its spacecraft and launching
facilities, and Russia is sending a proble to Phobos.
Ha ha.

To my question: In Poland, pre-1989, was homosexuality
illegal, and, if so, was the law enforced? I ask
because it was illegal here until 1993, but everybody
I talk to says they never heard of anybody actually
being arrested for it, which makes me think it
probably was not enforced? Thanks!

=====
Nu, zayats, pogodi!

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