Left over from cutting over 75% of their forces.
Obviously, when you disband large sections of your military you're probably going to keep your more elite units, since you'd probably prioritize, so the efficiency man per man is going to improve (such as if we cut out 90% of our forces but kept all the special forces). That being said, it's still not that high.
Would Russians suicide themselves in mass waves to defend territory in the Ukraine?
I don't imagine so. But, even if they did, they still are sorely lacking in their previous organization and even in total weapons, many of which they have been selling off, meaning it would just be a disorganized mob with guns at best even if they did. So it wouldn't even be as effective as the soviet army. Going around and flanking the enemy, going around and providing covering fire, advancing, following specific orders since you aren't personally aware of the bigger picture, but being able to piece it out and make decisions accordingly anyways, takes quite a while in training. It takes discipline to live as a soldier, to be able to use secure communication systems to transmit information. Anything that can be transmitted to a mob can be intercepted; sleeping out in the open territory, without any toilets, any way to brush your teeth, even basic equipment or the knowledge of how to use it, being ready to go 24/7 in case of a fight, keeping morale; soldiers live disciplined lives to teach them to live that way in combat. If you don't your "army" will just fall apart.
By the time they could rally people with guns to defend the New Soviet empire we'd probably have done most of the damage, and they probably wouldn't be any good.
Russia is still much smaller than the entire soviet union so, there's still a smaller pool of people to gather from even still.
Their spetsnaz are formidable, but other than that, we've been battling Russian tanks, guns, aircraft for the last 40 years in Vietnam, Iraq, South America, the Baltic states, pretty much everywhere.
All of their upgrades have been post poned or scrapped, with what few newer weapons or advanced technology going to select units in Spetsnaz, who are in general still not employed properly. In any case, these infantry aren't bullet proof. In open combat, without proper strategies, they more or less will lose.
Edited by Manoka, 04 June 2014 - 10:31 AM.
