He must have been doing this the whole time right? Otherwise how could they be doing so poorly?
I've been assuming Putin's been calling the shots all by himself in terms of military movements this entire time.
When you make your subordinates so scared to voice an opinion that is not an agreement with yours that they become yes men or fall out of a window, you essentially are running the thing by yourself the whole time.
Never interfere with the enemy while he is in the process of making a mistake.
Sounds like his generals should facilitate a regime change, and put someone competent in charge.
Careful what you wish for. The generals are horny for war too and they just might be less shit at war than Putler is.
Advancement in Russia is loyalty based, not merit based. Anybody who says the mobiks aren't getting the equipment or training they need gets removed/disappeared. A lot of military command does nothing on purpose so they just get shuffled around to a different position rather than excel/fail and put a bullseye on their backs.
The generals lack the necessary imagination. Each one can only imagine his own glorious reign and cannot imagine another person ever doing the same. So when something happens to Putin, they can only fight to the death among themselves and their followers. It is what happened in the minds of the most competent generals of Alexander the Great, Leonidas and Genghis Khan. Their nations, relatively law-abiding, stable and prosperous, reverted to (old and familiar) blood soaked chaos within a few years. It will happen again.
They are all yes men without a spine selected by pooptin exactly for those qualities
Really cosplaying Nicholas II here
Whatever nuclear weapons, that haven't been pillaged for fuel, uranium, and scrap, are probably so poorly built and maintained that Putin is likely worried about accidentally nuking Russia.
Their nukes are fine. Unfortunately. The US made periodic inspections on them, as the Russians did to the ones US has. I belive it was a part of the new start treaty.
The inspections were purely a stock take. Missile 1990-cccp-100 still in silo 123 in Buttfuck Siberia. Tick.
Looking at a missile from 25m away will not tell you if the tritium has deteriorated past usability, now will it tell you if the electronics have failed or components corroded past usability.
The closest to an inspection done is that one treaty (there are several arms limitations treaties USSR & USA signed which Russia continued, plus ones signed by Russia post USSR) limits the number of warheads in total that multi launch vehicles can have, so they get to see the warhead rather than just a missile.
The warheads could be full of cotton candy as far as the inspectors know though, again, count devices, check against list.
NO american is testing the functionality or capability of these weapons.
Even if you doubt me (and I can dig out sources) here's a thought experiment:
Would the US sign a treaty that allowed Russian engineers to dissassemble and test the functionality of a US nuke ?
If you think they would I have a nice one owner bridge going cheap.
Yes but also recognize the military is below oligarchs and the local mafias in power. They regularly extort money from them and, sadly, rape them too. Being in the russian army is just ditch-digger with uniforms.
In part because a powerful military is a threat to Pooty-poot. Anyone who’s competent has to act otherwise to get promoted, and competent-and-famous military men are inevitably suicided for the same reason. Corruption, as it turns out, is bad.
See more here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1502673952572854278.html
Never go full Hitler...
I mean, never go part Hitler either. But definitely don't go full Hitler.
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