Damn Russkies! Always ahead of everyone else. Looks like they were the first to clone a mammal in ... 1987! That's right 10 years before Dolly the sheep, there was Makhka the mouse. To give some credit to Scottish scientists, both experiments were done differently. Soviets used embrio DNA, Scots used DNA of a grown animal. Not that it makes any difference.

>>* An Army painted like that wouldn't do much of what has been done already.<<

An army that does most of its fighting from air, with superior weapons of mass destruction--I wouldn't be surprised.

>>The Russian conscripts are suffering from dangerously low morale ...
>>* An Army painted like that wouldn't do much of what has been done already.

Don't worry Kisako. Media burried Russian Army when it faught in lowlands of Chechnya, media burries R. Army when it fights in the mountains, media will burry R. Army when it destroys the last terrorists' group. (Not the last individual, that would be somewhat hard to do).

Dimitri, Here a way of looking at it. You have a Captain in the field who see that things are not as good as they seem but when reporting to his superior offercer who does not want to hear excuses and just results the captain goes, well things are going as planned and does not mention the negatives. That officer reporting to the General, then passes along the news things are going good plus throws in a few extra possitive things , because hey he wants to look good and be a general also. The General has to go before TV, wants to look like hes in total control and reports what he thinks the public wants to hear. It will be over real soon. I think it is simplistic way to put it. But what the hell.

>>An army that does most of its fighting from air, with superior weapons of mass destruction--I wouldn't be surprised.

Yes, those Americans are ... err ... wait a minute.

>>I'm affraid I can't be patient enough to explain my point over and over again.<<

What point?

BTW, that's Mashka the mouse.

Yea but guys another way to look at it..an ARmy with vey low morale with a lot more guys, better weapons and an air force to back them up can still be more effective against a army with high morale which is much smaller, not as well armed and no air force

Kisako,

We have to understand one thing here. The Russians have an unlimited stockpile of weapons. The Chechens are against impossible odds. You make it sound like the war started yesterday. How senseless can you be? For the past six months, 5,000 lightly-armed Chechen warriors fighting on flat, open terrain that favors air, armor and artillery, have held 100,000 Russian troops, backed by regiments of heavy guns and rockets, helicopter gunships, ground attack aircraft, and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles.

The rebels, most without any formal military training, have no heavy weapons and are chronically short of radios, anti-tank rockets and even small-arms ammunition. There is almost no medicine or morphine for their wounded, and no shelter from massive Russian bombardment that includes banned fuel air explosives, toxic gas, and napalm. It takes a lot of courage and determination to withstand such viscious assaults.
Credit should be given where it is due.

Of course Russian Army has low morale. Why? Because Western Media says so, that's why. Do you think Western Media will print any of the stories that shows morale level of the rest (reads most) of the Russian Army? Of course they won't, so that's why Russian Army's morale is low. And since we agreed that Russian Army's morale is low let's talk about something else. For example how Russian Army with low morale (and with better weapons and air support, Gonzo!) doing what it suppose to do --- killing off terrorists.

The rebels, most without any formal military training,
Yeah, each "conscript" (reads brainwashed young men) was trained for at least 3 years. I won't even talk about mercenaries and warlords who had up to and over 15 years of experiens in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Abkhazia, Chechnya, etc, etc.
have no heavy weapons and are chronically short of radios, anti-tank rockets and even small-arms ammunition.
So sick to hear this lame point. Chechens were very well supplied, they had 8 years to do so. The only thing they didn't have is fighter planes. They had small sport planes, helicopters, tanks, all sort of armoured vehicles, anti-aircraft weapons, the list goes on and on. Heck, they even had few factories that produced weapons in Chechnya. Please, find another lame excuse.
There is almost no medicine or morphine for their wounded,
Same BS, they had plenty of stuff. Plenty of all sorts of drugs in Chechnya, actually usually they got high before going into battles. I won't even mention Chechen nurses that worked in Russian hospitals (sorry to stereotype, but many many were caught stealing medicaments for the rebels).
and no shelter from massive Russian bombardment
No shelters except Soviet Era built that can withstand atomic blasts. Plenty of caves too.
that includes banned fuel air explosives,
Not banned and not even used.
toxic gas,
Yeah, also atomic bombs!
and napalm.
Not sure, probably not banned and not used.
It takes a lot of courage and determination to withstand such viscious assaults.
Oh just simply not able to run away because all the borders are blocked.
Credit should be given where it is due.
Sure why not. I hope you are happy in Eternal Paradise. To make it happier for you, Russians will send more of your friends mujahideen up there soon.

As far as this banned air fuel bombs or what ever. I love it when people say hey this weapon or that is banned. Did Russia sign a treaty saying it too would not use air fuel bombs or what ever...no. So the weapon is not banned. Just like the USA droping cluster bombs. The USA never signed a treaty saying it would not use such weapons. So untill a country uses a weapon that they signed a treaty saying they wouldn't use the weapon is not banned. Or you can put it this way, the USA used cluster-bombs which the Danish army is banned from using...or something like that.

As far as an Army doing most of its fighting from the air...what is wrong with that. There is nothing macho about having umteen of your guys killed taking a hill on the ground instead of just using a few planes to knock the other guy off the hill.

Thank you Chechens, keep up the pressure on Russia. As long as Russia is fragmented and weak(in perception or reality). Foreign capital and investment will not flow into the country.

Russia will be considered an unstable economic no no area and the ruble will be renamed the rubble!

Russians - Get ready for meltdown

psst... I think I'll increase my short postions in the ruble!

psst... I think I'll increase my short postions in the ruble!
* Increase the size of Your shorts!