I’m oddly (and pleasantly) surprised that a military culture who watched the western bloc emphasize mobile, nimble war-making for 70 years is waging war in the opposite manner.
The Russian military have reinforced their military even deeper into a top-down, rather inefficient hierarchy even while watching the remarkable success of maneuver warfare demonstrated by Desert Storm. They’ve had plenty of time, resources, and motivation to become more effective, but have not.
in particular, there seems to be zero emphasis from the Russians on the principles of surprise, morale, flexibility, sustainability, multi-level command cooperation or empowerment to make small group decisions.
As a point of discussion, how does the Russian societal and leadership culture keep the Russian military from evolving?
-How much is it affected by the culture of corruption? (I saw my predecessors game the system for personal gain, now it’s MY turn)
-Is there truly a technological use/development divide?
-are their nuclear forces as screwed up as their conventional military?