The more than unfortunate situation which characterizes the state of affairs in Russias armed forces, which can in no way be said to have emerged from the state of virtually nonexistent reforms, and are not capable, even in principle, of carrying out their task of guaranteeing the nations security, has already affected even the elite units known as the special operations forces [in Russian, sily spetsialnogo naznacheniia, or spetsnazfor short]. Such units exist in Russia at the present time, not only in the army, but in all of the countrys other force ministries as well. They are directly subordinate to the Russian president, and act on his orders or on the orders of other officials who have been given special authority by the CommanderinChief. And as has already happened more than once in recent years, they will be used by the Russian leadership to put pressure on political rivals and to achieve other goals rising out of a possible increase in tensions in the country. There is a broad spectrum of such forces in Russia, ranging from the army, where dolphins and beluga whales, especially trained by specialists of the Defense Ministrys Scientific Research Center No. 172, serve as underwater saboteurs, to social structures worthy of the attentions of the Russian special services. 1 But the units which are of the greatest interest are those which enable Russias rulers to achieve their political goals.

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