The Russian Army has been resistant to changing from a Cold War configuration to confronting the new threats of the 21st Century. It needs to shed its manpower and become a professional, mobile all-volunteer force. Perhaps the horror of Beslan will begin to bring about the necessary changes.
Your point is well taken, they have a very entrenched bunch of generals. But I also doubt they can afford to pay for a modern Army. And Putin seems to like to play with submarines from the cold war era. Maybe this will change his mind.
I agree. Putin is a good man. They only need to shed the cold war overhead and the army will be just fine.