“As for foreign small arms, let’s take, for instance, American and Israeli arms. They are high precision weapons, but they are designed for very accurate and responsible soldiers, who do not forget to clean them. I believe that it is unrealistic and unnecessary for Russia to purchase small arms from other countries,” the expert said.”
There is a lot of information in this statement.
There sure is.
Yeah, that "expert" is saying that even if Russia goes to a smaller professional army, they will continue to be equipped as if they were expendable peasants. A professional soldier would no more purposely mistreat his most important piece of equipment (rifle) than a cavalry trooper would mistreat his horse. Both are their primary means of survival.
The legendary reliability of the AK series comes from the large amount of combustion gas it bleeds off to really "kick" the action hard, in case it's dirty, muddy, etc. This tends to eventually crack milled receivers, and loosen rivets on the stamped versions. Add in lousy ergonomics (miserable sights, sharp, clumsy, and noisy safety), and western battle rifles look positively luxurious, especially with good optics on them.
The only exception is the Swiss Sig 550-series of 5.56mm rifles. It uses the Kalashnikov bolt and gas system, but otherwise it was redesigned and built like a Rolex.
I was introduced to the M16A1 in 1970, when our training cycle in Basic used the M16 for the entire course. It was fun and easy to shoot, preventing flinching and other bad habits. I had no trouble hitting targets at 300m, which is over twice the average range that the Army has engaged the enemy in all battles since 1776.
Once you convince yourself that you and your rifle have the ability to overcome the enemy at any reasonable (and a few unreasonable) ranges, then concern and uncertainty vanishes, letting you concentrate on other skills.
It's one thing when the commies flooded the third world with 40-50 million AKs, but that market is pretty much saturated now. You can buy as many as you want at $5-10 in any hellhole in the world. But if you're a pro, you need and demand something much better.