Comments by "possumverde" (@possumverde) on "VisualPolitik EN" channel.

  1. They're actually taking the role of Commissar. When the Soviet Union fell, the Russian military dropped Commissars but kept the problems they existed to fix. Mainly the use of conscripts and very brutal (civilian unfriendly) tactics. Conscript morale is obviously going to be low and even motivated soldiers bottom out after seeing enough elderly and children dead in the rubble. Combine that with poor logistics and poor maintenance due to grift on the part of high officials, and their ground forces only have a few weeks of functional morale before they simply start refusing orders, wounding themselves to go home, deserting etc. That's where having a Commissar around to crack the whip came in handy. Now, high command has to do the babysitting as they are the only ones not affected by morale issues. It also doesn't help that the various branches of their military don't like to work together and see each other more as competitors for what little funding (and glory) there is to be had. As a result you get a lot of friendly fire issues with air strikes, artillery, etc. not properly coordinating with ground forces and often hitting them instead of or along with the enemy. Further killing morale.
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  2. Most of it can just be boiled down to morale. When the Soviet Union fell, the Russian military dropped Commissars but kept some of their main reasons for existing. Primarily the use of conscripts and very brutal (civilian unfriendly) tactics. Conscripts obviously don't want to be there and even motivated soldiers will crack after seeing enough elderly and children dead in the rubble. Add that to logistics and maintenance issues due to grift by high officials and their ground forces only have a few weeks of functional morale before they start refusing orders, wounding themselves to go home, looting, deserting, etc. In the past, they had Commissars to crack the whip and keep discipline. Now they have to send high command to babysit as they are the only ones who aren't affected by the built in morale issues. When you include the fact that the various branches of their military see each other more as competitors for what little funding (and glory) there is to go around, you get a lot of poorly coordinated friendly fire issues as well. Their ground forces know that their own air strikes and artillery will hit them somewhat regularly and that they will often get hung out to dry due to lack of coordinated close air support as well as evacuation of casualties. None of which work wonders for morale.
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