A plan to replace Soviet-era Russian military uniforms with ones by a leading fashion designer has been abandoned because of a lack of money.

The plan to bring in the new uniforms, designed by Valentin Yudashkin, was supported by Russian PM Vladimir Putin.

There is now only enough money to pay for uniforms for soldiers taking part in the forthcoming Victory Day parade.

Everyone else, it seems, will remain in the rather drab olive shades Russia inherited from the former Soviet Union.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8029632.stm

Is this country, which can't afford new uniforms for its soldiers and whose fleet of Mig-29s is grounded for lack of maintenance, the same one that proudly laid territorial claim to the North Pole, that seeks a hegemony over the "near abroad," and that somehow found billions to bribe Tajikistan to remove U.S. bases there?