This is the result when your entire society has been indoctrinated to lie about everything for generations. In a system like theirs you can achieve great things only by focusing tremendous attention. This is why the USSR could build nukes and satellites but the tractors coming out of the factories were worth less than the raw materials that went in.
I think you are on to a fundamental difference: The Soviets and Russians I am certain had capable people at all levels, but their government system and military made it impossible for them to be capable overall.
They built a lot of hardware, and had a lot of people in uniform.
The hardware was not bad in some cases, not as good as ours in all cases, but adequate and somewhat capable in the hands of people who knew how to use it.
However, I never had the feeling they trained the same way our forces did, even in the Seventies when money was so tight we had trouble training. But we kept at it and trained hard the best way we could, even with a degradation of funds to do so.
Training, maintenance, and logistics. Those are the underpinnings, and I have always felt the Soviets and Russians lacked those things in depth.
But they have always had plenty of bodies to throw at things.
Just my opinion.
I have a Russian friend who immigrated in the late 1980's. He started as a janitor and is now working as a PhD in Cancer research at a prestigious school.
I asked why he left Russia, as an adult with a PhD. He said:
"I wanted to live in a country where I did not have to lie every day just to exist."