A holdover from the Soviet era.
An era that never ended for their leadership.
A holdover from the Soviet era.
“I mean, you take your average Russki, we all know how much guts he's got. Hell, lookit all them Nazis killed off and they still wouldn't quit.” - General "Buck" Turgidson (Dr. Strangelove)
I don't think that Putin cares about Russian losses. (And he has a lot of nukes. What could possibly go wrong?)