Georgia vs. Russia

Sorry, I don't agree...some experts say that Russia is The Greatest power cause she has the best weapon you need in order to win a war: "man power". They have millions of soliders, and as a nation they've already proven themselves in World War 2, after Stalingrad.

And regarding the old wepons and tanks...they are probably using them cause they don't think it's a major task for their army. And the old tanks should get out of service anyways, so it's no loss if one gets blown away. This is my personal opinion, it can be wrong.

But this dosen't explain why the soliders are so bad equiped (uniforms, boots, helmets, kevlar vests, etc.).


P.S. I know from an article I've read some years a go, that the US Army also used (in both Iraq Wars) old bombs in some operations, and they have also fired out-of-date shells in some artillery bombing situations, in order to use as many old weponary they could...

Unfortunately for russians,the "man power" is their bigest problem.Year after year only a third of potential conscripts show up at the recruting points and a good part of them are not fit medicaly for service.In their disperation,since last year,they started conscripting university students,and only a few weeks ago the Duma passed a law alowing Militia to arest pontential conscripts in the streets.Military service is seen in russian society as hard labour.
http://www.soldiersmothers.spb.org/eng/Rep...Testimonies.htm

@ guina if what you say is true that means they face a big problem. Where did you get this info? It is not that I don;t belive you, but a few months a go Putin said on TV that Russia will soon be what once URSS was, one of the biggest Military Powers on Earth.
Why do you say that "a good part of them are not fit medicaly"? Do you have some info's? I am curious why they fail to pass the medical exam....

About that site you've linked your post to, I wanna give you a friendly advice: every mother from every Country can say that, you can't trust the content. Many people were against the Checeny conflict, including Russians.

Anyways, if you know this for sure you gave us SUPER informations...

Hi SS,
Almost all the info. on russian army is free on the web.Just google the world "dedovschina" and you'll have tons of info.For ex
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/russia1004/6.htm
If you'll look for the budget of Russian Federation ( State Duma site) you will find out,for ex.,in the last 8 years ,less than 100 new tanks ( T 90 )were bought by the army
And if the tv media is strictly controled,not so for the press where you can find lots of useful info.Also useful the reports of Livadia Center.And so on.

Somebody said yesterday,that Russian federation is the same as Saudi Arabia only with trees

and
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=19313

A more comprehensive site
http://bd.english.fom.ru/cat/societas/prob...oc/army_problem

Iportant point of vew by Andrei Ilarionov,former economic advisor to Putin.He lives in Moscow !
http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=5585

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/16/europe/17military.php

Excelent article.It sumarises,mor or less,what its known until now.

Russia is overrated in Eastern Europe. Facts say a different story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...f_active_troops

Russia has fewer soldiers than the USA. And please consider that Russia still uses conscripts, few of those soldiers are actuality professionals like those in the USA.

And when talking about military budget the situation is far worst for Russia. It spends less than 8% of what the US does on military. Yes, 8%. And please consider that this is after the massive increases in budget under the Putin era combined with the strong growth that Russian economy had. Ten years ago the situation was far worst, and the years (I dare say a whole decade) of under funding has left deep scars in the Russian military equipments (maintenance, acquisition, technology, infrastructure). All this understandable since Russia’s GDP (the size of the economy) is 9% of that of the USA.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...ry_expenditures

In conclusion Russia is a great power(military speaking). But so are Germany, France, UK, Japan and Italy. And above great powers are the superpowers, we have only one so far: the USA.
This is by no means a small achievement for Russia since it's not a fist world country like those mentioned above. Russia is still a developing country like Romania, so them having such a strong military is admirable.

Thats my point also,but they have nukes and plenty of them.How about " Topol M"?

Yes it’s true, they have the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_powers )However, considering their insane numbers it’s actually a drain on their budget. They have a fraction of the US military budget but have more nukes than them. If they were to cut the number of warheads by some 75% they would still be the second nuclear power, have more nukes than the rest of the world combined(except US) and save billions that can be used to buy equipment or invest in research. Of course me giving advice to them is pointless.

Well, US interventions in Irak, Afghanistan and, why not, Kosovo, were highly publicized affairs, with media all around the world showing the military awesomeness of the United States. They deployed thousands of troops and waited for maximum edge with state of the art technology in order to advance and win the day.

On the other hand, Russia deployed several divisions with obsolete technology and advanced slowly but steadly until they achieved the desired objecitves.

It's only me, or the US Army has a strong advertising department?

I’m sorry I don’t see the connection between them. One is a military intervention thousands of km away from the national soil, which was the case in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia. The other is a military intervention against a neighbor. In the first case all countries put forward a military resistance, in the case of Georgia there was little to none. In the first situation the logistics necessary to launch such an operation are impressive. In the second case, the logistics necessary are available to Romania too. Yes, if we were to invade Moldavia we could have mustered the same number of troops the Russian did.

If Russia wanted to invade Iraq, do you think it could? It needs aircraft carriers in order to do that. Russia barely has two as far as I know, compared to 11 of the USA. Not to mention that Russian ones are smaller. Furthermore, it will also need bases to refuel etc.

So the media around the world showed the facts about the USA. Today it does the same about Russia. That’s why nobody’s impressed.

As far as the marketing department of the USA we can only speculate in the absence of real studies, analyses. But considering the huge difference between Russia and the USA in every aspect than yes, it’s probably better.

Funny thought to invade Rep. of M. It would be the bigest economic desaster for R. in all its history,even if nobady intervened.Look how long it took GFR to swalow DDR,and german economy......
Anyway its out of topic.

PS Russia have only one AC,"Amiral Kuznetsov ",the second one,unfinished,was sold to China and is now a casino-hotel.