The Russian army consists of two groups. Contract soldiers sign on for 3 years, and according to the Washington Post, are paid roughly a thousand dollars a month. The other group is conscripts. All Russian men 18-27 are subject to being drafted for military service. Conscripts are paid roughly 25 dollars a month for their one year of service. They receive 4 months of basic training.
By law conscripts are not allowed to serve on the front lines. But a funny thing happened on the way to the war--conscripts have become the canon fodder brigade on the front line. Apparently they have been told they were on a training exercise and possibly tricked into sighing up as contract soldiers.
The conscripts are lacking in expertise and even lighter in esprit de corps. A volunteer army like ours, has the time to develop unit cohesion with each soldier having the back of their comrades. Russian conscripts don't know how to fight or why they are fighting. Most importantly, they lack loyalty to their unit.
Numbers and technical superiority will weight the conflict strongly in Russia's favor. But the conscript contingent, has no doubt played a large role in the army's under performance.
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