"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...
"Michael Petukhov" wrote in message
Note also unfortunately we have no an ocean between us, only land.

If not all this we would have 100,000 army to guard the borders.
In reallity however given all local and global factors the minimal
peace time army (according to our own estimates, which are the
only matters) is around 1,000,000.


Trouble is this 1 million strong army is inadequately trained and
equipped. Large ill trained and ill equipped conscript armies
have historically done rather badly in combat against smaller
more efficient units
An important point also is that USSR had significantly shorter border
to guard. Moreover USSR border had much better geography properties
in terms of guarding, therefore it was much easy and less costly
to guard.


Which means you have to use the resources you have
to best advantage. The feeling in the British Army which
is committed to rather more than just defense of the UK
is that they dont want conscripts. Modern weapons
and tactics mean you just get the buggers trained and
you lose em.

I agree with your main point (professional army better for Russia now) but
honestly, couldn't we put this "conscripts no use in modern warfare" crap to
rest? It sort of gets tiresome seeing it repeated everywhere with no basis
whatsoever.