&gt; everything that wasn&#x27;t bolted down disappearing<p>&gt; This same phenomenon was mirrored elsewhere in the ex-USSR<p>This wasn&#x27;t limited to military hardware. I visited Russia right after the dissolution (summer 92), and there as a mixture of celebration and uncertainty about what was going to fill the power vacuum.<p>Organized crime was simply <i>buying</i> both land and power. With the exchange rate crashing 5 RUB:USD per day[1], literally everyone was panicking to get hard currency or anything that would otherwise hold value. I wouldn&#x27;t surprise me if this attitude extended to military hardware if the price was right (and in the right currency).<p>[1] banks were giving ~95-100 RUB&#x2F;USD when I arrived. A bit over two weeks later it was &gt;180 RUB&#x2F;USD.