Quote:
Originally Posted by Stealhead
When I was in basic the guy in the next bunk had been born in the Ukraine and moved to the US with his family to Tampa in 1991 he was very pleased to realize that the US military gives you so much gear (normally 4 full sets of BDUs,2 full sets of dress,1 dress coat,1feild jacket,2 field caps,and all the PT gear and boots) he had this **** eating grin on his face when they are passing this stuff out the whole time screaming and yelling at you I think this dude was nuts or something.We asked him later why he was so happy and he told us it was because he was being issued so much gear his old man had been in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the early 80s and he only got two complete uniforms.If you have family or friends come to your graduation you can show them your dorm and your bunk and all that guys parents where even more excited than the son was about all the gear also they where glad to see that no NCOs had kicked his face in as happens in Soviet/Russian basic.
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Yeah, that about covers it! And I remember a couple of cellophone videos of Russian soldiers in Georgia back in 2008 when they entered a Georgian army base (the owners left in a haste with no fighting), and they just spent minutes swearing and screaming at how the Georgians (probably not the greatest or best-equipped military in the world at that) had EVERYTHING compared to them. I mean literally just screaming in outrage at their beds and gear and living space. Likewise you can also easily find videos of Russian barrack conditions online... that's a whole different world.
In principle even the draft wouldn't be bad, but the problem is that the corruption and lack of care in the system leads to Russian conscripts being a bunch of free slave labour and/or cannon fodder living in conditions worse than prison in the best of times. There are exceptions of course, but to get into those exceptional service situations (much like getting out of serving altogether) requires having good connections and preferably some cash. If you don't have either, you're beyond screwed. My family had neither, only had an education that qualified them to emigrate to Canada as professionals, so we got out before my and my brother's tickets came up. But that's how most of the Russian conscripts end up being poor village/small town kids by and large - they have virtually no chance to get away, and it's really one of the many forces that is killing the Russian countryside these days, far out of sight of the filthy rich big city elite that are responsible for much of this corruption in the first place.