When Soviet soldiers withdrew from the GDR 30 years ago and the National People’s Army merged into the Bundeswehr, the West was able to look behind the scenes of the Cold War for the first time. But what he did see there: barracks without a sewage system, heating systems that became a “danger for the operators” (of the then military commissioner Alfred Biehle), junk weapon systems, military training areas contaminated with toxic chemicals and even the citizens of the GDR felt sorry for the Red Army. The once feared Warsaw Pact armies turned out to be shaky giants.
250 billion for the Russian army
Basically, not much has changed since then. The invasion of Afghanistan ended in a disturbing defeat for the Soviet Union shortly before the turning point. In the two wars in Chechnya, Russia did not win hearts, only bombed cities. The Georgian war was a show of force, but it only lasted five days. And in Syria, the Kremlin troops have successfully defended the Assad regime, but they are also involved in the ongoing fighting of the collapsing state with no prospect of an end. In 2014, when Crimea was annexed, it became apparent that the Russian army was backward in many areas. Four years later, Putin announced a comprehensive modernization, taken around.
Apparently, however, this sum did not really increase the clout of the Russian military. At least not sustainably. Instead of overrunning the country in a matter of days or weeks, as many observers expected, as was the case with the Ukraine invasion, the Russians are busy cutting their losses. Even if the outcome of the invasion is not yet foreseeable, the invasion failed as a blitzkrieg.
“How ailing is Russia’s army?”
“The Russian leadership must have expected a completely different war, and then they were technically not able to cope with the real situation,” says Ralf Raths, director of the German Tank Museum in an interview with the star. And his latest issue: “How ailing is Russia’s army?”
Source: Stern
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