The "big brother" syndrome has disappeared, but..... In the center of Dushanbe, a drunken ensign in a badly rumpled Russian army uniform clutched a dusty cap in his hands and could barely stand on his feet. The townspeople who passed by looked at him accusingly - somehow it is not customary among the local population to "lose face" in this way. A military patrol arrived just three minutes after a phone call to the commandant's office of one of the passers - by and took the violator of public order to the army "Ural". Unfortunately, such an episode is not the rule, but it is far from the exception for Russian servicemen in Tajikistan. But God forbid to indiscriminately accuse the commanders of this: they say, they did not catch up, did not anticipate... It happened on a weekend: and it is not possible to put a patrolman near every store where they sell alcohol. Yes, and punitive measures, sending to Russia or dismissing from the service for the smell of alcohol after a Sunday afternoon, will not solve the problem. There are plenty of examples of this: the "dry law" in America in the 20s, the infamous anti-alcohol campaign of 1985 in our country, during which so much firewood was broken, crippling the fate, breaking the career of many promising military personnel... One of the reasons, according to experts, is completely different: today the quality of selection of military personnel, and not only contract soldiers, for service abroad (Yugoslavia and "hot countries" where they pay dollars are an exception) not at all what it was before. Agree, it is impossible to compare how in the past years they literally rushed to join the groups of Soviet troops abroad, how carefully the personnel officers selected everyone, almost X-raying them. However, even then there were mistakes. But they were much rarer. Yes, today we have moved away from the "big brother syndrome" that was imposed earlier, and no one claims that a Russian person should be an example for others anywher ... Читать далее