Syria conflict: Russia's scars from Afghanistan

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow met some veterans of that Soviet war to find out what lessons were learnt.

Modern Russia often claims it has learnt the lessons of Afghanistan, and that never again will it allow itself to be sucked into a long bloody war, far from its borders.

Singer, songwriter and war veteran Vladimir Mazur hopes that is true.

"We lost so many young men in Afghanistan," he sings, "but there's no point grieving. We just have to make sure it never happens again."

At a war veterans' organisation in Moscow, he picks up his guitar and performs one of his songs. It's called Afghanistan Statistics.

"None of the soldiers who were in Afghanistan," he sings, "will ever forget it".

"One in five of us have nothing now in their lives. One in seven is divorced.

"One in eight came back with medals, only to be told, later, they were no heroes.

"One in nine has nightmares still. One in ten never returned. But war always claims lives."

Afghanistan claimed the lives of more than 15,000 Soviet soldiers. In his song, Vladimir Mazur describes the Afghan war as "a trap... a noose around our necks."

Mr Mazur served two years in Afghanistan as a conscript. He has written more than 150 songs about the conflict.

"Every soldier who was there thought about life and death," Vladimir recalls. "We all thought we might not make it out alive. I felt such a need to leave something of me behind on this Earth. So I began writing songs.

"The main lesson of Afghanistan is that politicians should think twice before getting involved in a military conflict. War is always bad. It shows the weakness of politicians."

Back to war

For a month now in Syria, Russian bombers have been carrying out air strikes, in what Moscow calls a war on international terrorism. Russia insists it will not deploy ground troops and that Syria will not become a second Afghanistan.

"We have a memory not only of Afghanistan, but also other wars in which Russia was involved. For us it's a very big issue," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told me.

"We are not willing or planning to be involved in a long-term war. We are providing a counter-terrorism operation there."

(BBC)