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> everything that wasn't bolted down disappearing > This same phenomenon was mirrored elsewhere in the ex-USSR This wasn't limited to military hardware. I vis
by pdkl95 11y ago
> everything that wasn't bolted down disappearing
> This same phenomenon was mirrored elsewhere in the ex-USSR
This wasn't limited to military hardware. I visited Russia right after the dissolution (summer 92), and there as a mixture of celebration and uncertainty about what was going to fill the power vacuum.
Organized crime was simply buying both land and power. With the exchange rate crashing 5 RUB:USD per day[1], literally everyone was panicking to get hard currency or anything that would otherwise hold value. I wouldn't surprise me if this attitude extended to military hardware if the price was right (and in the right currency).
[1] banks were giving ~95-100 RUB/USD when I arrived. A bit over two weeks later it was >180 RUB/USD.
- jacquesm 11y ago> I wouldn't surprise me if this attitude extended to military hardware if the price was right (and in the right currency). It did. I was in Krosno visiting there right up against the Ukranian border (about 35 km) around that time and there was a 'black market' there that sold just about anything that could be carted across the border or that could move by itself. Regular army gear (including weapons and munition) were openly for sale, vehicles as many as you wanted and 'larger stuff' (unspecified but it was pretty clear what they meant) to order. Apparently you could even buy warplanes if you had the means to pick them up, and one dutch scrap metal trader did just that (and promptly got caught with 2 more-or-less combat ready Mig 21's at the Dutch border in a large truck...).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]