Lex Libertas

Technorati Tags: Russia,uniform,military,портяни,portyanki

Deputy Minister of Defense, army general Vladimir Isakov, reported that the Russian military will completely change to a new uniform by the year 2011. Isakov noted that, despite the good reviews, boots and foot-wraps are a thing of the past, and the whole uniform will be more expensive than the current one.

The old and new uniforms differ, according to Isakov, mostly in their details. Different branches of service will have different types of uniforms, particularly their formal uniforms: the army will be in aqua, the air force in dark blue, and the navy in traditional black and white.

The new uniforms have been designed by a famous Russian designer, Valentin Yudashkin. The “foot-wraps” mentioned above are what Soviet soldiers wore instead of socks. Apparently they’re quite comfortable, multi-purpose, and dry pretty quickly. My friends who served say they’re better than socks for a soldier.

Russian recruits learning to properly tie their портянки (portyanki).

A helpful illustration for anyone who hasn’t gone through Russian basic training.

They even put on a fashion show to display the new designs.

Доброволец (Volunteer), has a very long post on the subject, with more pics.  In general, I like the new stuff, but some of it is just too imperialistic for me, too gaudy and 19th century.  I prefer more down-to-earth and functional, even in formal dress.

Putin’s Coming to Regulate! You have to admit, that’s a pretty cool shot.

Speaking at an industry conference this week, Putin, Russia’s former president and now prime minister, spoke five sentences critical of one of his country’s big steel companies, Mechel, and its billionaire chief executive, Igor Zyuzin.

In a sign of Putin’s enduring power in Russia and around the world, that criticism came with a price: about $1.2 billion per sentence in lost shareholder value.

Such is the power of Putin’s words - even after “stepping down” to prime minister in May - that shares in Mechel, a coal mining and steel company, plunged almost 38 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after Putin complained that the company was charging more to its domestic customers than to its foreign ones. The comments wiped out, at least for a day, about $6 billion in stockholder value.

That is power. Of course, it’s built on the fact that Putin can ignore the rules of the market, confiscate businesses, and throw people in jail. But still, power. You want to know why Russians love Putin? Because he’s shown that you can’t push Russia around anymore.

Of course, our President’s words also carry some weight, just not in the same authoritarian, “oh no, he’s going to nationalize the company” way. Bush says “let’s drill for oil,” and the price of a barrel goes down $10. That’s just him expressing a sentiment, without any actual drilling going on, and the market reacts by dropping. Imagine what would happen if we actually started drilling . . .

Update:

I’ve found the video of the speech, and I’m going to have to agree with Lyndon that it’s not just the words, but the tone of voice and gestures:

Also notable is the sigh at the beginning, before he starts to speak. And I love how he starts it off with “this is just an example.”

В отпуске следует читать длинные книги. Нет, вернее, так — в отпуске у нас появляется возможность читать длинные книги. То есть читать их правильным способом: не урывками на ночь, а наоборот — длинными кусками на легкую дневную голову. Именно такого читателя видит в радужных мечтах заканчивающий семьсот двадцать пятую страницу рукописи автор. С длинными романами сегодня дело обстоит хорошо. Их опять пишут, и многие выходят даже похожими на настоящие — с сюжетом, с кучей действующих лиц, с разговорами и моралью.

I know that I just said I won’t post politics, but this is too good to pass up. The front page of Kommersant, the most established and respected Russian newspaper, headlines Chavez’s visit to Russia:

Hugo Chavez offers Dmitry Medvedev his Hand and Heart
And asks Putin for Weapons

Уго Чавес предложил Дмитрию Медведеву руку и сердце
А у Владимира Путина попросил оружия

They’re really taking the piss here, in a way unusual for Kommersant.

Their greeting is also informative:

Seeing Dmitry Medvedev, Hugo Chavez raised his hands very high, but didn’t try to give him a brotherly hug - learning, apparently, from bitter experience, when about a year ago Putin skillfully slipped away from such embraces.

Увидев Дмитрия Медведева, Уго Чавес высоко поднял руки, но не предпринял попытки по-братски обняться, наученный, очевидно, горьким опытом, когда из таких объятий около года назад профессионально выскользнул президент России Владимир Путин.

I’m back in the States, and working in a position that, unfortunately, requires me to take a break from any real political blogging. This blog’s raison d’etre is starting to look like a yo-yo. It started out as a political project back in Spring ‘03, then morphed into a travel blog for most of my three and a half years in Russia. Since returning, my posting, while erratic, has gravitated back to political. Circumstances require that, once again, I turn to more cultural issues.

That’s not really a problem, since I have a huge amount of Russian culture post ideas that never got put down. Lots and lots of pictures and anecdotes. It’s actually for the better, since political blogging doesn’t really add a whole lot of value to the blogosphere, not nearly as much as personal experiences (excepting, of course, the “I had a shower, washed my hair, ate Frosted Mini-wheats” style blogs).

A rotating map of the world which shows where economic creation is concentrated.