Word: specializing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...military is in such deep decline that the dash last month by 200 of its airborne troops to Pristina airport--traveling over roads not much more dangerous than a Middle-American highway--was hailed as a major feat of arms. Morale is low throughout the Russian army, and the special forces are no exception. But unlike most Russian soldiers, the Spetsnaz have salable skills. They are snipers, explosives and communications specialists, experts in close combat and surveillance, trained to be cool under extreme pressure and to think for themselves. In the Russian marketplace today, that makes them perfect bodyguards...
...decline of the Spetsnaz--and the way the public's perception of these special forces has swung from adulation to cynicism--symbolizes the way Russia has lost its bearings, its hopes for the future and its ideals. An elite group like the Spetsnaz was held together by a belief in the system, as more than half a dozen soldiers interviewed by TIME recall. No longer. "I swore allegiance to Russia," says Alexei. "I don't identify the present regime with Russia." Many feel equally alienated from their corrupt commanders. A conversation with Sergei, a Spetsnaz noncommissioned officer, frequently drifts...
Equally striking is the way the public's view of the Spetsnaz has changed. Ten years ago, the special forces were regarded as the country's secret weapon, the men who had overthrown the President of Afghanistan in his own palace and would strike deep inside Western Europe if a new world war broke out. This has changed. The most popular video in Russia last year was Schizophrenia. An unremittingly bleak portrayal of modern Russia, it tells the story of a Spetsnaz-type officer who is framed by the security police and then forced to assassinate a banker planning...
...whose acronymic name derives from the four types of structures that its unusual athletes leap from--buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). Equipped with rectangular canopy chutes, toggles for steering, a knowledge of which way the wind is blowing, no reserve chutes (as compared with skydivers) and a special arrangement of brain cells, participants jump to conclusions from great and forbidden heights, or from little ones where a chute has little time to open. Until they release their chutes, they fall at 60 m.p.h. The end is often unsatisfactory...
Book merchants and publishers love it too. Amazon.com has designated a special area for teens online; chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble have begun to do the same in their stores (hint: look for teen racks near the coffee bar). To make the books more attractive to young people, publishers are printing them in larger sizes and illustrating their covers with bold colors and stylish graphics. They're also promoting the books on TV shows and in magazines that are popular with youngsters, as well as on websites...