Russian students off to the Army

[RusCan2013]

Apparently, from now on, Russian post-secondary students attending military kafedra training courses

will be sent to bases and serve active duty during summer holidays and such.
http://www.interfax-russia.ru/view.asp?id=383095

Before, you could get an exception from regular conscription, if you went to university and attended these military kafedra courses. Not anymore.

I don't know... It's weird in Russia right now. You have the regular armed forces, which are about 1 million strong, bloated, full of under-trained and under-educated young conscripted soldiers

and sailors

just 18, 19 year old boys drafted straight from school.

They have heart though. Apparently, 58th Army did okay against the NATO-trained and armed Georgian force in 2008

The Russian military has elite forces too:

Airborne/Paratroopers

Naval Infantry/Marines

Specnaz/Special Forces

Border Defence Troops

There are also various "ethnic" units, like the Chechen Battalion 600

and various Cossack militias

It is a mess. All these units have very poor communication with one another, which hurt them even during the Georgian War.

 

[muscogeemike]

All of what you say may be true but, as a veteran of the “Cold War” where the USSR was for most of my life my major enemy; and given Russia’s history (Borodino, Leningrad, Stalingrad, etc.) I think it could be a disaster to underestimate them.

 

[RusCan2013]

I don't underestimate them. I don't know... My dad's side of the family was all military. Grampa was a Colonel in Red Army; dad served in the Navy. One of his brothers was a submariner. Died on the Kursk, actually... And other uncle is still today a officer in the Missile Forces, the branch that controls the ground-based nuclear weapons

and now, they still talk, on the phone, and I recall, uncle Alik, always cursing the recently resigned Minister of Defense, Serdyukov, how he is a furniture salesman, not military officer, doesn't know anything, and all his reforms are only hurting and weakening the military. Maybe my uncle, like many military men at the time, simply didn't like the guy lol But, given Serdyukov's resignation amid a corruption scandal worth billions of dollars, he knew what he was talking about