The Russian army is embroiled in an embarrassing scandal after 200 of its tanks were found abandoned near a forest in central Russia, unguarded and unlocked.
A news website near the city of Yekaterinburg posted a video of the forgotten tanks showing passers-by clambering inside the vehicles and playing with empty ammunition belts. The only items that seemed to be missing were live rounds and the keys to the tanks’ ignitions.
“There are tanks all over the forest, abandoned,” an unnamed reporter on the video says. “If you need one, come and get it.”
Locals in a nearby village said the tanks had been sitting there for almost four months covered in snow. The armoured vehicles were identified as a mixture of T-80 and T-72 battle tanks, the workhorses of the Russian army.
“We were shocked,” Pavel L, a local, told Russian media. “It is like you can sit behind the wheel, start up the engine and drive off and nobody would notice!”
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Looks like Ivan never learned to put his toys away when he was a little boy.
mid island mike
Maybe it was a ‘used tank lot’ and Ivan the Salesman popped out for a shot of vodka.
Mind you, one needs a lot of vodka to live in mother Russia.
Hey, whoever stole my Red Star, please return it.