A Dangerous Relic

Three years ago, when I was in the Dniester region, I found myself in an army stockpile warehouse that even the building’s safety officer was afraid to enter. The warehouse contained mines and shells produced in the third decade of the last century. These should have been destroyed long ago, but no one had gotten around to it. As a result, there were stacks of wooden boxes, full of rusty ammunition that could explode at any moment.

The Russian military machine is a bit like this huge warehouse, its contents threatening not Russia’s enemies, but its own citizens.