Not a paper tiger by any means but I’m really left wondering about the quality of their equipment, battlefield technology and warfighter preparation
Would appear to me that their upper level leadership are/were all yes men and afraid to provide proper intelligence and Soldier/equipment preparedness stats to Putin. .
Both Russia and China focus on quantity over quality, as war is about attrition, and a nation focusing solely on quality will quickly become non-competitive.
Unfortunately, the quantity of equipment Russia once had was left to rust for decades in open air storage
Its manpower was destroyed by vodka and the highest abortion rate in the world.