The Russian military is still wed to Soviet military tactics, and a leadership who supports such tactics.
True.
And the Soviets were not much different, Army-wise, than the Tsars before them.
Russia's always been a hard and horrible place for military brutality.
But one would think that there would be lessons learned, particularly from Afghanistan; also from Grozny.
Getting their heads handed to them is humiliating. One would think that the Russian military leadership would not want to be humiliated again.
One would think that there ought to be a desire to reform, in order to be more EFFECTIVE. One would think, but there is not a great deal of evidence for it.