Afghan war still haunts Russian vets

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http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=92d8a77b-9fbc-4291-aab6-e7c2cd8b2159&k=52131

RUSA, Russia - At a beautifully appointed former Communist Party Central Committee sanatorium beside a lake about 80 kilometres from Moscow's northern boundary, the Red Army's war in Afghanistan is recalled constantly by patients and medical staff at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Afghan Veterans.

Soviet troops spent a decade fighting in Afghanistan. About 900,000 Soviet men and women served there. As many as 15,000 of them died. Another 75,000 were wounded. An average tour was 110 weeks.

To this day many of the survivors cannot forget their Afghan experiences. As many as 6,000 of them still come every year to Rusa, to one of the five veteran's rehab centres across Russia.

Viktor Galuca, a former corporal, served for two years on helicopters, flying with a Special Forces unit from exactly the same airfield at Kandahar that is now home to the 2,500 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Home more than 24 years now in Rostov-na Donu, near the Black Sea, Galuca travelled 1,000 kilometres to Rusa recently for what he termed "social and psychological'' help.