I noticed how young those troops look but then I look back to my basic training photo and I looked like that. That was about 40 years and 100 lbs ago.
A couple years ago I read a memoir by a Russian who had been drafted and served in Chechnya. Their military at that time was notorious for its brutality through the ranks. Corporals beat up privates, sergeants beat up corporals, etc. all the way up. Supposedly they have reformed things since then, but who knows? That photo may in fact be of new “recruits” fresh off the bus but they look an awful lot like the kind of half starved kids the Russians threw into the Grozny meat grinder. Americans who have served alongside Turks testify to their toughness so the Russians ought not be thinking they’re like your typical Arab troops or disorganized Afghan rebels. They’re a whole different animal on several levels.