The Chechen War may come to be seen as one of the greatest disasters in Russian military history, not because of Russian losses, which have been limited, but because of what Chechnya says about the humiliating depths of contemporary Russia's military decline. Quite simply, the Russian army today is weaker than it has been for almost four hundred years-a fact which, if it persists, may be of incalculable significance for the future of Eurasia.
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