system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
How absolutely incompetent the Russian military is
gpt
This. The corruption, too, it really hit home.

&amp;#x200B;

I had heard it. Years ago, there's articles. Basically organized crime there literally pimps out members of the military and the military does nothing to protect new soldiers. The FSB (their version of the FBI) is basically Putin's police force and he uses them to make sure that the army isn't strong. Because he doesn't want a standing army that may be able to rise against him. So the military doesn't get money, the FSB does.

&amp;#x200B;

And all the tech. Showing off vehicles and robots-that-are-just-guys-in-suits. We saw it all, they wanted us to. But we also saw the corruption. How could we not when Putin was considered one of the wealthiest men on the planet. If you know anything about corruption, when you are in an environment where you see corruption done and unpunished, you know that it just means there will be more, because other people see it and emulate it.

&amp;#x200B;

It should have easily been put together beforehand. But not until we saw the crappy drones made from a camera glued into a radioshack drone, and remembered that they had a thousand of those, bought for $100,000 each. And their tanks and vehicles just dying to gunfire (the thing tanks aren't supposed to do, if properly maintained). And it all comes together:

Years of shitting on the army. Underfunding the military. Encouraging corruption. And no matter how badass the photo-ops they liked to show, when those guys got out there they were going to get chewed up. And they were. And Putin doesn't care. Full sociopath. "Send more men." Take them from their jobs, take them from prisons, take them from schools and jobs and give them whatever you have, which at this point is literally toy body armor for children.