Russian army soldiers in winter gearRap Earns Russian Soldier 'Exile' -- BBC
A Russian army lieutenant is being sent to the Russian Far East after making a rap video complaining about conditions in his St Petersburg barracks.
The video, posted on the Russian equivalent of YouTube, is set to the tune of "Stan", by US rapper Eminem.
In it the lieutenant laments the peeling walls and filthy bathroom and mouldy showers at his base.
But he is now being sent to Ussuriysk, a coal-mining town which is nine hours by air from Moscow.
The video - titled "A letter to the minister of defence" - features footage of the squalid living conditions in the barracks.
The soldier's musical complaint sees him read out an email he is writing to the Russian defence minister, asking what happened to the mortgages promised to soldiers to buy decent places to live.
And why did he never receive a reply to his previous letters, he asks?
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My Comment: The Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian President talk about grand designs and the development of new weapon systems, but the Russian grunts are living in squalid conditions and (if the Georgia war was any indication) outfitted with old military equipment.