Well, it's not like competent officers in Russian army disappeared in 1990, after Afghanistan War, and then reappeared in 1999, in 2-nd Chechen War. The main reason wasn't that Russia had not enough military power or competent officers to crush separatists and insurgents. But rather that there were influential people in Russia who had profit from that war and who didn't want insurgency to be defeated. Once those people lost their influence and moved to London, it took only a few years to destroy organized resistance there.The only way to lose that war was by having extremely incompetent officers in command.
There's nothing wishful in having your country leadership corrupt beyond all repair. For evidences google Berezovsky and his involvement in Chechen War and organized crime in Russia.Any evidence or is it just wishful thinking?
In both Chechen Wars. Russian military wasn't in any better shape in 1999, comparing to 1995. The difference between the first and the second wars was the presence of political will to win it. Whatever dismal state Russian military was in, suggesting it was unable to defeat several thousands of separatists on its own territory is naive. Separatists whose officers had the same education and training as Russian officers, but didn't have air support nor heavy weaponry.Because there are tons of reading about fails of Russian army in Chechen wars, from leadership to tanks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...live-after-crash-as-post-oil-path-takes-shapeRussia’s famously boom-and-bust economy is already turning heads. A contraction in the first quarter was smaller than all but one forecast in a Bloomberg survey, meaning the nation’s longest recession in two decades may end as soon as next quarter. The 1.2 percent drop in gross domestic product from a year earlier was the smallest since the decline began at the start of 2015.
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To measure the vital signs of the economy, look to industries including agriculture, whose share in GDP last year rose to 4.4 percent, the highest since 2003. The success of farmers -- boosted by a weaker ruble and tit-for-tat sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine -- was one reason last year’s economic contraction of 3.7 percent was less than half the decline during the last recession, in 2009.
The legacy of the crisis so far also includes such outperformers as the information technology industry, where output soared 28 percent last year, with pharmaceuticals adding 8.8 percent and chemicals climbing 4.4 percent. No breakdown by industry is yet available for this year.