russia has some spectacular tech but they haven't integrated enough of it into their military yet. most of their stuff is leftover from the cold-war era, but surely under putin that will change.
I recently read 'One Soldiers War' about a soldier who served in Chechnya in the 90's and early 2000's....its a conscript army with very low morale, high corruption, theft and mismanagement.
They'd all fired a gun ONCE before going to combat and were not trained in any tactics, and their time at base in Chechnya was spent getting severely beaten on a daily basis. Some getting their jaws broken, lungs punctured, flying out windows....this from their own people who had served longer. The author was almost even raped in the toilets.
Many ex-prisoners and people with on-going criminal investigations join because if they get a medal they can lose the convictions or just keep staying in the Army and be safe.
The author made it sound like the current army is like a prisoner division.
The officers are often drunk and the leadership still has a cannon-fodder mentality for their troops like they had in WWII.
