Not the right look Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. Once upon a time, back in the days when I was a military journalist, on one of the ships of the Pacific Fleet I observed the following picture: An admiral stepped onto the ship’s deck. He was met by the ship’s deputy commander for the political unit (there used to be a position like that in those days, simply referred to as “zampolit” [an abbreviation equivalent to “DepPolit” in English—Trans.]). I knew the zampolit (let’s call him Anatoly) well – he was a principled and decent young man. The admiral immediately started to rant, the moment he set foot on deck: you’re doing this all wrong, and this is bad too… Anatoly explained that the ship was in port for a major overhaul, all life-support systems had been turned off, and therefore there was only so much that could be done to keep things shipshape. Realizing that he had been in error, the admiral thought for a moment, and then suddenly turned and asked the zampolit: “And why isn’t your hair cut?” Anatoly, apparently, hadn’t expected such a radical transition from one topic to the next, and he hesitated with his answer. The admiral went off on all cylinders: he now howled at the officer for not having his hair cut. He had already completely forgotten about the disorder on the ship. This ability of some officials to seize upon something that has nothing whatsoever to do with either the matter at hand or with the law continues to – no, not amaze me, but to shock me. Photo: FSIN general Oleg Filimonov (source)