All powerful institutes murder the competition as a matter of course. It's hardly objective to mention that Russian power is also maintained in such a manner. Indeed, some nations have partially switched to falsely accusing competitors of sex crimes or paedophilia. Death seems preferable.
Vulcan you could be right, I'm just another armchair opinion. But my instinct tells me it's not that simple. My gut feeling tells me that Russia is doing very well. Ukraine is destroyed. The west wants to put spin to make Russia look less like a capable opponent than they really are.
Even if what we want to believe is true, that the Russian military is incompetent, it would appear now that they are getting first hand experience of fighting a modern war against equally equipped enemies. So I would presume their abilities are being honed to a razor edge. Unless we are to also believe that Russians are stupid, backwards, cave dwelling idiots who just so happen to have the world's largest nuclear arsenal. Actually, that would be even more terrifying.
The truth that I see is that the Russian nation is very smart, very patient, largely united under a strong leader and doing everything it can to achieve it's objectives without causing undue bloodshed. They have the capabilities to level the entire country in a matter of hours even without the nuclear option. Yet so far, they have not.
