that is exactly what I was thinking, the Russian small arms are better than Western arms for the untrained conscripts but not for a professional fighting force.
Yup... and Russian military thinking is outdated and does not correspond to the requirements of a professional volunteer army. Russia is moving in this direction to replace the old Soviet conscript force with one that is better paid, better equipped and better trained. The criticism of Serdyukov is simply unfair. Russia should buy arms abroad when they are of better quality and do the job at less cost. The old Soviet thinking will take time to change.