The Christian Science Monitor reports today that the Red Army practice of senior non-commissioned officers maintaining discipline through beatings and torture of junior enlisted soldiers continues in the Russian Army, despite Putin's stated intent to reform the military.The "rule of the grandfathers," or dedovshchina as it is called in Russian, is not discussed very often in the media as the CS says, but it is not a surprise to those who studied the USSR during the Cold War.  What is surprising is that there has been virtually no headway in ridding the Russian army of what amounts to barracks thuggery and extortion in an organization that is trying to become a modern, volunteer force.  However, instilling a ruthless and brutal nature in soldiers does not necessarily mean that an army is incapable of conducting effective combat operations; just ask some soldiers from a few newly independent former Soviet republics who have been on the receiving end of a Russian...(Read Full Post)