Inside job. They already had the keys and the vault combinations...(ie: the uniforms and equipment). CITY TO FAR, CL

>>>I just don't understand how they had such a successful offensive. you mean blowing up themselves in Moscow stadiums?

The Russians were pretty much demoralized I guess, so it must have been easy. The attack on Grozny itself should have been a wake-up call for Russian military forces, about how to take and hold a city. But alas, neither lesson has prevailed. They're still in Chechenya. No real news yet...all under wraps.

I'd be demoralised if my friends were dying and my officers were selling the weapons that killed them. Don't be too suprised about the end result though. In the Green corner; well trained (by the Russian conscript system) and motivated troops with a religious/historical tradition of aggressive tactics, superb local knowledge and long term will to win. In the Red corner a decrepid, ad-hoc group of inadequately trained unwilling conscripts, poorly officered negligently supplied, and ignored and forgotten by the drunkard Yeltsin after winning their 'spectacular victory'. Just look at the transcripts of radio conversations during the 1995 coup-de-main to see how low the Red army had stooped. As for weapons used by the Chechens a handful of tanks and APC's and the normal equipment of a Russian light infantry unit. Look at the articles on Chechen tank hunter teams/storm groups to see how they gained maximum effectiveness from low tech weaponry.

The Chechens also have good experienced teachers, the mujahedeen who went to Afghanistan and came back. Those fellows will give us problems for a long time.

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1289/ "Russia's Chechen Wars 1994-2000 Lessons in Urban Combat" gives a good grounding to the conflict and the respective tactics and equipment used.

...In the Green corner; well trained (by the Russian conscript system) and motivated troops with a religious/historical tradition of aggressive tactics, superb local knowledge and long term will to win. In the Red corner a decrepid, ad-hoc group of inadequately trained unwilling conscripts, poorly officered negligently supplied, and ignored and forgotten... In 1945, this was the Russian "win" condition. Partly due to the "motivated" Greens bringing the US into the war against them, through an incredibly stupid attack by an affiliated friend...

1. Have you been reading too many Sven Hassel books? 2. Pearl Harbour was not "incredibly stupid" just the carriers were out of port, greatly diminishing the effectiveness of the strike.

Not too many, but in the original language!

I once owned a first edition "Legion of the Damned" with a photo of what purported to be the author (suitably haggard and haunted). Gave up after OGPU Prison as it was getting very predictable.