Angel and Tiggs

If you pay attention to some of Top Gun’s lines, Jasper says just before the first training session the US pilots would be competing against a similar fighter to a Mig-29. Still according to Jasper, the Migs are more agile and manoeuvrable. A roommate of mine, also watching the movie then asked me: “So why the hell would you fly an F-14 Tomcat?” Dmitry Putin… I mean, Medvedev, Russian’s president stated a couple of weeks ago that a major rearmament of the Russian Armed Forces is due to start in 2011. He’ll focus on buying, developing and improving conditions of his arsenal, but will also realign the Russian human resources policy (“the Alpha Group accuracy target”, a.k.a. “shoot to kill 99% of the time”).

Russia has been a fantastic military machine for centuries. Military uniforms are the second skin of millions of Russians. Forget for a second about the Red Army. The Great Russian Bear started teaching the world when Peter the Great, then a tsar, spent time and countless resources modernizing a gigantic but disorganized force. Time passed, and the Russians fought France, Britain, the German Wermarcht, went through a bloody Civil War, provoked the Americans for 45 years, and finally tried to kill James Bond until it fell onto an internal political and economical crisis. “Red” by the way has become an emblematic term for the Russian Army. Communism is over for more almost 20 years, and the officers do not shoot at privates retreating from German bombs anymore.

Things have changed. Russia found a lot of oil and natural commodities in its huge territory. And by blackmailing Europe and former Soviet republics (such as Ukraine), the good times of lavish military budgets are now back. The Army in Russia is not all about guns and weapons though.

CSKA is a major sports institution for many decades now. CSKA means Central Sports Club of Army. It’s a common name within former Soviet-occupied countries. You can call it the Red YMCA. The Russian Red Army Choir is another fantastic Russian organization closely affiliated with the Armed Forces there. It’s been my favourite choir for quite a long time for the symmetry and close-to-perfection performances, live and in studio. They sing everything; even recorded Go West with the Pet Shop Boys in the 90s.

Such a shame Russia’s economical prosperity will likely not see such duets happening again. I’m sure the Choir won’t have to sing for British gay duos to pay for their uniforms’ dry cleaning bills anymore.

You can check a fantastic marching performance with an instrumental version of Farewell of the Slavianka (my favourite Russian march) here.

Another magnificent video to check out is the Victory Day Parade at the Red Square
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpngaG5tDpA