Soviet Moscow Gave Out Four Times More Hero Medals in Chechen War than in Afghanistan

[JPL]

This is not my area of interest, but came across this interesting news article that I thought might be of interest to those who are. The article states:

"The Russian defense ministry has named 322 of its soldiers Heroes of the Russian Federation for their actions in the two Chechen campaigns, nearly four times as many Heroes of the Soviet Union (85) that its Soviet predecessor handed out in Afghanistan, a product of the intensity of the Chechen war and of awards inflation in post-Soviet times. According to an article in the current issue of ?Sovershenno Sekretno,? the Russian defense ministry presented 559 soldiers and officers with the title Hero of the Russian Federation between 1992 and the end of 2008. Of these, 322 were awarded to participants in the army?s role in Chechnya."

The complete article, which contains more statistics, can be found here:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1328...556672397069633

Jean-Paul