Disposable Soldiers
or why Russia is facing a massive morale problem. The senior generals at the Ministry of Defense are acting as if it's still the Soviet Union, in which soldiers' lives can be spent like water and the people back home can be given the mushroom treatment, with glowing propaganda and the knowledge that questioning it can get you sent to the GULAG. Today's soldiers have smartphones, even when the devices are officially forbidden, and are able to communicate with family back home -- and those family members no longer fear being disappeared if they insist on knowing what's happened to their sons (who, given the demographics of post-Soviet Russia, are often the family's only son, if not their only child).
Furthermore, there's the corruption that had its roots in Soviet-era workarounds for bad central planning and has only gotten worse since the Soviet Union fell. Way too many officers are getting their positions as a result of knowing the right person, and prove incapable when in the field. Many of them have spent more time and effort fattening their own wallets by selling off or otherwise misappropriating the resources that were supposed to sustain the fighting forces.
Furthermore, there's the corruption that had its roots in Soviet-era workarounds for bad central planning and has only gotten worse since the Soviet Union fell. Way too many officers are getting their positions as a result of knowing the right person, and prove incapable when in the field. Many of them have spent more time and effort fattening their own wallets by selling off or otherwise misappropriating the resources that were supposed to sustain the fighting forces.